Tips on How To Take Pictures of Dark Skin
For some photographers, photographing darker skin tones can be more challenging than photographing lighter skin tones. There is a built-in bias in camera technology that does not always allow darker skin tones to photograph correctly.
Dark Skin Photography
Successfully capturing Black skin in photos has been a challenge for decades, possibly dating back to at least the 1940s. A lot of photographers and photo enthusiasts can pinpoint this back to the creation of Kodak’s “Shirley Card” in the 1950s.
What is The Shirley Card?
The Shirley Card may have helped to perpetuate racial photographic bias. Shirley cards are color reference cards that are used to perform skin-color balance in photography printing. Kodak developed this system of calibrating colors by using an image of a white woman named Shirley Page, a Kodak employee.
Lab technicians used the photo, called the Shirley Card, to calibrate skin tones, shadows, and light during the printing process.
Photo credit: Google Design
Lorna Roth, Ph.D., and Concordia University Montreal professor researches and teaches media and minorities. Her research has shown that it took complaints from chocolate manufacturers in the 1960s and 1970s for Kodak to start fixing color photography’s bias.
“Kodak was receiving complaints that they weren’t getting the right brown tones on the chocolates. Also, furniture manufacturers were complaining that stains and wood grains in their advertisement photos were not true to life.” (quoted from: Looking at Shirley, the Ultimate Norm:Colour Balance, Image Technologies, and Cognitive Equity)
Tips on How To Photograph Dark Skin/BIPOC Photography
Avoid using dark backgrounds
Light your subject, not the background
Use a hair light. It adds dimension
Opt for natural light whenever possible
Golden hour works best for natural light
Try not to mix the light sources. It may confuse the camera’s white balance.
If you use a background, work with the skin’s undertones when choosing one
Consider using a gold or silver reflector to bounce off light
The white balance needs to be set for one kind of light. Black skin tones absorb light differently than lighter skin tones. Use this to your advantage.
Digital photography has led to some advancements. There are now dual skin-tone color-balancing capabilities and also an image-stabilization feature — eliminating the natural shaking that occurs when we hold the camera by hand and reducing the need for a flash. Yet, this solution creates other problems. If the light source is artificial, digital technology will still struggle with darker skin.
Best Clothing Colors for Dark Skin
Dark skin tones look great in almost every color. However, there are some colors that work better than others and there are color combinations that work really well for photo shoots. Consider warm colors such as beige, olive, caramel, warm gray, plum, khaki, or orange.
Avoid dark colors such as navy blue, dark brown, and black. The colors you wear will depend on the type of photos you are taking. For example, if you are taking corporate headshots, some professionals will choose dark blue, light blue, and/or white. For actor headshots, earth tones, and bright colors are a great option.
Photographing Dark Skin Tones
Everyone deserves to look and feel their best. Find a photographer who knows how to take pictures of dark skin. If you are in the Los Angeles area, contact Djoser Garrison-Quick of GQ Photoshoots. Djoser has been dubbed the “melanated photographer” by many of his clients because of his ability to photograph dark skin in natural light and his expertise in studio lighting for dark skin. He is very knowledgeable about photographing clients of all skin tones.
He can be reached at GQPhotoShoots@gmail.com
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