Shades of Beauty

There’s a bit of mystery in the art of Black and White Photography. You cannot shoot black and white shades of beauty the same way you would color. It is important to know the art of determining values. Intensity is the name of the game. How can you increase the intensity of your values in your image? If intensity is the name of the game, then the game master is contrast. To what extremes would you like your rations of black, white, and in between.

Dee

Dee is a great model to work with. She provides a good deal of dimension in both facial expression and form. The strongest suit is her preparation and listening skills when it comes to critical instructions. There are times when only subtle changes are necessary and that can be pretty dauting if you aren’t a model with experience. Some models will overcompensate subtle movements with very large shifts, but Dee nailed these.

Levels

When shooting brown skin tones it is important to understand that values will be have much differently. Although it should be common knowledge, you would be surprised at how many people are unaware as to how lighting effects darker/richer skin tones. The most important thing is to govern how much pigment the skin holds. The more pigment, the more you will want to paint lighting to the skin as opposed to simply illuminating the subject. I use the word painting because it is the best way to describe how intentional you must be with your light placement, intentionally drawing the eye to the form without just blanketly lighting the scene. Knowing where to contour the clavicle, shoulders, cheekbones and nose bridge is highly important. I utilize this time to make sure to capture a series of 9 varying degrees of shades in Black and White.

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