(skintone-influenced Exposure & White Balance)

The “White Balance” project repositions skin tone as the neutral value and hue within a photograph, creating colorcasts upon the studio environment in the images.

Digital color, for all intents and purposes, is arbitrary. Its presentation results from a controlled interpretation of numerical data by the display. When captured, its hues are influenced by the camera’s bias for neutral tone derived from white light (i.e., white balance).

With the goal of creating a catalog of color shifts as influenced by participants themselves, I photograph these portrait studies under diffuse daylight balanced (5500°K) studio strobes against a plain gray background. The exposure and white balance, though, are measured against the skin forcing the shift in both color and density.

“Maria, 3500K, -17M, -1.33 stops”
(cropped at the request of the model)

“Adam, 3800K, -12M, -1 stop”

“Es, 3450K, -12M, -1.33 stops”

“Rich, 3650K, -15M, -1 stop”