What to use for backgrounds

[Bill5818]

I'm wondering what you guys use for black or white backgrounds on macro stands that will appear black or white without a lot of post processing. This is a 1:1 of garlic on a piece of black posterboard, which to me looked clean and black, but obviously not. The stuff I shot on white paper or white matte board also looked very textured. I did some 3:1 stuff with a 50mm 1.4 reversed on my Canon 100mm macro and the background looked worse of course. This is shot with a 7D with a 580EX2 and 2 550 EX, all with diffusers, as close to the clove as I can get them. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[themadman]

If you want to use a backdrop, move it further away from the subject. Even a couple inch away and it will blur away into a nice black.

[Bill5818]

I know that, except that I'm taking photos of very tiny things, like seeds. Not sure how I would mount them away from the background.

[themadman]

Many photos you see of bugs and stuff, the background is dark due to simply lack of light and fast shutter speeds.

3 speedlites is overkill, one or at most two will work fine.

[LordV]

Agree with above- you may need to mount the subject on a pin and use say blue tac to fix the pin to get the subject away from the blackground. Fairly easy to clone the pin out after. Some people use black perspex sheet for this type of shot but it will give a reflection of the subject (which is what they are after)
Brian V.

[Warl0rd]

also, don't let the flash light hit the background...

instead of shooting down, put the background in vertical, like 30cm away from the subject (on a pin) and put some snots on the flash so the light doesn't spill to the background.

[LLBNY]

If the subject is not too heavy a black piece of whatever away from the subject will give you a perfect black. The subject can be on a piece of glass if needed for support. If the subject is heavier, you could put the subject directly on a piece of black mat Plexiglas for no reflection, and cover the Plexiglas with a piece of glass if you want reflection.
Plexiglas and glass seems to be very good magnets to attract any kind of dust and flying particles as you can see here.

Work the same way with white.