I'm finding it really difficult to take photos of people with dark skins. If I over expose to bring out facial features, then I get burn out on the whites. Any tips from you guys out there would be most welcome.
'Tis tricky: all a matter of contrast. Try exposing normally for the general scene, while simultaneously giving a bit of fill-in flash to illuminate the faces and get a sparkle in the eyes. Many photographers routinely use fill-flash on people regardless of skin colour: see Martin Parr, for example.
Also much easier if you're shooting in shade/ or on a cloudy day. Extra harsh light will only add to the problem. As Viewfinder said above a fill flash would be useful although I'd say it should definitely be off camera rather than the horrible built in flashes.
Also in photoshop there is a NIK Software filter where you can brighten up a circle point within an image, and I find that excellent for dealing with this issue. Cant remember what it's called unfortunately
I take photos of my wife (Indian) and our daughter (very pale) all the time and that's often a challenge because of the contrast between them.
Few of my photos here of people with darker skin (although some have been processed a lot in photoshop so perhaps not the ideal example)
Good pictures, Blackheath. It's partly a matter of personal taste: Stilladdicted might want to see detail in the white wall in the final picture, or in the upper part of the shirt in the third-from-last. There's a tendency towards what I see as grossly over-exposed images in the fashion glossies, though they have become accepted, quite the norm.
If you are filming with a flash it might be better to try manual settings. If you are unsure about settings try taking a picutre on automatic and then copy the information over to the manual setting and then adjusting it a little each time. Also give thought to the background that enhances darker colours. Maybe you could give a bit more detials about how experienced a photographer you are so that advice can be made to fit. Are you a point and click person or are you using a DSR camera, do you have any knowledge of manual settings etc.
Well if you have a huge contrast in an image it's pretty much impossible to get perfectly exposed images, unless you have the subject sit perfectly still and shoot multiple exposures (HDR) and hope they dont move at all. Then you can combine those images in software afterwards. Normal cameras just dont have the capability of perfectly exposing bright light and dark shadow at the same time.
Cheers TT, all ideas are welcomed! I actually did as you suggest for this shot - exposed on the face and then over-exposed by 1 stop. The result as you can see= white burn out and no facial detail. Maybe I have to accept that it can't be done in very strong midday contrasty sunlight.
Have you tried a) shooting in raw so you can rescue some of the over exposed parts and also working on levels in photoshop jus bringing up all the shadows a tad http://www.flickr.com/photos/41605996@N03/
Have you tried a) shooting in raw so you can rescue some of the over exposed parts and also working on levels in photoshop jus bringing up all the shadows a tad
Shoot all my stuff in RAW, though some times it can be a right pain in the ar$e you can achieve some great results.
I shoot both Jpeg and RAW for all photos - I'll be honest, they are not photos I want to spend much time on, I take them for CL mainly so peeps get an idea of what went on. But I will give it a go in Lightroom and then maybe I can batch process? Thanks guys, I really appreciate the advice.
What version of Lightroom have you got SA? I went from 3 to 4 about five months ago and the difference in what it can recover is really noticeable with RAW files.
Comments
Also in photoshop there is a NIK Software filter where you can brighten up a circle point within an image, and I find that excellent for dealing with this issue. Cant remember what it's called unfortunately
I take photos of my wife (Indian) and our daughter (very pale) all the time and that's often a challenge because of the contrast between them.
Few of my photos here of people with darker skin (although some have been processed a lot in photoshop so perhaps not the ideal example)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregscargill/sets/72157627116990980/
Maybe you could give a bit more detials about how experienced a photographer you are so that advice can be made to fit. Are you a point and click person or are you using a DSR camera, do you have any knowledge of manual settings etc.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41605996@N03/
Does me fine. Can use the JPEGs for quickness then whatever I want to keep, I convert from RAW in Photoshop.