Infrared film and dark skin

This may sound like a stupid question, but does anyone out there

have any experience photographing dark-skinned people with Kodak

High Speed Infrared film? I can't recall seeing any such pictures

right off hand, and a quick look at a couple of galleries of

portraits shows all light-skinned people.

 

The motivation for asking this- with limited experience using HIE-

I've come up with some shadow areas that are just about

unprintable. I'm wondering if that is a problem with dark skin (in

sunlight).

I keep checking back to see what replies you got. I'm curious myself. I haven't shot infra-red film in many years but I do phoptograph a lot of black people. I guess you're the chosen one. Shoot a couple of test rolls. Have both blacks and whites in the pix so we can see the difference. Let us know!

Thanks, Al, I thought it might be a stupid question, but if nobody knows the answer, maybe not. Got a wedding coming up in a few weeks, I may give it a go then; won't be a couple rolls, but maybe a couple shots. (and no, I'm not shooting the wedding, just taking my camera along to a wedding I'm attending)

Stephen,

 

Although, I do not shoot infrared (yet???). I seem to remember in "The Negative", Adams indicated that very little infrared light falls in the shadows. Therefore, the shadows are very thin, retain very little detail, and are very difficult to print. His feeling was that if your subject contains a large area of shadow, HIE isn't appropriate.

 

Perhaps darker skin absorbs more infrared than does lighter skin.

 

hope this helps,

~james