Black background help

I would like to be able to take pictures that has a back back ground such as this picture

https://www.pentaxuser.com/competitions/weekly-competition--108---smoke-69

any help would be most appriciated

I'm flattered that's one of mine. I used some black card A1 size bought from The Range (if you know this chain of cheapo stiores) not very stiff but black one side and white the other. Flexible enough to bend without creasing. Cost 2 quid I think.

The trick (as others I expect will confirm) is to keep the light off the background. As I recall the gun was 2 feet away from the card and there was limited daylight with one flash below the gun the other angled from one side possibly with some card to stop light falling on the black background.

This only works for small objects of course. Larger ones and there is another approach that I have never used but I can explain if you wish.

However, Amin is the man to ask I think as he and his shed produce many shots with various backgrounds.

Mike

Well, Mike would be the right person to answer this one.
I'll give it a try:
Set the exposure with disabled flash short enough to end up with a black image (it doesn't have to be that dark, really, just give it a try).
Then enable the flash and take care that the background is not lit by the flash or so far away and dark that almost no light is reflected back to the camera.

This is an example where it wasn't really that dark but I used a short shutter speed (high speed sync on the flashes) to get the dark background.

Hope this helps,
Prieni

Edit: Mike is the man to answer and has done so already...

so matt black card, and the object is canny far away, I just want to take a picture of a smallish bottle, can i use some ordinary lights that dont reach the card or does it have to be a flash?

Yes I'd forgotten the trial and error bit with exposure. It's a whole lot easier with flash. I had a quarter of a second exposure and manually fired the flash off camera. I would worry with normal lights that some ambient or reflected light would leak onto the card which will pick up all it can being a pest. Also using flash probably means the image will be sharp

That said no flash = trial and error and using card on the lamps to stop light falling on the card. To be fair I had the gun insid
e a garage with the door open and there was a fair bit of light about.

This one




Was taken using flash again but had work done to eliminate the the background where it did get illuminated. I think this could have equally well have been done with lamps and care.

Incidentally I am not a gun nut but I have afriend who shoots

Mike