bill harrison writes:

I have been asked by a friend to take 35mm images at his wedding
rehearsal and dinner. The wedding is a mixed race wedding and I
wish to know if I should set the camera to a +1 or 1-1/2 exposure
due to the lack of control over lighting and setting to account
for the difference between the light and dark skin pigments that
will be together in the shots thus keeping some highlights in the
fair skined while gaining some in the darker skinned.

No overall compensation is necessary. The main problem arises if you
have very dark skin and very pale skin side-by-side. However, this
problem exists in all weddings already to some extent, since there is
often a contrast between black attire and white attire (bride and groom,
for example).

Help with any suggestions to improve the images would be greatly
appreciated.

Use low-contrast film with lots of latitude. If you have the time and
material, try lighting dark skin with diffuse light, and light skin with
more of a point source(s), and light the dark skin a tiny bit more to
reduce contrast. That requires setting things up pretty carefully,
though, so it isn't likely to be practical outside a studio.

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