Portraits with light skin

greenspun.com : LUSENET : B&W Photo: Creativity, Etc. : One Thread

I was showing off some of my florals today at the office and a lady approched me and asked me to photogragh her in black and white. She is black haired, blue eyed and has very light complextion. She said she was interested in head shots. Actually she said she wanted to model makeup. (not sure what that means) What filters will darken pale skin? I have a #15 deep yellow Tiffen. Would that work? I plan on using Delta 400. Any advice would be helpful. Though this is a free adventure I would rather not spend much money.

BTW, she's the most beautiful lady in the office...lucky me! :)

Thanks, Joe

-- Joseph Lacy (jmlacy@flash.net), June 08, 2000

Answers

I use a light blue filter. Not as dark as all the books say, but it's all I got and I can see the difference. Though I've never used it on a "made up" model. If you buy used, an old tungsten correction filter is what I think I'm using, but if you by new, Schnider will send you a nice B+W filter book and it has an example of a figure with a middle blue. Dean

-- Dean Lastoria (dvlastor@sfu.ca), June 08, 2000.

Try an X0 (yellow-green) or an X1 (light green).

-- Ed Buffaloe (edbuffaloe@unblinkingeye.com), June 09, 2000.

If she has beautiful light skin, why do you want to darken it?

-- Joe Cole (jcole@apha.com), June 09, 2000.

The skin color isn't what you should concern yourself with but the tone of the background. Her hair is dark and skin is light. Balance these two tones and use the appropriate background tho contrast these tones with. An extended red sensitive film will help as will a slight soft focus lens or filter. Women love a photographer who can make those lines disappear. Rent a large softbox to lessen any shadows on the face and that will help decrease any wrinkles. Tell her to use makeup sparringly. Be careful of color correction filters as they can be problematic with makeup color. Shoot some polaroids if at all possible. James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), June 10, 2000.

I use a Nikon XO (light green) for most photos of my wife, who is very fair skinned and a natural redhead (actually more a medium auburn). In addition I have found that selection of clothing and backgrounds are very important. It is tricky, the WHITE skin is very reflective and will block up easily. Very careful meter readings are in order wether you plan on doing a high key or a low key image.I usually light with 2 sunpack 522's bouncing off silver umbrellas and one background flash to highlight the hair.

BTW Lately I have been using a Tiffen "SoftFX" #5 filter. It smooths out those little wrinkles around the eyes etc. while maintaining the aparent sharpness of the overall image. I actually prefer the SoftFX filter over the XO.

-- Robert Orofino (rorofino@iopener.net), June 11, 2000.



Read Joe Cole's response over and over again until all other thoughts are obliterated.

If anything, use a red filter and print her skin white (just shy of paper base white), her irises will go dark and look really cool, and her lips will be very light. It's a vampire/angel look, try it with Ilford SFX, blue lipstick will be dark, too... t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), June 29, 2000.


Joe--

Some interesting responses here for a variety of techniques. What did you decide on? How did the shoot come out?

Steve

-- Steve Patterson (splatterson@mindspring.com), October 18, 2000.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ