This may sound stupid but....

[mrshaleyberg]

With black backgrounds, does it make a difference what kind you use to get the real black black look? Or is that PP? Does muslin, seamless paper, or anything else black make the same effect?



I'm just curious what people do when they have a picture like this?




Google Image Result for http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3239/2754200697_459fff6f26.jpg


Thanks!

 

[mrshaleyberg]

bump

 

[katerolla]

I use muslin, mainly because of space, if i had a 3m x 4m spare space I'd use seamless, less pp with seamless

 

[NikonNewbie]

I went all ghetto about it...I got a black shaggy like blanket from wal-mart on Black Friday for a whopping 3 bucks....but alas I need another one for the floor...that said...if you take the 9 bucks it will end up costing me (because they are not 3 anymore) and the 6 it costs now...it works well, however if I had the booku dollars I'd get the seamless roll and buy the stuff to make the DIY back drop stand, or I'd buy one.

 

[NikonNewbie]

Savage Universal Seamless Paper | Seamless Photo Backdrops | Savage Paper

here ya go check this place out...if I had the cash...canvas.

 

[Buckster]

What you want to do is underexpose the background enough to have no detail left in it. As your flash will be sync'd at a particular shutter speed, that's done with your aperture, and the more distance you can put between it and your subject, the easier it'll be to bring it down. You'll also want to have good control over the lighting in the room - keep it dim. If light is pouring in through the windows and you can't block them off or wait till dark, it'll be much more difficult to pull it off.

You can do that with any black background. In fact, if you underexpose it enough, you can use any background at all, even a white one.

 

[JessicaBlair]

@ Nikon Newbie

What did you buy at walmart?

 

[ghache]

if you have the space, get a seemless paper background, its easy to use, no wrinkle , cheap and it work great

if your going to a low key and shooting headshot, or 3/4 shot, it could be done without a background. a little bit tricky by if you have alot of dead space behind your subject, it can be done.

 

[OrionsByte]

What you want to do is underexpose the background enough to have no detail left in it. As your flash will be sync'd at a particular shutter speed, that's done with your aperture, and the more distance you can put between it and your subject, the easier it'll be to bring it down. You'll also want to have good control over the lighting in the room - keep it dim. If light is pouring in through the windows and you can't block them off or wait till dark, it'll be much more difficult to pull it off.

You can do that with any black background. In fact, if you underexpose it enough, you can use any background at all, even a white one.

What he said. Put your flash on manual, and if you can take it off-camera, put it close to your subject. Underexpose the background by using a really small aperture and a quick shutter speed (the highest that will sync with your flash). Take a couple test shots without the flash to make sure that your photo is completely black. With the flash up close to your subject, adjust the flash power and aperture until you get a good exposure.

Take a look at this for more info:

Strobist: Lighting 102: 1.2 - Position | Distance

The shot below was taken in a moderately lit room, with a white wall about 4-5 feet behind the subject, with the flash up close just outside of the frame.

 

[KmH]

I'm just curious what people do when they have a picture like this?

You don't need a black background to make the background black in a photo, if you are using strobed light.

You just need to use a fast enough shutter speed.

With strobed light the lens aperture and the amount of strobed light output controls the strobed light exposure.

Here are 2 shots made just 120 seconds apart. They don't have a black background, but it still illustrates the principal. I only changed the camera's shutter speed as you can see in the EXIF data. The left photo was made using 1/10 of a second and the right photo had a faster shutter speed of 1/15 of a second. From there full stop steps (1/2 as much light for each step) would have been 1/30, 1/60, 1/120, 1/200.
The background would likely have been completely black at 1/120.

 

[gsgary]

This was shot against a cheap black material Archie was under 3 feet from the backdrop 2 lights, one camera left with shoot through brolly and one camera right with honeycomb grid from behind 1/125, F13, some black backdrops can give a nice warmer black

 

[Christie Photo]

With black backgrounds, does it make a difference what kind you use to get the real black black look? ... Does muslin, seamless paper, or anything else black make the same effect?

Buckster has it right... no light = no record. So no light on the background = black background.

HOWEVER. Yes... the material used can make a difference, especially when your subject in right on the background material. You have to consider the material's surface qualities too. Seamless paper has a bit of a sheen to it, whereas some black fabrics do not.

-Pete

 

[MohaimenK]

Seamless paper has a bit of a sheen to it, whereas some black fabrics do not.

-Pete

Yeah I found that when it comes to black, seamless paper is more "reflective" than cloth. IMO its better to use cloth for black and seamless for white.

 

[NikonNewbie]

@ Nikon Newbie

What did you buy at walmart?

A black blanket set...it's shaggy"ish" its not fleece...looks like the rug they use at Picture People...it works but after I hang it I can only shoot kids because it's only 50x60 but hell it was only 3 bucks! lol

 

[mrshaleyberg]

Ok this is making more sense! Thanks to all that replied! I do have black seamless paper, but I don't like how it reflects..Noticed it right away..I don't even use the black anymore, because it bothered me so much. Guess I need to try getting some black muslin or something. I really need to start experimenting with my flash more. That thing scares me a bit since I have mainly relied on natural light all this time. :0