black background in the field

[cristian_a]

<p>I was always wondering how people make a black background in a nature photo while everything else looks colorfull, and today i saw the featured pictures and i decided to ask.<br>

So what i wonder is how you can manage to get this effect http://www.photo.net/photo/2785003, http://www.photo.net/photo/3182351, or

i mean the first two seems like the background is cropped out and the last two seem too soft to be burned around the main subject so how can this effect be achieved succesfully?</p>

[tangibleimages]

<p>I can't speak for the example photos, not having been there myself, but often hitting the subject with a flash can underexpose the background.</p>

[nathan_meador]

<p>The puffin and snake both appear to have flash being used, which makes it easier to darken the background. It isn't very hard when shooting in shade or on a cloudy day, just underexpose the background and use flash to light your subject.</p>

[jim_momary]

<p>Cristian-<br>

As others have implied, light control is the key.<br>

Two off camera flashes triggered by on-camera pop-up flash. Flower was about 7 feet from the house wall, which is a light beige. By controlling what gets the blast of light, the background goes dark.<br>

Jim</p><div></div>

[ben_goren]

<p>Christian,</p>

 

<p>To elaborate just a bit further….</p>

 

<p>Meter the brightest object in the background that you want to be black. Set an exposure that

has it’s a minimum of two stops underexposed; more than three is ideal. Then, just make sure you

can get a proper exposure of your subject and the rest will take care of itself.</p>

 

<p>If the background is in the shade and the subject is in sunlight, you might not have to do

anything at all. (If your background <em>isn’t</em> in the shade, consider shading it, or using a prop such as an empty cardboard box with the open end facing the camera.) Otherwise, simply blast enough light onto your subject (without it spilling onto the

background), and Bob’s your uncle.</p>

 

<p>Cheers,</p>

 

<p>b&</p>

[jpo3136b]

<p>If your background is close to midtone, sometimes you can push it over into blackness by metering off of a sunlit highlight. This takes a little experience with the tone of your subjects to guess on the first pop. If there's green vegetation, often that reflects close to 18% gray. </p>

<p>Photo below of using this technique with spot metering.</p><div></div>

[jpo3136b]

<p>Duplicate</p>

[bob_bill]

<p>Black velvet. Multitasks as a wind break, posing cloth, back drop for people when taped to wall.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Sometimes you can find hints about techniques by downloading a copy of the photo and boosting the gamma or brightness to reveal the background. I did that with the photos of the puffin and snake and couldn't find any obvious evidence of digital manipulation. Many of the wildlife photos with black backgrounds I've seen online were prepared with obvious, hamfisted painting on or burning in of a dark background. But not these photos of the puffin and snake. If the photographers did any manipulation it was done very skillfully. So it may have been nothing more than the techniques already described here - dark ambient light, plenty of distance between subject and background, and flash to separate the subject from the dark background.</p>

<p>The two linked photos on the deviantART site do use some fairly skillful digital editing, but it's mostly careful exposure. Again, if you download a copy to study (which is usually considered okay, not a copyright violation, and is expressly permitted under photo.net guidelines), boost the gamma and brightness, you'll see some clues to the photographer's technique, including his trick for hiding a copyright notice.</p>

[cristian_a]

<p>thank you all for the info, i'll try some of this techniques myself and experiment, and thanks for the tips Lex, i'll try the gamma thing too and try to understand more.</p>