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African American skin tones + filters



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 5th 04, 09:55 AM
Brian Larmay
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Default African American skin tones + filters

Hello, Im looking for an idea of what colour filter is the best filter to
use for african americans for black and white photography.

Thank you in advance,
Brian

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  #2  
Old January 5th 04, 09:04 PM
zeitgeist
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Default African American skin tones + filters


a yellow filter will limit some of the blue bias that is typical in film.
a lot of photogs used to use it when shooting b&w

but black skin doesn't need filtering or exposure alterations, it just needs
good lighting. If you are experiencing problems with black skin tones, that
is a symptom of over all problems with your lighting and exposure. Black
skin reveals bad lighting and bad exposure much more readily than white
skin.


Hello, Im looking for an idea of what colour filter is the best filter to
use for african americans for black and white photography.



  #3  
Old January 6th 04, 08:47 PM
Francis A. Miniter
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Default African American skin tones + filters

I second what Zeitgeist says. Good lighting is the most important
factor. I have obtained good pictures without filtration. But a
thoughtful application of zone principles is required. White skin
reflects a lot more light than black skin. Therefore, given the same
lighting, you need to open up the aperture [or shutter] a couple stops
more than you would photographing a white person to get adequate skin
detail.


Of course, our language is too limited. Skin tones are not white or
black. There is a continuum of skin tonalities from pale cream to blue
black. If you tried to catalogue recognizably different shades within
the continuum, you would probably get thousands of shades. Therefore,
the photographer should keep in mind that consideration of skin tones
and lighting and proper exposure is a task to be addressed individually
for each person. Lenses and shutters may, with compensation, offer a
range of only 10 - 12 solutions for these thousands of shades, but at
least it is not a bipolar choice.


Francis A. Miniter


zeitgeist wrote:

a yellow filter will limit some of the blue bias that is typical in film.
a lot of photogs used to use it when shooting b&w

but black skin doesn't need filtering or exposure alterations, it just needs
good lighting. If you are experiencing problems with black skin tones, that
is a symptom of over all problems with your lighting and exposure. Black
skin reveals bad lighting and bad exposure much more readily than white
skin.




Hello, Im looking for an idea of what colour filter is the best filter to
use for african americans for black and white photography.








  #4  
Old January 6th 04, 10:58 PM
Michael Scarpitti
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Posts: n/a
Default African American skin tones + filters

"Brian Larmay" wrote in message igy.com...
Hello, Im looking for an idea of what colour filter is the best filter to
use for african americans for black and white photography.


No filter should be used. Skin (all skin) is essentially neutral. The
amount of color in skin is rather small.
  #5  
Old January 8th 04, 04:26 AM
zeitgeist
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Posts: n/a
Default African American skin tones + filters



I second what Zeitgeist says. Good lighting is the most important
factor. I have obtained good pictures without filtration. But a
thoughtful application of zone principles is required. White skin
reflects a lot more light than black skin. Therefore, given the same
lighting, you need to open up the aperture [or shutter] a couple stops
more than you would photographing a white person to get adequate skin
detail.


No No No. All that does is screw the highlights up even more. And if you
print down enough to get the detail in the blocked up highlights, the shadow
side skin tone gets even darker and make the poor subject seem even blacker.

9 out of 10 times, the problem with a portrait image is the highlights, the
shadows you see are the problems left behind by the bad highlights, you
won't have shadows unless you have highlights, light gives you hightlights
not shadows.

what are you going to do if the black subject you are openning up two stops
for wears a white shirt? or poses with a white spouse?

all you have to do is open a catalog or even a newspaper ad section and look
at the department store ads for purses and leather jackets. humm, did they
open up two stops to show detail in those black leather shoes? Is the pale
white model blown out to show detail, lots of detail, in that black leather
jacket, man you can see the stitches around the pocket flap.

I don' think white skin reflects more light than black, there is more
apparent separation between the spectral highlight and the midtone
highlight, the amount of spectral is probably the same between blacks and
whites, you just see it more. That's why I say that black skin reveals bad
lighting more.

If you can do a good portrait of a black subject you can photograph anybody
with that same lighting. You can photograph someone with coke bottle
glasses and not have blotchy white spots hiding the eyes, that's the other
obvious symptom of specular highlight problems.




Of course, our language is too limited. Skin tones are not white or
black. There is a continuum of skin tonalities from pale cream to blue
black. If you tried to catalogue recognizably different shades within
the continuum, you would probably get thousands of shades. Therefore,
the photographer should keep in mind that consideration of skin tones
and lighting and proper exposure is a task to be addressed individually
for each person. Lenses and shutters may, with compensation, offer a
range of only 10 - 12 solutions for these thousands of shades, but at
least it is not a bipolar choice.


Francis A. Miniter


zeitgeist wrote:

a yellow filter will limit some of the blue bias that is typical in film.
a lot of photogs used to use it when shooting b&w

but black skin doesn't need filtering or exposure alterations, it just

needs
good lighting. If you are experiencing problems with black skin tones,

that
is a symptom of over all problems with your lighting and exposure. Black
skin reveals bad lighting and bad exposure much more readily than white
skin.




Hello, Im looking for an idea of what colour filter is the best filter

to
use for african americans for black and white photography.










 




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