The 90-Percent Rule—Part Three—Clothes

So far we’ve covered the 90-Percent Rule and how it applies to metering and shooting tones on tones and this is just a tad of how this important rule can effect our photography, There are many other applications or instances where understanding this rule will separate you from your piers including the impact it has on the type of clothing the model wears.

Knowing that black absorbs and white reflects, you can use this knowledge when helping models select what clothes to wear or not to wear. I often will avoid white because white will traditionally reflect more light than my subject’s skin, and in photography we expose for the skin, not the clothes. However, there are situations were white is the chosen wardrobe and you’ll want proper exposure to help bring out the detail in the garment and the sheer knowledge of the 90-Percent Rule will help you achieve a positive outcome.

Let’s pretend you have a model in a white dress, say even a wedding dress, if you expose for the skin tone and the model’s skin-tone is mid- to dark-toned, this will cause the “blow-out” of the detail in her dress when you expose for the skin. To avoid this, simply place black cards around the subject’s clothing, but yet, carefully out of the frame. While the white is reflecting the black is too, into the clothes, as at least 10-percent of black-tinted light is now aimed at the dress. In addition, you can place the black cards in the light-source path to shave-off light from hitting the garments, thus reducing it’s reflective F/stop from a 1/3rd to a full F/stop.

An analogy is like overpowering the sun with flash technique, more light on the subject less on the sky/background, in this case more light on the subject’s skin and less on the garments to at least balance the two sources of reflected light. If you cut the light hitting the garments more then it will add detail by reducing the light that falls on them.

The opposite effect happens when a model wears black and her skin is light. Her skin reflects more light and the black garments absorb more, so one could add white cards around the garments or in general increase more light on the garments and less on the skin areas. It’s all a balancing act but easily accomplished with practice.

Just like the 90-percent rule applying to adjusting for various skin colors, a seasoned photographer will use the 90-percent rule to understand, use and apply the cause and effect of that rule to properly expose the entire subject, from her skin to her clothes. This is even more important when you’re selected above your piers for photographing a model in a combination fashion-glamour image, or flamour, where the clothes are as important as the subject and it’s all about what is dark absorbs more light than what is lighter.