Do you feel you have a "Mixed Race" or dark skinned family/wedding?

I have had the pleasure of photographing several mixed race families. They told me that other professional photographers they had gone to had been unsuccessful at capturing their family properly. The main problems they identified were that the dark¹ skinned member of the family was either off colour (yellow, green or blue tint) or was too dark or too washed out. One showed me the results of a major "downtown studio" and they were clearly unacceptable. If that has not been your experience, that is great! But if that has also been your experience, please read on and see why it does not need to be a problem in the future.

I invite you to look at the family gallaries on my web site. Although web images are never any where near as good as the real pictures, I think they clearly show that I have no problem in my photography.

Indeed, no truly professional photographer should have such a problem unless they were trying to cut costs by using inappropriate film or processing labs. Both Fuji and Kodak (and probably others but I haven't tested) have excellent professional films specifically designed for photographing Caucasians and darker skinned people in the same photograph. There are other films that are not appropriate, but to be fair, even most consumer films I have seen can do a good job if processed and printed properly.

There is a potential problem when taking close up pictures of dark skinned people in that cameras and consumer processing labs rely on the fact that "most" pictures average out at 18% grey. While it is true that most Caucasians are pretty close to 18% grey (unless they have a very dark tan), obviously dark skinned people are not even close to 18% grey. In a studio situation, we set the camera up for the light falling ON the person, not the light refecting OFF the person, so this is never a problem. And in wedding pictures, the few times a close up might cause a small problem, appropriate adjustments are made, and if not, the negative film processed and printed in a professional lab like the ones I use are still not a problem.

I have never had a problem with getting great shots of any colour person except when, to test, I took some negatives to several consumer labs. I invite you again to look at my sample photos, and I trust that when you are working with me you will no longer consider it to be any problem at all .

Free tip: If you are taking pictures of dark¹ skinned people, and you want to use consumer film, the lowest cost labs, and you want to let your camera choose the exposure, make sure the rest of the picture (hats, clothing, surroundings) are brightly coloured. This way the camera will be tricked into taking the correct exposure, and your consumer labs equipment will be tricked the same way!

^1. My choice of the word "dark" vrs "darker". As usual, I did not pick the words to offend but to be descriptive and informative. The closer a persons skin is to a density of that technobabble "18% grey", generally the less problems will occur under any circumstances. Another choice I could have used is "much darker." I "checked" my use of words with a couple friends who are or have children that are dark skinned and received their blessing with the comment "no matter what words you choose you will offend some." So if I have offended you, please accept my apology and realize my only goal here is to help you get the best photographic memories of your family no matter what your genetic makeup.