on Vanity Fair Doesn't Like Dark Skinned People at 17:46 02/17/2009

You are ridiculous. In both cases you are comparing very poorly lit, red carpet photographs, taken with harsh front flash. In each of the other situations you are dealing with much better, diffused studio lighting. I could take a photograph of you in your house with a flash and you would look really pale, but if we went outside and didn't use a flash and just used natural light, voila! you would look dark. It's common sense. As a photographer, light is used to hide imperfections or to make the skin appear smoother...without photoshop. An overexposed headshot will make the skin look more flawless and also lighten the skin. Overexposing a shot is not lightening skin. It just looks better in each of the lighting situations presented. (light colored backdrops with an "air"-ey feeling)