Photographing subjects with white attire

[raldigphoto]

Hello to one and all,

This is my first time using this forum and am also a proud owner if a 10D.

My question is if there is a better way of shooting people/portraits who wear white or light attire. The issue I am running into is that when I shoot mainly people in light attire, the contrast and colors on the camera always seems to be off. I always end up having to auto contrast with PS 7 and adjusting the levels slightly. This ends up giving me a red tint to the skin tones on the individuals I've photographed.

Any thoughts on what I could be doing wrong?

[scottbergerphoto]

Your camera's meter is set to somewhere between 12-18% grey. That's because most scenes average out to that. However if you're shooting snow or white clothing, it will under expose it to look grey. You need to add 1-2 stops exposure compensation to what the meter says.
If you do a search above, on exposure, zone system or grey card you'll get alot of information on this.
Scott

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Here's an explanation on using the gray card that Scott referred to:

http://www.pixelpixel.org/helpinfo/29_graycard.htm

Regards,

[stopbath]

If you spot meter on the face, you'll not have to compensate for the clothing or other environment.

Spot meter the face, and compensate for the skin tone of the subject. Perhaps a plus or minus one if they have a lighter or darker tone than 18%. Also consider how you want the picture to turn out (you may wish to render a skin tone brighter or darker than it actually is for some added effect.)

[PacAce]

Hello to one and all,

This is my first time using this forum and am also a proud owner if a 10D.

My question is if there is a better way of shooting people/portraits who wear white or light attire. The issue I am running into is that when I shoot mainly people in light attire, the contrast and colors on the camera always seems to be off. I always end up having to auto contrast with PS 7 and adjusting the levels slightly. This ends up giving me a red tint to the skin tones on the individuals I've photographed.

Any thoughts on what I could be doing wrong?

Have you tried setting the level first and then manually setting the contrast if it still isn't right after adjusting the level? If you have a white, black or gray reference in the photo, you can even use the eye droppers in the levels panel to adjust the color balance.