[jbattle]

> In other words, it could well be by nature, that recognizing black faces is harder than pale faces under the normal camera and scene settings.

This might be the crux. Why are pale-face-recognizing settings the "normal" settings? Why aren't the cameras designed and tuned to recognize darker skinned faces by default?

Cameras are designed and tuned by people - this is not a matter of fundamental physics having a preference.

[dthul]

It's not as easy as just retuning camera settings. Due to physical limitations (at least with our current state of technology) camera sensors have a very limited dynamic range compared to the human eye. Increasing the exposure to better image darker surfaces will overexpose the rest of the image.

We can be hopeful though that this will become less of an issue in the future due to camera technology advancements (like HDR exposure stacks).