Black Backgrounds

[Guest DaveW]

Black backgrounds you either like or loath them. They can be handy though for macro work, table top photography, or portraiture etc, particularly with available light where there is no flash fall off to produce them, and I note Jeremy used them in his bulb and balloon busting shots.

A year or so ago I searched the Web for black cotton velvet, the best substance to provide a black background behind my plants when photographing them. All I could find then was velvet made from synthetic thread which has more of a shine on it than cotton so does not provide as good a light killing background. Looking again recently I now find EBAY has loads of it, therefore you wonder why it seems to randomly appear and disappear from time to time? Here's a link if anybody wants some.

http://www.ebay.co.u... ... &_from=R40

I use it to get a black background for macro shots of my plants for projection at our branch meetings like this:-

DaveW

[Heather]

stunning picture Dave !

personally im a fan of the black background to show off colour and texture in your subject ( you can probably tell by the amount of times i use it lol)

thanks for the tip regarding the material, im off to ebay !

[KateW]

Me too! I bought some synthetic velvet and, as you say, it's not nearly as good.

[Guest DaveW]

This was the one I eventually got, but they previously sent me three different samples, Dressmaking Velvet, Furnishing Velvet and another, but when I did a photo test there was virtually no distinguishable difference in reflectivity between the three:-

http://www.ralstonfabrics.co.uk/black-dressmaking-velvet.htm

DaveW

[colinb]

for me black backgrounds often seem to make the subject edges look harsh, but I guess having backgrounds of various colours gets a little expensive and complicated, but if i could I think I would look to make the background suit the subject?

Edited November 16, 2012 by colinb

[stevedevil]

The image ( First one ) has a white spec to image right..

After that its a very good image, DOF used well,

Cheers

[Leon]

Steve think you missed the point maybe?

[Guest DaveW]

How sharp the edges are on the background is simply down to the amount of sharpening applied to the image I think Colin? When used in a digital projector sharp edges do give a bit of a 3D effect on a black background on the projection screen, and viewing the plant in real life the petal edges are that sharp.

These type of shots are intended as record shots in the society I am in, rather than as with photo societies competitions taken for effect rather than reality. I can't detect a significant difference in the petal sharpness of your reworked image on my screen other than the background now has a slightly "muddy" tint. You can with a solid colour background alter the colour to anything you want in post processing without the need to buy additional backgrounds. This is the same image that I have just now changed the black background colour with one click of the Paint Bucket in Photoshop Elements. Any background colour or shade you want with a single click of the mouse button!:-

The advantage of either black or gray backgrounds is they are neutral and seldom conflict with the colours in the plant, so you do not get tonal mergers (though in the case of cacti blue would be OK as they have no blue flowers or spines). One thing that does drive viewers mad according to the research we did among our members for slide shows is people constantly changing background colours or text styles and colours slide to slide, or using numerous different fades. The majority of viewers preferred a single type of slide fade per lecture and a constant typeface title text and colour per slide.

Not found the white spot Steve, where is it?

DaveW

[Heather]

go to the far right hand side of the picture, coming from the bottom go up about 1/4 height and its there. Its a very tiny white speck right on the edge of the image Dave

[Guest DaveW]

Thanks Steve and Heather, found it now, don't know what it was, but easy to clone out.

DaveW