Photographing People with Varying Degrees of Melanin

When photographing people it is important to remember the more melanin a person has the more light they will absorb and the less melanin a person has the more light will bounce off of them. Have you ever noticed in some photos where there are people of varying degrees of melanin some of the people in the photo are either to dark or to light. This is a lighting issue. There was either insufficient light or too much direct flash light.

A quick neat little trick that will minimize this effect when you have insufficient light is to rearrange your subjects so that there is a mixture of people who absorb light next to people that reflect light.  Avoid placing people with a lot of melanin on the edges where there is the least amount of light.

Notice in this photo the person with the most amount of melanin is in the middle. This is because the person in the middle absorbs more light than the two children who have less melanin. Placing her in the middle means the children's reflected light will bounce onto her avoiding dark shadows and allowing her natural color to be captured. This set up is a win/win situation for all in this photograph. The children's complexions are not washed out from too much light and the woman's complexion is not darkened.


                                 

Have a Successful Day!

Renee Brown, freelance photographer & graphic designer and Mentor/Teacher

Email:             rSnapshotPhotos@gmail.com

website:         www.rSnapshotPhotos.com

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