B&W, Blue filters, and dark complexions...

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I was leafing through some of my Merida shots (taken in April) over the weekend and see that most of my portraits where the subject had a dark complexion didn't come out because of lack of detail on the face. Granted, most of these shots were taken with a #25 filter so the sky was dramatically darkened. Anyways, I once read that a blue filter is employed in portraiture if you want to accentuate the character lines in the subject's face... and conversely an orange filter is used if you want to smooth over blemishes on the face (B&W female portraiture). Could a blue filter help "dig out" some extra facial textures in dark complexions? Anyone have any experience with this problem? In Robert Appleby's portfolio I notice that he uses "fill flash" quite a bit to accentuate the face.

Any suggestions from personal experience?

Thanks

-- John Chan (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), February 04, 2002

Answers

John:

The yellow-green number 11 (B+W 060) is my favorite filter for B&W portraiture. It seems to render skin-tones very naturally on film. A red filter will soften most skin blemishes.

:-),

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), February 04, 2002.


For b&w people photography, an indeed, for the vast majority of b&w photography a filter is not needed. Try a Leica UVa, or a UV 2A, or a B+W 420. These are basically UV aerial filters that will help remove blue in shadows, improving contrast.

Bessa-R, Nokton 50mm/f1.5, B+W 420 filter, T-Max 400

-- Glenn Travis (leicaddict@hotmail.com), February 04, 2002.


I've never considered using a blue filter for portraiture of dark-skinned people, and I'm not sure what the effect would be, as blue would block both red and (to a varying extent) green light. I would opt for no filter for darker-skinned subjects. If you need to darken the sky, consider a polarizer - it works as well on B&W as it does color.

If you use incident readings from a hand-held meter (with no filters), the subject's true tonality would be rendered on the film (all other things being normal). Many people, however, prefer to open up a stop from that for dark-skinned subjects. Closely metering with your M's reflective meter would do something similar, and give you greater flexibility in printing.

-- Ralph Barker (rbarker@pacbell.net), February 05, 2002.


When photographing dark skinned people always under-expose (-1 or even -2 for very dark people). Your light meter will try to make the face grey (grey-card metering) and due to the dark skin will thus over-expose. You will be stunned by the difference. Once you mastered this (try and expiriment), you can try different filters for the final touch but they are not realy required.

Reinier

-- ReinierV (rvlaam@xs4all.l), February 05, 2002.


I agree with Jack - yellow green filters are wonderful for portraiture. If you use a deep red you get very light skin tones which may be kind of flattering. If you want more gritty, use a deep green.

-- steve (stephenjjones@btopenworld.com), February 05, 2002.


when i went to tansania a few years ago most portraits of the locals turned out to be too dark. i learned that you have to "racially adjust" your meter.

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), February 05, 2002.

What if you have very dark and very pale persons in the same picture. (B&W photos of the bald men by Robert Mapplethorpe come to mind.) What does one do in that case?

-- Vikram (VSingh493@aol.com), February 05, 2002.

Vikram

You make two pictures and cut and past them in photoshop

:-)

BTW kaukasion skinned people need to be +0.5

-- ReinierV (rvlaam@xs4all.nl), February 05, 2002.


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