OK, so you get the lights set up, and carefully step behind the model to meter, then having dialed all that onto the camera you get real close up for that perfect headshot and, because of all that black, suck up enough light to give you a two-stop underexposure.

Or you're out at night doing some street shooting, and the model, all pale white arms and legs sticking out of that minidress crosses the street, with you hanging a little back to make sure she's safe. And the car coming notices her. Really notices her - and of course they don't see you because you're wearing all that black...

Or you're club shooting, and to get that perfect angle that will have the torsos backlighted by the lasers you sit on the dancefloor. Going for that shot you sit down - on a floor that's had 96 shoes that just came off the street all over it . So, because of your color choice you're walking around with a dirty butt. Like a "kick me" sign.

But black looks so cool that you're saving for a black cashmere turtleneck to go under the black goatskin jacket you sold that Nikon body to buy. And professional - yeah, it looks so "professional." Everyone's wearing it - at least all the counterculture individualists are. If you want to be an individualist, you gotta wear black.

Over the last two years I've seen statements by fashion professionals that "white is the next black," and, "brown is the next black." They weren't. Black is the next black. Count on it.

But does it make sense to work in? Well, it is admittedly bad to wear red around strobes or hotlights - or green or yellow or blue. The color gets picked up in the light bouncing around and could end up in the picture. Non-colors, black, white and grey, are used in studios to prevent that. Those same non-colors all can work for a photographer to keep strange light off the subject.

White, of course isn't socially acceptable. You'd look like Tom Wolfe, or Samuel Clemens. And no individualist wants to look that different, of course. How about grey? Ever try to match grey paint? How about matching a bunch of shirts and pants. Pretty hard to do. (Actualy the same problem exists with black, but in most places there isn't enough light to see the differences in dye colors of black.)

During the part of my life not having to do with actual shooting I wear earthtones, khakis and jeans. Khaki doesn't have enough color to affect lights, really. And most earthtones won't add anything either. Especially the dark colors. You still cast a light-sucking shadow in anything dark though.

The off-duty model uniform, white man's shirt with jeans and loafers, would actually make a good shooting uniform. The white shirt would work somewhat as fill for the shadows created by shooting close, you could point yourself out in the models' eyes in the photographs, and the jeans can take the abuse of sitting on the floor or climbing flimsy aluminum ladders and such. Of course we photographers probably wouldn't have to wear the loafers. We could probably get by with sneakers or hiking boots.

-Don