Morena and photography

Morena isn't a name, I don't think. In Filipino culture, it refers to someone with brown skin, which is most Filipinos, but I believe it also refers to those who are browner than most. In Spanish, however, it refers to someone with brown hair. It stems back to when the conquerors of Spain were the Moro (the Moors), who were darker people.

I'm not going down the political rabbit hole with this post; I just want to point out how some photographers have come to me asking about how to photograph someone with more color because I have some experience with it, and I can speak to their challenges.

But I digress; I wanted to write about photographing those not of fair skin and photographing them in bright sunlight, the contrast of bright sun, and the beautiful brown skin of the model, which I love!

Many rules still apply, e.g., find open shade when the sun is too bright and/or shoot during golden hour. Also, bring artificial light, like a flash.

I can always shoot during golden hour, and it works out because we're surrounded by open shade from the trees near the beach and the jungle. So that is your task: always shoot in the open shade on most of your shoots while doing existing light photography!