Flowers and background

[raivo_vanags]

How do you make pictures like this:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=137790

 

Concrete: how to get a black bacground and an object to be in light

(as if light takes a shape of the object). How you don't lighten the

background?

 

Raivo

[michael_hohner]

There are a number of ways:

<ol>

<li>Generally, move the background far away to keep it out of DOF. Use a non-reflective material.

<li>Use a spotlight from above and from the front to light the subject. The spotlight will then hit the background out of frame. A longer focal length helps keeping the background area in sight as small as possible.

<li>Use a flash to illuminate the subject. Keep the shutter speed close to the x-synch time to have as little exposure from ambient light as possible. Again, the angle at which you fire the flash may be important.

</ol>

[qtluong]

The most practical method I've found is to use flash. Set

shutter/aperture so that all light comes from the flash. Then put

a black cloth behind the subject, the further, the better. Since

your cloth is behind, the amount of light from the flash which reaches

it is not enough to light it. A flash extension cord helps considerably because you can move your flash closer to the flower and

off-axis. A softbox on the flash will improve the quality of light.

[danny burk www.dannyburk.]

I frequently use the flash-and-black-background technique for "studio" flower images....Photogenic strobe in softbox, positioned as desired per modeling lights, add reflector(s) if desired...please visit my website www.dannyburk.com for a lot of examples in the "studio flowers" gallery.

 

Regards,

[raivo_vanags]

Thank you all for your responses!

Gonna try this and then ask more if it doesn't go as planned.

 

Danny - liked your homepage!