Black Background Portraits

[schroejj]

Hi everyone. I am new in the field of photography and I am trying to learn more and branch out into further areas.

I say this because I am looking for some help on taking portraits that I see alot, but I don't know how to reproduce.

These are photos that are lit by the main but everything behind is pitch black.
Reading through magazines I've seen many articles on high key photographs but haven't found anything on this look and how to help set it up correctly.

Do I just use black background with only one light as main? What kind of lights should I be using or doesn't that matter.

Any advice would be helpful?

j

[disneydork06]

you can use a grey bg and make the subject far from the bg. definitely use a main light and if the subject has dark hair use a hairlight. good luck

[Wynder]

You can either use a black background or, as the poster above suggested, you can put distance between your subject and the wall to darken the background.

Ideally, you can hit a Bed, Bath and Beyond or fabric store and pick up some material to hang as a backdrop. If you're doing portraits on black, one of the bigger "gotchas" is a lack of separation between your subject and the background, so you may want to have a softbox on a boom above and very slightly behind the subject to act as a hair light or to actually put a light behind the subject, just so they don't bleed into the background.

[4honor]

Up the shutter speed to the max sync speed, and don't shine any lights onto the background, that should kill the ambient lights and give you nothing in the back.

[disneydork06]

Up the shutter speed to the max sync speed, and don't shine any lights onto the background, that should kill the ambient lights and give you nothing in the back.
it will kill ambients but then you also need to use a smaller aperture to kill the bg, and/or use a less power on your flash/strobe

[schroejj]

you can use a grey bg and make the subject far from the bg. definitely use a main light and if the subject has dark hair use a hairlight. good luck

When you say "far" what does that mean? 4 feet? 8 feet?
I tried this the other day with some success but still not what I expect to be the best.

[OneEyedJack]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2466/3640480806_21181d80e8.jpg?v=0

I used a black bed sheet as the background

F11
1/250th

Strobe camera right in a softbox for main
Strobe camera left, bare with orange gel for rim

[Tony-S]

Cool pic, Chris.

[OneEyedJack]

thanks!

[Agnu]

Seperate your subject from the background and use direct lighting. Closish the the subject if possible. When starting out try using grids/barndoors to eliminate it flooding out onto the background.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3654/3416092758_ee609787cb.jpg?v=0

This was taken with 2 lights, 90* to eachother and 45* each from the subject, about 3 feet away each and both with softboxes, with the subject about 8 feet from the backdrop.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3557/3418233628_719753c766.jpg?v=0

This was taken in the same studio, almost the same lighting setup - just with a fill light flooding the backdrop.

Just play around until you get something that works basically. I hope I was of some help :).

Agnu.