wedding shoot

modus

modus

Well-known member
I want to ask this because I know it will be an issue for me in the future. I hope it's not taken as an insensitive or ignorant question.

How do I shoot dark, black people in white wedding dresses or suits? Especially at an outdoor, brightly lit wedding.

I haven't dealt with an African American bride or groom before, but when the time comes I want to get the exposure right. Does anyone have any tips?

My main concern is that I will overexpose the dress to show the face, or perhaps vice versa, underexposing the face. Of course, I won't use the auto iris.

Are there any tips, or is it actually not that hard to get it right?
 
Hah. That's definitely one of those things that's awkward to ask but it's a legit question. Expose to make sure their faces and everything are exposed (just as any other shoot). You can tweak stuff in post. Indoors is the trickier part though. Make sure to have quality on camera lighting equipment as any wedding.

I've found that filming black people is only very hard when there's a super severe lack of lighting... and even then they just look a bit darker than their skin tones in real life.
 
I suppose if it's a toss-up between over-exposing a white dress and under-exposing a face, I will make sure the face is properly exposed.
 
Just did some wedding interview shots with a nice black lady this past Saturday night at a reception with the 150. Normal clothing, not white.

One shot at the table was done with the light off in a darkened reception/dinner room and it looks fair to good at 12db gain and fully open iris after running neat image.

The other shot was in a setup for people giving the couple congrats video clips. I had a 20W tungsten light in that case and it came out really good.

I would certainly advise to use lights and maual exposure. In indoor situations or distances where light is not good, it is not going to be pretty.
 
I've had good results closing the iris a bit, and using my on-camera light - even in bright outdoor sun. An assistant (aka, unpaid intern) with a reflector helps, too.
 
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