One issue with the Shirley card was that the model used was Caucasian. Over time, as more countries adopted colour film, the need for models with different skin tone came up. NPR features an article on how Kodak's Shirley cards set photography's skin tone standard .
Friday, November 28, 2014
The Kodak Shirley Card
After Kodak was forced to unbundle colour film processing in the 1950s, allowing independent film processors to handle film processing, Kodak developed the Shirley card to aid in controlling image quality. Named after Kodak employee, Shirley Page, the card lived on for decades, assisting in photographic quality control. Ms. Page was the first among many models featured for the card.
