Underexposing Portraits

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I have just got a bunch of slides back from the lab. Although I was pleased with most I had one reoccurring error. Many of my portraits of people had underexposed faces.

This occurred most in full length shots which had bright background with people who had dark faces. I think backlighting might be an issue in some of the images (remedy? a fill flash?).

I know that slide film has a narrow exposure lattitude so that accurate metering is important, so my question is where should I meter. On a grey card/or equivalent, on people's faces, or on the brighter or darker areas of the image. I use a M6 TTL.

I appreciate that the answer is a kind of "it all depends" but I hoping for some general pointers. Thanks.

-- Matthew (mat@theeto.com), May 09, 2002

Answers

Go closer and meter the face. Then retreat and focus sharp at the eyes. Fill flash is required if it's too dark.

-- alfred (cnka@pacific.net.sg), May 09, 2002.

Matthew,

What film did you use, by the way?

My two bits worth...

1. Meter off the face. If they are European/Caucasian, open up a stop and see how that works for you. If they are dark skinned (darker African-American, say) you may want to stop down. But you say you had dark faces underexposed. This suggests that you are not metering up close and tight, but rather letting the backlight spill into the meter.

What lens were you using? Be sure to dart in or duck in close enough to the face to meter reliably. 2/3 of the frame should be within the area you want to meter.

2. Contre-jour portraits, again IMHO, work only if the lighting is attractive on its own terms.

It does not make sense to do a back lit portrait simply because you cannot turn the subject around. If the lighting is basically ugly, you are going to get an ugly picture. In this situation, even turning them 90 or 135 degrees in this situation (i.e. side lit or 3/4) will save the shot.

A reflector always works better than fill flash, at least for color pictures. Back lit picture tend to be indoors, and color temperatures are wildly unpredictable. The reflector will, in general fill more softly, and more importantly, fill with the natural ambient color of lighting.

For black and white, fill flash might save the day. Start at -3.0 and work your way up until you get something you like. You don't want to destroy the ambience of the existing light.

Now if all you want is a record of the persons face, strong fill - 1.7, will get you a pic, quite possibly with good composition and a good sense of moment. But it won't preserve the lighting.

Lastly, try doing portraits with print film. Its much easier to control skin tones in color (with say NPH or NPC). Alternatively, try using EPN slide film (Ektachrome) in these very contrasty situations. The colors are very subtle, and the contrasts are handled quite a bit better than usually. Skin tones are perfect. E200 is also a possibility; it has quite a bit of latitude for slide film, and gives nice skin tones.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), May 09, 2002.


Oh, one more observation. Gentle fill flash with color film works better with side lit portraits and 3/4 lit portraits than back lit ones. I don't know, why, it just looks more natural.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), May 09, 2002.

Matthew - Mani's advice is very sound indeed. Annoyingly, I can't think of anything to add...

-- Steve Jones (stephenjjones@btopenworld.com), May 09, 2002.

Thanks Guys as ever your advice is very timely and extremely appreciated.

To answer a couple of your questions: For people photos's I tend to use Astia (beacuse of its colour fidelity) I am going to try the E200. It could be just what I need for my next photo excursion.

I am currently travelling around Asia on a 10 month tour with my M6 TTl, and 35/1.5 Asph and and 90/2. I am in Hong Kong and just developed a load of films of India at Colour Six on Stanley St, Central (I highly recommend them, I took the recommendation from this forum (thanks)). I should have made it clearer that the type of portraits I have been taken are either candids or sort where one asks permission of local before snapping. All your advice is still applicable ofcourse despite the fact that the portraits are not of a sitter in a studio.

From what you have said I think my problem is letting to much backlight seep into the metering area and not moving to a better position relative to the the subject and the sun to avoid excessive backlighting. I'll work on these points.

I am of to China next for 2 months. From what I have read I am expecting people there to be less cooperative to my efforts to get decent "travel" portraits so I will try the Kodak 200 film and hope that its exposure latitude will help me with my candids.

-- Matthew (mat@theeto.com), May 09, 2002.



matt:

buy yourself a nice spot meter. I use the seconic 508, but others are fine. if I am shooting portraits with tricky lighting, I always spot meter because then I always know exactly what I am metering.

-- greg mason (gmason1661@aol.com), May 09, 2002.


Matthew: What a trip! I agree with the idea of buying an incident lightmeter. I have used the Sekonic 380 with great results. If you can't find one, a large grey card is still a great alternative.

-- Albert Knapp MD (albertknappmd@mac.com), May 11, 2002.

I use a 308 as well. Traveling with my MTTL + 35mm I like to continually (more or less) take ambient readings as I wander along transfering them to the lens as they alter. With lens set at hyper focus, is thet the term?, The gear is ready to shoot, Ambient reading will alieviate a lot of the problems mentioned. -- GP

-- Greg Pratt (gregpan@ozemail,com.au), May 12, 2002.

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