need advice on different skin tones

[SueInBoston]

Among DD's close circle of friends, there's a girl from Ethiopia (very dark skin tone), Caucasians and we're Asian. Whenever I take group pictures, the dark skinned girl's features doens't show up well, if I use flash, the light skinned girls are over exposed. What is a good medium? Is there a technique I should be using? I usually use the 'P' mode on a Rebel XT. I've tried to lighten the dark subject in PS, but it looks really unnatural. Any tips?

Thanks

Sue

 

[pjacobi]

This is a classic problem with all light meters in all brands of cameras.

Light meters are calibrated to determine the correct exposure for approximate 18% gray.

Very dark object fool the light meter into calculating that there is not enough light, so these objects are over exposed.

Very light object, such as snow, fool the light meter that there is too much light, so these objects are under exposed.

In these situations, you need to use manual mode on the camera to set the correct exposure.

I believe this topic is covered most clearly in Bryan Peterson's book, "Understanding Exposure".


-Paul

 

[AndrewWG]

I wonder if an 18% gray card would be useful in this situation? It would meter for the light and not the subjects so much. Setting your exposure to those readings may solve the problem? I have never really gotten the hang of how to use them properly, but I am working on it.

 

[Groucho]

I believe (and I could be wrong!) that 18% gray cards are useful for setting white balance, not exposure.

An old-fashioned lightmeter could give you "true" exposure - I'd lean towards just bracketing the exposure. Worst case, there's too much dynamic range between the light skin and the dark skin and one or the other will lose detail.

 

[pjacobi]

I believe (and I could be wrong!) that 18% gray cards are useful for setting white balance, not exposure.

18% gray cards were originally used for calculating exposure on film cameras. They existed long before digital cameras could set a white balance.

The best tool for setting a white balance is...a white card.


-Paul

 

[GrillMouster]

As previously mentioned, 18% grey cards were originally used to calculate exposure. A reflectance metering from a true 18% grey card would give the same reading as an incidence meter. As for whether a white card or a grey card is best for setting a custom white balance, it doesn't matter. When setting the white balance, you're not really telling the camera what is supposed to be white; you're telling the camera what doesn't have a color cast. A good 18% grey card is NEUTRAL, meaning the grey tone is neither warm nor cool -- having no inherent color cast. so it's perfect for setting white balance. On the other hand, a white card, depending on its coating, may reflect color from nearby surfaces, throwing off the white balance.