shooting a mixed racial couple: I have a friend who is black and her husband is white. Some of the photos I have done of them are only ok. But most are really bad. (as I stated when...

cancatphoto

I have a friend who is black and her husband is white. Some of the photos I have done of them are only ok. But most are really bad. (as I stated when first joining this forum, my goal is to learn to do portraits) Most of the time he looks so washed out. Then if I adjust the lighting for him, she then comes out too dark.
Any advice?

Wabbit Loc: Arizona Desert

cancatphoto wrote:

I have a friend who is black and her husband is white. Some of the photos I have done of them are only ok. But most are really bad. (as I stated when first joining this forum, my goal is to learn to do portraits) Most of the time he looks so washed out. Then if I adjust the lighting for him, she then comes out too dark.
Any advice?

1/2 neutral density turned vertical

randym77

Pose her closer to the light source than him. Start by metering off her face. Shoot lots of photos, bracket the shots, try different angles, shoot outdoors if you can. Shoot in RAW and be ready to do some post-processing.

ebaribeault Loc: Baltimore

My advice is take a light reading on both subjects and then average and take a photo. Then adjust in photoshop or the editing software that you use.

Meggalette Loc: Southern Illinois

The man in my life is of the darker skin tone, ok so he's very dark, and I am white as elmer's glue. I take lots of pictures of us together and I always position him closer to the flash. I'm sure there is a more professional piece of equipment for this, but I also stick a desk lamp with a compact fluorescent bulb in it shining right at him. We still have a lot of contrast in our pics (see my avatar) but its more complementary in my opinion than distracting. I also filter most of our pics to sepia so I look a little more tan!

arthur Baum

I have a friend who is black and her husband is white. Some of the photos I have done of them are only ok. But most are really bad. (as I stated when first joining this forum, my goal is to learn to do portraits) Most of the time he looks so washed out. Then if I adjust the lighting for him, she then comes out too dark.
Any advice?[/quote]
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we used to do a double exposure for darker skinned people: shoot a blank (white of course) wall, then turn the film back to the original place and shoot again.

nowadays, with photoshop, with a layer consisting of just his skin, add white to it and combine it to make a double layer.

Twice Retired Loc: Virginia Beach, VA USA

cancatphoto wrote:

I have a friend who is black and her husband is white. Some of the photos I have done of them are only ok. But most are really bad. (as I stated when first joining this forum, my goal is to learn to do portraits) Most of the time he looks so washed out. Then if I adjust the lighting for him, she then comes out too dark.
Any advice?

Back when I was first being taughy exposure (film) the question posed to us was how to meter for a lump of coal in freshly fallen snow. The problem is the camera "sees" proper exposure as 18% grey. Cutting to the chase, in the digital world we live by "white balance". Try turning your camera off "auto balance" and set white balance off of your skin tone and see if his doesn't fall in place.

Adding a separate continual light source to his face is really just having two areas of the photo with different exposures.

Jay Pat Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA

Look at Meggalettes avitar. Light is reflected off his forehead and cheekbones. There is another light source behind his right shoulder that is reflected on the side of his face.
Experiment with light placement.

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

You might try to have him stand behind her, and have her closer to the light source, as randym77 suggested. Switch to manual and take readings of both their faces, and try it about 2/3 of the way between her face and his. (Also, bracket.) If that still doesn't look good, you can try adjusting the image with Curves. For example, if lightening the image gives her good tone, but overexposes him, you can use a percentage of black and a soft-edged brush to paint over him in the Curve layer's mask. To the extent you darken the mask over him, you'll be restoring the underlying image.

Meggalette Loc: Southern Illinois

Jay Pat wrote:

Look at Meggalettes avitar. Light is reflected off his forehead and cheekbones. There is another light source behind his right shoulder that is reflected on the side of his face.
Experiment with light placement.

Might be easier to look at this way! I'm not saying I'm the expert at this or anything, but we have been very pleased with how our pics have turned out lately now that I flood his face with lights!

docrob Loc: Durango, Colorado

cancatphoto wrote:

I have a friend who is black and her husband is white. Some of the photos I have done of them are only ok. But most are really bad. (as I stated when first joining this forum, my goal is to learn to do portraits) Most of the time he looks so washed out. Then if I adjust the lighting for him, she then comes out too dark.
Any advice?

take a close up reading off her face and over-expose 1 stop - or take a reading off his skin and under-expose .5 - 1 stop.