new lights, just one question

[thebledhrcfan]

Hi everyone, I'm really excited. I just got some 500 watt lights and can't wait to use them in the dark to add to skateboarding photos. But, I also wanted to take some portraits in my house. I've seen photos where the subject is illuminated by the light, however, the background is black. I was wondering how to do that. Here is an example.

(Photo credit to Andy Enos)

 

[Alpha]

1) Shoot against a black background.
2) Shoot against a gray background and don't light it.
3) Shoot against something else but light your subject very brightly (this generally won't work in a well-lit environment without some very serious lights).
4) Push the exposure so far that everything but the lit subject appear in shadow.

 

[WDodd]

I am no lighting expert but it looks to me like the light is camera left and just make sure there is enough distance between your subject and the background so that the background isn't illuminated.

 

[Garbz]

read http://strobist.blogspot.com Lighting 102 talks about lighting ratios in relation to distance between light subject and backgrounds. Basically if the light to subject distance is small and light to background distance is large due to inverse square law the background will be dark.

It also helps if there's nothing light bouncing light around.