What does properly lighting black people even mean? I guess Leibovitz needed to bring a air search light to the session.
We need the picture of OJ with the “sombrero.”
And the baby pictures of Trayvon Martin.
I remember a skit on the Best of Saturday Night Live where the real Julian Bond insulted the role playing Garrett Morris that light skinned blacks are more intelligent and higher class than dark skinned blacks. Bond said later:
Looking back at the episode I hosted, I felt discomfort with a skit we did. Appearing as myself on a mock television interview show about black issues, I told Garrett Morris, one of SNL‘s original “Not Ready for Prime Time Players,” that light-skinned blacks are smarter than dark-skinned blacks. Morris, who is darker skinned than I am, did a perfect double take. I felt squeamish then but did the skit anyway, and I feel uneasy about this joke even today. I believed it treaded dangerously on the fine line between comedy and poor taste. The Hollywood Reporter, January 15, 2014 by Julian Bond.
“What does properly lighting black people even mean?”
Ever try to photo a dry Black Lab?
Pretty sure any blacks saying this would personally have zero clue on how to properly, professionally light, black people, much less take a decent photo of anyone or anything.
Back in the day I spent a few years as a Broadcast Engineer at several TV stations in the South. At one we had a very black (can I say ‘coal-black’) preacher who did a live Sunday night church service. And he was prone to wearing bright all-white suits.
There was just no way to light him correctly. If you lit him where you could see his facial features, his suit was just a glowing white blob. And if you toned things down where you could see his suit, then his face was a black blob with only his white eyes showing.
And trying to split the difference, he was all just an indiscernible blob. Only after he heard from some of his congregants did he change his wardrobe.
Sometimes there’s just no way to do it right.
As a photographer using a light meter you need to look at the skin. Taking a reading will give you exposure that would render the color neutral gray. Then you have to make adjustments to make it lighter or darker depending on their True Tone.
The picture is fine. It’s exposed properly. People making judgements are doing so on uncalibrated monitors hat should be “brighter.”
Politically, I don’t care for Annie. But as a photographer, she is probably the best portrait shooter in history. She doesn’t make exposure mistakes.