First attemp at creating a black background

salman_asad

salman_asad

New member
Hi Dear Nikonites,

Yesterday I took out some time and got my niece to do some poses for me. I was trying for a black background portrait without any actual black background.... so here are my two efforts.

DSC_6455.jpg

DSC_6468.jpg

These were shot with a flash+umbrella setup which was placed on the left side of her.

Settings were

ISO 100
Shutter : 1/200
Aperture : Ranging from f9 to f11
 
D

Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
You have some pretty hard shadows on her face. Might look a little better it if you move the flash+umbrella setup a little more toward the front. maybe at 45 degrees to her face? would soften it up some. Also a reflector or even a white card at the other side of her would help to fill in the shadows.
 
salman_asad

salman_asad

New member
Thanks for the reply!
If i do move it to the front won't the background be lighted as well ? And I do have another flash so i can use that for fill
 
S

STM

Senior Member
The light is at kind of a rather extreme angle Salman, which creates some deep shadows. She is a very pretty little girl, but these portraits and the heavy shadows are not really flattering to her. Also, in the second one, she has that big clump of hair which creates a big black line right down her face. I don't know if you are using a graphics program like Photoshop, but you can do the same thing by selecting the background, regardless of color, and using the paint bucket tool and black and painting it in. Your background could be LIME GREEN to start and you could easily change it to black, or any other color. With a little work in layers and FX, you can even change it to a light gray which fades to black.
 
salman_asad

salman_asad

New member
Yeah the light is pretty bad :( that's why i posted the pics here to get some valuable input. The umbrella/flash was placed facing her face. What angle should i take to get better light ?

And yes i do use photoshop so you are absolutely right that i can change the background at will.
 
S

STM

Senior Member
salman_asad said:
Yeah the light is pretty bad :( that's why i posted the pics here to get some valuable input. The umbrella/flash was placed facing her face. What angle should i take to get better light ?

And yes i do use photoshop so you are absolutely right that i can change the background at will.
Click to expand...

If there is only one light, I would not go more than about 30 degrees off. Try to place the light above her but not too far, or you will get some bad shadows under her chin. To soften the light, move the umbrella closer to her. At first this may sound backwards, but hear me out. Any umbrella, because it is curved, has a focal length. In other words, light will be reflected at such angles until it comes to a single point, just like light through a single bi-convex lens element. By moving the umbrella closer, you place her further "out of focus" for that umbrella and you soften the light.
 
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