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How to Photograph Dark Skin

To understand photography, the photographer must first understand a little bit about the nature of light. Knowing how light is absorbed and refracted from surfaces---and from there into the lens of the camera and onto the image media---can make the difference between a good photograph and a mediocre one. Photographing dark skin can be a challenge even for the most experienced of photographers, as the combination of dark skin and light surroundings is enough to fool most camera meters. Through the examination of meter readings, it is possible to correctly expose for all tones in the photograph and to successfully photograph subjects with dark skin.

Things You'll Need

Camera with manual controls
built-in or hand-held light meter

Instructions

- 1
  Pose your subject, or determine the subject and the background of the scene. It is best to pose a dark skinned subject in highly reflective areas where light is more even, however this is not always possible, particularly in on-location shoots.
- 2
  Meter the scene using the in-camera light meter or your hand-held meter. With an in-camera meter, switch the metering mode to spot metering, so that only one area of the photo is being metered.
- 3
  Collect a meter reading from the subject's skin tone and record that reading, then meter a highlight area of the photograph. It is important to shoot to preserve the highlights, as blown highlights are difficult or impossible to correct in post processing.
- 4
  Average the two meter readings together, and set the camera to the average reading. Expose the photograph and, if necessary, adjust settings for the next exposure.
- 5
  Set the meter to incident reading, if you are using a hand-held light meter. This measures the light falling on the scene rather than light reflected from the subject. In a case where there is a great deal of contrast, such as a dark skinned subject, this type of reading is more accurate as it is not fooled by the reflective properties of the subject. Set the camera to the settings provided by the incident reading and expose the photograph.

Photography