How to get good skin tones in B&W?

[cowanw]

Dodging and burning. Dodging and Burning.

Are you talking about American Race Politics or how to get good skin tones?:rolleyes:
Regards
Bill

 

[el wacho]

sounds like you want richness of tone.

check your lighting. soft grey days. no direct, point source ( sun ) lighting... just God's softbox!

if your doing portraits on a harsh sunny day you can look for a shadowy area that has a white wall providing bounce light...

 

[zenrhino]

Dodging and burning. Dodging and Burning.

Preach on, Brother Beavis.

I'll add in "do your test strips on the subject's face." That right there was the single key to me being happy with printing wet. Also, I don't use strips per se, I use a strip torn into 4 pieces and exposed at the very spot I want to make sure is most perfect. I will occasionally also the "nickel spot" where I expose a section of skintone and put a nickel on the test patch so I can see how far away from pure white I am on the paper.

 

[Shelly Grimson]

I think Les McLean's splitgrade printing method is the anwer for really contrasty subjects where the neg shows burnt out highlights with too great a range of tones. In his book he said that when he started using this method he went back to years of negs that were impossible to print and took delight in getting the result he always wanted. Lots of threads in this forum on the topic.....