Black background

Sometimes I like taking close-up and macro shots with a black background and until now I have just grabbed the nearest black(ish) object to hand like a large diary. E.G:




The problem is however I set up my LED light on a desk tripod some of the light reflects off the background as well as highlighting its texture; I then spend more time in Lightroom getting rid of these reflections than anything else in the process. Moving the background further away would help and I tried that with a large sheet of black paper but it still had a somewhat reflective surface which caught light bouncing off the ceiling and walls. You may have seen the super-black coating that makes shapes disappear but that is an expensive specialist spray done in a lab, however I have found what claims to be the nearest commercially available paint: it's just called Black 2.0 from Culture Hustle link It's opacity is pretty impressive and I have just given some smooth white card a couple of coats so when I get around to it I will see whether it does what it says.

a piece of black velvet fabric taped to foam core works.

When shooting with a black background such as this:


Chevrolet Corvette Coupe by Gareth Williams, on Flickr

I shoot with 2 pieces of A1 black card from Hobbycraft as well as a sheet of black perspex . Always always lights off in the room so pitch black and careful placement of flash heads / or a daylight balanced continuous lighting LED panel and I find have virtually no detail / light on the backdrop card

Apart from careful exposure, if we want a background to be black then the Levels dialog box in Photoshop has three buttons for setting black, grey and white points. Select a point on the image, press the black point and the job is done.

The 50x40cm backing boards that camera clubs use for competitions are very useful as black backgrounds.The image I use of stamps to illustrate the closest possible focusing distance in lens reviews uses such a board. The stamps are stuck onto the board to make a handy, re-usable target.

For larger items and portraits, Lastolite make excellent collapsible fabric backgrounds in various colours including black. They are non reflective but depending how you light your subject can require darkening in pp.

For macros, I use two sheets of card covered in black paper & hinged together with tape, With the hinge vertical & the sheets open to 45 degrees (ish),-I shoot in towards the r. hand side so the any reflection in that sheet is of the other sheet. If any light gets in over the top, I place a further black sheet on the top of the hinged pair. With the pair placed pointing towards the main (day)light, this works pretty well, with just a little adjustment in Elements 11, levels.

Roger.

Thanks, a good tip.