Black back ground first try CC

[shootermcgavin]

So I tried to do a black background with a white wall, it wasn't very easy. I kind of wanted to see how difficult it is without a black backdrop. I was using a flash through an umbrella and a reflector for fill light. I guess if you're in a studio you're probably using a soft light or something cuz it may be odd when you're like alright I'm going to turn off all the lights now... I'm not really happy with either photo but I guess I have to start somewhere. Next time I'm going to try to have a hair light behind hoping it seperates it a bit more, maybe I'll even rig together a back drop, better now than later I suppose.

 

[dxqcanada5]

How far away were your subjects from the wall ?
What was the distance from flash to subject ?

If the background is far enough away from your lighting ... it can appear very dark.

 

[shootermcgavin]

Probably 15 feet from the wall, the reflector was almost touching them and the umbrella was maybe 1-2 feet away from their faces. I blacked out the back ground good enough but I didn't get enough light on the subjects I don't think... I guess I didn't notice there is a tiny bit of light in the background. Just not feeling the photos though...

 

[dxqcanada5]

Rules for Perfect Lighting: Understanding The Inverse-Square Law

 

[tirediron]

Hokay... a'splain me this Lucy... why did you choose those settings? Remembering that aperture controls flash and shutter-speed controls ambient light, and assuming that your background was white/light, you should be using a high shutter-speed (max sync), maximum background-to-subject separation (15' is lots) and a moderate aperture. These images, IMO, are drastically under-exposed. I would guess (without knowing the power-output of your flash) that f8, 1/250, and about three stops more strobe would be a good starting point.

 

[shootermcgavin]

Thanks that makes sense, I was closing the aperture but I probably needed to up the flash which was pretty low... I'll give it another try tomorrow and maybe get some better results.

 

[Derrel]

+3 needed

 

[gsgary]

Probably 15 feet from the wall, the reflector was almost touching them and the umbrella was maybe 1-2 feet away from their faces. I blacked out the back ground good enough but I didn't get enough light on the subjects I don't think... I guess I didn't notice there is a tiny bit of light in the background. Just not feeling the photos though...

Did you use any lights ? shooting on a black background you need minimum of 2 lights, 1 main light from the front and 1 opposite from behind to seperate subject from background, here's one of mine shot at a dog show, black on black is a bit trickier

Here you can see where i had to set up and how i used the space and positioning of lights