B&W Photography - Filters for "brown" skin tone

M

MEPienta

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Greetings,

Does anyone use colored filters to enhance skin tones on light complexion Afro-American subjects, when using B&W film in ambient light? I was thinking of using a yellow filter and wondered how it may affect skin tones.

I will be shooting in ambient light and the "general scene" will be high contrast in nature.

Thanks for your time.

Michael
 
I think it depends more on your film choice, and type of lighting. My wife is black and relatively dark, and with or w/o a filter she looks fine using normal metering. I hear different things about this, but seriously, if you meter on a middle value it doesn't matter whether or not your subject is dark or light. They'll be exposed properly, and your exposure will ultimately determine how your values look.
 
Steve, thanks for the reply. I'm photographing in an operating room that has "blue plastic drapes" over the patient and was thinking of using a yellow filter to darken the drapes in order to increase the contrast between the drapes and the surgeon's face.

Will using a yellow filter adversely affect the skin tones of the surgeon, who is a light complexioned Afro-American? I shot several rolls of film, yesterday, without using a filter and the scene was so contrasty with the overhead operating room lights that I was able render the drapes black.

The surgeon wears a blue mask so I want to get some contrast between his face and the mask, without sacrificing skin tones.

Any ideas?


Michael
 
It might lighten the doctor's face slightly. A red filter usually lightens any type of skin tone All human skin has a lot of red in it. Black people and white people are actually the same color; we have the same pigment in us, but blacks have more of the pigment than whites. Think of watercolor painting. Thin the paint (less pigment in the mix) and you get a lighter version of the color.
 
software filter

software filter

If you have a scan of the print could you try the different filters on your photo software to see the effects?:rolleyes:
 
Thank you for asking this, Michael,

Coincidentally, this Friday, I am attending a company event, and planned on shooting B&W with a yellow filter, to ensure contrast between some red and yellow objects at the event.

So, what will be the affect on African-American and Indian and Middle Eastern participants?

Thanks!
 
Lighting is more important than filtration. Pay particular attention to how the highlights model your subject's features.
 
Hello,

I'm tending to agree with Chris that lighting is more important than filtration.[URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mepienta/6122647726/in/photostream"]www.flickr.com/photos/mepienta/6122106215/in/photostream[/URL]

The lighting in an Operating Room can be extreme with the overhead "OR" lights. The above snapshots were taken with HP5+ pushed to ASA1000. I wanted to "blow out" the areas of the actual surgical area in order to focus on the subjects face. I'm not sure that is the right way of capturing the scene.

I actually work in the OR and it's a dilemma between "choreographing" the perfect picture or not disturbing the "flow" of the room.

Next time I'm going to change the background lighting and expose/develop the film for Pryo, hoping to reproduce the whole dynamic range of the scene and then "post process out" the gory stuff.

Thanks for all of the reply's. I'll post updates.

Michael
 
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Shooting indoors you are going to be short on total light. You should not waste any of what little you have by filtering it out.

And, it is an operating room. Don't worry about the perfect tonal scale. So what if you have blocked shadows and/or blown highlights. You are not Ansel Adams shooting trees, mountains and skies. Just capture the essence of what you think is important.

Meter the critical areas and place them in the middle zones. If the color of the doctors skin is something of critical importance and he is dark, either add a stop of light or make sure you have enough latitude to handle it.
 
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