Have you ever noticed that photographers always tend to wear black clothing? In fact, you notice this in a few different settings such as Theatre, movie sets as well as photography sets. The answer is actually much simpler than one would expect. So why do photographers always wear black? The main reason why they always wear black clothing is that they’re trying to prevent reflections in whatever it is that they’re photographing. This is something that is more applicable when you’re photographing products but it is also something that is beneficial when photographing anything. If you speak to any photographer they will tell you that the most important component out of making an image, is the light.
No matter what type of photography the first thing that you need to craft and design is the lighting. For the most part, cameras haven’t really changed since they were first invented. It is essentially a box with a light-sensitive material the records and image. That image is made up of photon particles also known as light.
When a photographer is designing an image they will plan out what type of light they will use and how much of it. They will use strobes, constant light and tools such as reflectors to craft and shape the light. A reflector is simply a surface with a reflective material that is often used to fill in darker sections of an image. You’ve probably seen this before when photographing portraits there may be a key light on one side of the person and a reflector on the other side to fill in a little bit of light in the shadow section.Now, this is where the clothing the photographer wears comes into the picture. If you have somebody close to your subject that is wearing a white T-shirt, that T-shirt will reflect some light back onto the subject. This may not seem like a feasible thing but in a practical sense, it does make a difference. In fact, I have used people with white T-shirts as reflectors before when I haven’t had anything else to use. A white T-shirt is, after all, a white reflector in the shape of a T-shirt. The other reason why it’s also a good idea to always wear black is because of colour casting. When light is reflected off a surface it will also pick up the colour of that surface. What I mean by that is this, if you use a gold reflector to fill in the dark areas of a portrait you will notice that the colour will have a gold tone to it, and that is because the light is picking up the colour off the reflective surface and adding a cast to that light. Generally speaking, this isn’t a problem when you are reflecting a neutral colour such as white black or grey. The problem occurs when you start reflecting other colours such as green, blue, purple. Generally speaking, you don’t want that to happen because getting rid of a colour cast in Photoshop can be difficult or sometimes even impossible.
Besides the feeling effect that the reflective surface causes there is also the effect on shiny surfaces that you often come across when shooting products. You may have seen a light tent before which is something that is used for product photography. These tend to be a cube made of translucent white material. The idea is that you place the product inside the light tent and then you light the light tent from the outside. This causes the light to become diffused, and because everything around the product is white the reflections look natural. Light tents have a small hole that you insert the lens through in order to take the photo. If this appears in the reflection of the image. It can be a lot easier to remove than if you were just shooting the product without a light tent. Of course, there are situations where it is not practical to use a light tent or the product is simply too big to fit inside a light tent. In this case, we need to try to turn everything around that product to black to prevent any reflections onto its shiny surface. And this is where the black clothing comes in. Typically. It is easier to remove something in Photoshop that is coloured black than white. Even when black items are reflected on a product it makes the clean-up of the image a much easier task. Think of it like a ninja hiding in the forest. If that ninja was wearing a white outfit he would probably stand out a lot more. This is also the reason why black is typically worn around theatre sets.
There is another reason that photographers like to wear black. When you are a working photographer at a function, you don’t ever want to dress like the guests. Others need to understand that you are there in a working capacity and an all-black outfit is generally regarded as a type of uniform. The idea is that you don’t want to attract any attention to yourself and wearing black clothes is the best way to not be noticed. Over time, we have all been conditioned to recognize someone that is at a wedding, theatre or any other function just from the clothes they are wearing. Wearing black is of course, not just limited to photographers. This is something that is also applicable to other roles. On a production set, you will see most people wearing black. This is for the same reason that photographers wear black. They are trying to not stand out and be noticed. Even in post-production, when you need to photoshop images, it is always easier to remove black components from a photo than brighter ones. People that wear bright clothing can not only introduce unwanted reflections on the set but it can also result in color castings that are difficult to remove. By having everyone on the set wearing black, it will prevent this from happening.
The last reason is that it can be difficult to decide what you are going to wear on a daily basis as a working photographer. By having a uniform of sorts, it is easy to have a few black shirts and black trousers that you can rotate and treat exactly like a uniform. Everything in this article also applies to shoes. Just like the rest of your clothes, the shoes will also be black and also comfortable.
So that’s it. You wanted to know why most photographers wear black and now you know. So next time somebody asks you why photographers were black, you will be able to explain it.