BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: Problems with Images

BetterPhoto Member		How to shoot people wearing black during the day I was asked to take photos of a group of musicians. These are going to be wearing black shirts and black trousers. The photos are to be taken during the day both in shade and in sun light. Is it better to use a flash? I will appreciate a lot if you can give me hints on how to shoot people wearing black thanks stephen To love this question, log in above June 21, 2008

Mark Feldstein		Fill-in flash is always a good idea shooting outdoors. It helps give some detail to shadow areas and brightens facial areas especially around the eys (although make-up is good for that too). First meter the scene and set your flash to be about 1 stop below your general scene reading. Metering the scene can also be a bit tricky because most meters work on a 17% gray principle. I shoot strictly film, and use an incident light meter to measure the light falling in the subjects in different parts of the shot which also assumes the gray card standard. That in turn, requires a bit of interpretation. So, what I do is average a reading from darker and brighter areas of the scene, get the basic scene reading, set the flash for 1 stop below that, blast a few shots, reset the flash to expose 1/2 and then maybe 2/3 of a stop less than the f-stop I got when I metered. In other words Steve, bracketing your flash exposures should help you nail it and give you a number of exposures to work with. The other thing I recommend is using some kind of diffuser on your flash to soften it somewhat. If you do, follow the manufacturer's instructions on calculating exposure when you use it and then experiment to see what results are most pleasing to your particular kind of work. I hope that's somewhat useful to ya and not confusing. Take it light. Mark Mark To love this comment, log in above June 21, 2008

William Schuette		Hi Stephen, Mark has clearly identified the problem. This type of scene has a high probability of fooling your meter. You may want to meter off a gray card or other standard and shoot in manual mode. If you are shooting digital, you may also want to do custom white balances so that the colors look the same in the sunlit and shade shots. To love this comment, log in above June 27, 2008

This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here Report this Thread