More and more of my clients are moving from traditional projection screens to LED video boards. It’s a significant shift—when the stage lighting is close to daylight balance, those boards look incredible. The colors pop, the contrast holds, and the overall look is far cleaner than what we used to get with projectors fighting through ambient light.
But with those gains comes a new layer of technique, especially when photographing people with different skin tones against a glowing video wall.
Why Skin Tone Matters With Exposure
Every face reflects light differently. When I’m photographing one of their executives who has very dark African-American skin, I rely on spot metering with face detection on my Nikon Z9. The camera naturally opens up a bit to give him proper exposure, which is precisely what he needs for both printed material and screens. The challenge is that when the camera opens up for him, the video board behind him can get a little too bright.
On the other end of the spectrum, someone with very pale skin can easily cause the camera to underexpose. That keeps the video board looking perfect… but can leave the person themselves too dim.
Neither result is wrong—it’s simply the camera doing what cameras do. My job is to guide the viewer’s eyes to the story we’re telling, and that almost always means prioritizing the face. A well-exposed subject is far more important than a perfectly exposed background.
Using Lightroom to Bring Balance Back
This is where the newer masking tools in Lightroom are game-changers.
If the video board gets too bright when I open it up for darker skin tones, I’ll mask the background and gently pull it down. If it looks muddy when I expose for a very pale subject, I’ll brighten it a bit. That simple control keeps the scene natural while making sure the person looks their best.
When I’ve got both extremes on stage at once—a very dark skin tone and a very light one—the People Masking tool makes life so much easier. I’ll select each person individually and adjust their skin tones separately. It’s a small step that makes a massive difference in the final image.
Getting Color Right When Time Is Tight
Accurate color is just as important as exposure. I try to get to the venue early and set a custom white balance using an ExpoDisc. That always gives me the cleanest base color.
But sometimes schedules don’t allow for that. In those cases, the eyedropper tool in Lightroom becomes a lifesaver. One trick I’ve learned: sampling the gray or black body of the handheld microphone often gets me surprisingly close to proper white balance. It’s not perfect every time, but it usually gives me a much better starting point.
Final Thought
LED video boards really elevate an event’s look, but photographing them well takes a little extra attention. With intentional exposure, thoughtful masking, and a solid white balance workflow, the images you deliver to your clients—whether they’re used on social media, in printed pieces, or on the organization’s own screens—can look stunning.