Getting the right photo exposure can be a bit tricky at times. Expose for the highlights and lose the dark areas - expose for the dark areas and blow out the highlights... it's a never ending battle. Today's photo tip answers a question about how to get the best photo exposure for skin tones.
Here is a question I was recently asked... "When taking pictures of black people, do you have to open up the f-stop more?"
Great question!
They were referring to a studio lighting set-up, but the issue remains in any photo lighting situation. And not necessarily just with skin tones.
What if you are shooting a black dog and a white one?
Or, more commonly a bride with a white wedding dress next to a groom in a black tux?
If we expose for the white area, we will get nice detail and properly show all the lace and bead work in a wedding dress. Or the fur in a white dog, or all the subtle skin tones in a white person.
On the flip side - by exposing for the white areas, that means we will inadvertently under expose the black areas.
We will lose all the detail and the black area will become nothing more than a big black blob.
We have problems going the other way too!
If we expose for the black area, we show all the nice detail in the black areas of the photo, but the white parts are totally over exposed and blown out. We lose all detail and the white part is ruined.
Stop reading for a second and think, what would you do? What is the best course of action?
Most of you probably went with - "Expose for a middle of the road area. It's not perfect, but at least you won't totally lose either side."
Good call. In fact, a middle of the road exposure is the concept that all reflectance light meters are based on. BTW - a reflectance meter is what is in your camera.
No matter what your light source is, when light hits a subject, it reflects off. The color and even the types of materials present have a fairly large impact as to HOW MUCH light is reflected.
White areas reflect more than black areas, velvet absorbs more light than satin.
After reflecting off the subject, the light goes into your camera. The meter absorbs all this light, and sets the exposure for a setting that is in the middle.
The middle setting is calculated to be 18% gray which is a whole book of its own. Just know that a middle setting is what your camera's reflectance meter will give you.
Not perfect on either end of the spectrum, but workable.
The other type of light meter is called an "incidence" light meter.
This is the type of meter that is outside the camera and is hand held. That is the one you see photographers hold up to a model's face and fire off the lights.
We most often see it used in a studio setting, but it works with any light source. We just tend to be too lazy to get it out in normal day to day stuff and rely on the meter in our camera.
An incident meter doesn't measure the light reflected off a subject. It measures the amount of light hitting a subject.
This may seem like basically the same thing, but it is radically different.
Reflected light is affected by color and the various reflectance properties in the frame. Incidence metering is measuring the light BEFORE it hits the subject and is not affected by color, etc.
Measuring the actual light hitting a subject means that we are properly exposing for the light as well as the colors in the photo. It will record colors and so on exactly as we see them - under those lighting conditions!
The whites will record as white, the blacks will record as black and everything else in between.
It is a far better way to meter your shots and that's why you see the best photographers buying and using incident meters even when they have a perfectly good reflectance meter in the camera.
To answer the initial question... With a reflectance meter, yes, you have to open it up to get the right exposure for black skin tones. (And close it down for white.) With an incident meter, it doesn't matter what colors are present.
If you want to truly master your camera - and get the photos you see in your most creative visions, you have to take your camera off automatic and start taking control. The first issues you will have are with photo exposure. Learn the various metering methods (in this photo tip) and you are one step closer to winning photo contests!
posted by michaelabela.weebly.com
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