Hi folks- I'm going to be on a bonefishing trip and staying in a small fishing village on an out island in the Bahamas. The last time I was there I thought the people were amazingly photogenic (expecially the kids!) so this time I'm taking my Leica. What color films do you folks think are best for capturing black skin tone? I am open to slide or print film suggestions. The photos will be shot outdoors likely in bright sunlight.

Thanks!

-- Steve Rosenblum (stevierose@yahoo.com), March 10, 2002

Answers

Tri-X... ;-)))

Okay, okay... Reala! :-),

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), March 10, 2002.

Color negative? I'd opt for Portra160NC, and rate it at 100, and use a polorizer if you can.

-- Charles (cbarcellona@telocity.com), March 10, 2002.

Bahamas eh?

I once did a trip to Bermuda. At the time I was shooting a Nikon F4 and I used E-100 with a polarizing filter. The shots looked fantastic.

I would highly recommend picking up a circular polarizer (two if you are shooting with an M - one for the lens, and one for your eye - set them both the same). Those waters and skies are gonna be great.

I have since tried the E-100 S and SW versions. I am not particularly overjoyed with the SW emulsion....but that is just personal preference.

Have fun on your trip.

-- Rich Green (kamurah@hotmail.com), March 10, 2002.

Same as for white tones.

My family is mixed, would you change film to shoot each of us?

Just wondering...

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), March 10, 2002.

Jeff Spirer's comments notwithstanding, this is certainly a valid question. I have found Fuji Velvia to give excellent dark skin tones, not good for lighter skin tones (causes too ruddy of a complexion). I rate it EI32-40. I also like Fuji Sensia, an "amateur" version of Astia for all skin tones.

-- David (pagedt@chartertn.net), March 11, 2002.

My family is mix too and i have never found the occasion where i have to change film to shoot either side. For colour i use E200 chrome, Tri- X for B/W. The problem is in the metering, i found. More so with chrome, so bracket if you can. Happy holidays:)

-- Steven Fong (steven@ima.org.sg), March 11, 2002.

Steve:

As mentioned above, the most critical thing is the metering. White or "Caucasian" skin is about Zone VI in Guess Who's system, so black - say like Whoopy Goldberg's or even Denzel Washington's-skin is about a Zone III. The critical part is getting skin detail and not blowing out the background or highlights to a bald white.

It depends on what you want as well as the background. Our family too is mixed and I find that low contrast neg film works best, as it allows you to adjust the relative brightnesses of the subject and background if you can make custom prints or scan and use PS and a digital or Frontier printer.

Low contrast film like Konica 160 or the other "Portrait" films will give most information on the negative and that can be tailored in a final print. Bright sunlight will exagerate the contrast, so try using fill flash (even with an m6 TTL good luck), a reflector or shoot in the shade. Also, try getting the background a mid-greyish tone, to keep the brightness range down. If you meter the skin directly, you will get too light a rendition about 3 stops- and if an incident reading is taken, it too will be too light by 1 or 2 stops. If you meter and place the skin on Zone 3.5 you should come close to the "real" colour. If you want to bring out the features, Zone IV would do that. The Zone System DOES work for colour as well!!

Having said all that, I live in the tropics where many people have "dark" skin and I get excellent results with Konica Centuria 200 and put my Hexar Black on auto and Point & Shoot.

IMHO, printing is more critical than the type of film. If slides are the output desired, then a non-saturated slide film will likely work the best. Paul Simon and I both like Kodachrome, and in this case, K64 is just about as good as you can get.

Cheers

-- richard ilomaki (richard.ilomaki@fmglobal.com), March 11, 2002.

I appreciate everyone's suggestions. Jeff- No I would not change films for a mixed group. However, as the photographs are all likely to be of people with black skin (I will be one of the only people there with white skin) I just wondered if any film in particular might be better. This really has nothing to do with people, but rather a question about whether any color films do a better job with preserving detail in dark tones from a high contrast scene.

Because of the high level contrast I will probably shoot negative film. As this is going to be spontaneous candid photography I am unlikely to spot meter off someones face to precisely pick a "zone", I will be using a handheld incident meter. If the faces are most important to me should I meter the scene with the incident meter and then open up a half stop to get in the ballpark?

-- Steve Rosenblum (stevierose@yahoo.com), March 11, 2002.

Hi

I have photographed extensively in Africa, both mixed groups and dark skin tones alone, and I have found that Fuji Astia actually works very well for the purpose. In fact, I find Fuji Astia very good for people. That is, after all, what it was designed for!

Keep well

Harold

-- Harold Gess (harold@haroldgess.com), March 11, 2002.

the most critical thing is the metering

I disagree with this. The most critical thing is the light (or lighting, if you are providing it.) As with any dark-toned subject, if the light isn't right, you aren't going to get what you want from it.

A Family, Copyright 2001 Jeff Spirer

OK, the reflections on the bald dude's head are a problem, but there wasn't any powder around. Otherwise, the skin tones from light to dark are preserved very well, which is why I show this since it is hardly something I would normally show. This was shot on a film generally regarded as the worst for skin tones, Ultra 50, but the overcast sky made it work fairly well anyway.

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), March 11, 2002.