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Skin Color

Annie Leibovitz under fire for “poorly lit” photos of Black skin… Again

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Vogue recently hired famous photographer Annie Leibovitz to take photos of the United States Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. As perhaps we could have expected after those Simone Biles photos, people were all over Leibovitz over “poorly lit” images.

Many have criticized the photographer over the “poor” lighting of Jackson’s brown skin. Some attempted to “fix” the photos and relight them. And some went as far as claiming that Leibovitz should not be allowed to photograph Black people.

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Google’s new skin tone scale could reduce AI’s racial bias

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We’ve already seen some cases of AI being biased towards lighter skin tones. But Google wants to turn it around and it’s now using an alternative, more inclusive skin tone scale.

Teaming up with a Harvard professor, Google is using and open-sourcing the Monk Skin Tone (MST) Scale. It’s more inclusive than the current tech-industry standard, making various skin tones included in search results.

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Google says its phone cameras will take more flattering photos of dark skin

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At this week’s Google I/O, Android VP Sameer Samat announced some major changes in the camera app. Apparently, Google is working to make its Android camera more versatile, more inclusive, and more flattering to darker skin tones and different hair types.

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Vogue under fire over not hiring a black photographer for Simone Biles cover photos

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On its August issue covers, Vogue features the amazing gymnast Simone Biles, photographed by Annie Leibovitz. While people are thrilled to see her on the cover, the photos themselves have caused quite an outrage. People have called out Leibovitz over “poor lighting” and “washed out” skin tones, adding that Vogue should have hired a black photographer who better understands dark skin tones.

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Lessons on properly lighting dark-skinned actors from “Insecure” director of photography Ava Berkofsky

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How to properly light the model depends on several aspects, and one of them is skin color. Insecure’s director of photography, Ava Berkofsky, makes the actors in the series look fabulous. In this 2-minute video, she shares her lessons on properly lighting the dark-skinned actors to achieve the best results.

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How to quickly easily change skin color in Photoshop

If you tend to create lots of crazy self-portraits as I do, a good technique to know is how to quickly change skin tone in Photoshop. Like the above image, one of my favorite things is to turn people into zombies. If you work for me its only a matter of time before you are in front of the camera, ready to be zombified!

The trick is to start with the skin color and work it from there. It doesn’t end at skin color, though; you will need putrid veins, wrinkles and any other little details that will add to the effect but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s crack on with the tutorial!

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