Lighting with black blgnd

[crystal_smith5]

<p>I use strobes and have always used different colored backgrounds and this past week I tried to use a black background which I thought would be fool proof but it seems as though the lights were to bright? The black background turned out grey. I powered my lights down as far as I could. I had my iso at 100 I tried everything from f4-f11 and nothing helped? Can you just not use black with strobes? It worked fine when I tried some continuous lighting. Help! :-)</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>What sort of light modifiers are you using (umbrellas, softboxes, snoots, grids, honeycombs, etc)? How far are you from your subject, and how far is the background behind your subject? How far are your lights from each?<br /><br />The main things: use modifiers that don't throw light everywhere (shoot-through umbrellas, for example, are going to give you trouble), and just increase the distance between your subject and your backdrop, since the power of the light falls off exponentially with distance.</p>

[tobiasfeltus]

<p>of course you can.<br>

you really just need more distance. or to change the angle. Basically you need to try and get the black to have about two stops less light than the subject, for it to come out black, or in a negative to get no detail at all. so if you move your lights to a 2/3 angle, you can flag the background, or if you have the space, just get more distance between the subject and background. <br>

t</p>

[raymond bradlau]

<p>Just a guess but I am thinking your using your camera in some auto mode and its messing you up, if you are shooting some type of ttl you want to make sure you are metering just the subject and not the back ground.</p>

<p>walk us through your camera setting and I bet we can fix you up</p>

[Charles_Webster]

<p>You have to take the camera out of Auto mode and use manual exposure to ensure the background is underexposed and remains black. Your camera is trying to make the background gray, and therefore overexposing the foreground.<br>

Set your camera to Manual exposure. Meter the foreground for proper exposure. Make sure that your lights are not lighting the background.</p>

<p><Chas></p>

[paul_wheatland]

<p>I used a Fuji S-1 Pro, Tamron/ Nikon AF mount 28 to 200 Aspheric with Nikon strobe SB-15 at TTL tilted up toward the ceiling at f5.6, 1/125 second ISO 400 auto WB, black background attached image is the result!</p>

[photomark]

As everyone else has mentioned, the most important thing is the distance between your subject and background relative

to the distance between your subject and light. Because of the way light falls off, you can get a pure black background

using white seamless if you give it enough space.

 

If space is a luxury you don't have then you can try flagging off the lights or as others have mentioned adjusting the

angle of your lights. This can get pretty annoying though because murphy's law kicks in and the best light on the subject

turns out to be the worst light for the background.

 

The material of the background can make a big difference too. Black paper seems to reflect more light than you might

think. There are a few companies (like photek) that make a black velour fabric background that sucks up the light a

considerably better than paper. Although they too will show if you hit them with enough light.

[paul_wheatland]

<p>image now enclosed.</p><div></div>

[franklin_white]

<p>I use a big swath of black felt that my wife bought at a fabric store. I have the background set up at least 15 feet behind the subject, and I also keep the subject lighting fairly close to the subject to further increase the difference in exposure. With my setup, the background is always absolute black (even with on-axis fill). </p>

[lisahorton]

<p>It sounds like you're shooting in some auto mode and your cameras meter is fooled by the black background. You can try dialing in negative exposure compensation. A handheld incident light meter would provide dead reliable exposures.</p>

[ryan_k]

<p>Crystal,</p>

<p>Based on your submitted photograph's exif data, you were posting using a "normal" exposure mode. This sounds like a program mode, where you don't have as much control as you should in a studio setting. </p>

<p>For this scenario, switch to manual mode, keep your shutter speed at your camera's max sync speed(usually 1/125th to 1/250th) and stop down until you find proper exposure of your knives. <br>

Your backdrop, black, will still become exposed because there is light bouncing off of it. In order to obtain a nice pure black background, you need to create light fall-off. This is created by moving the backdrop further away from your subject, while keeping your light the same distance from your subject. <br>

My suggestion? Pose your knives so that they aren't flat on the backdrop on a table with your camera looking down on them. Angle your shot so that you are down on the ground, shooting horizontally at your knives, and move the backdrop a few feet into the background. <br>

Hope that was clear enough... see if that helps.</p>

[crystal_smith5]

<p>Ryan, Those knives are not my picture. :-)<br>

I always shoot Manual and this particular time 1/125th- iso 100 f/1.8-8...space is very limited in my studio...Maybe 15ft from the backdrop to me..I have 2 strobes on has a soft box and the other an umbrella. Would replacing it with another softbox help?<br>

Thank you all much for your input.</p>