Making the background disappear/black...

[robertnzana]

This evening I was trying to take a picture of a wine bottle on my kitchen countertop. I wanted the background to be totally black. I stood about 3 feet away from the bottle.

My settings were: 1/200 (sync speed), F22

I tried to make sure that the background was 5-6 feet away. I used a 430EX II flash bounced off the ceiling. But, I could see the background still. What is the technique for getting rid of the background?

[wamguy89]

It's going to be hard to get it totally black without post processing, but I'd suggest making sure all ambient light is gone, and put your flash on a relatively low power setting. Bouncing it off the ceiling is sending the light everywhere, so that won't help too much. You could try booming the light source so it's directly above the subject. You basically want to center the light on the subject and make sure it doesn't spill into the background. Hope this helps!

[robertnzana]

Is it better to have the flash closer or further from the subject?

[shaftmaster]

I haven't tried this yet, but I think I understand the concept so I'll give it a shot... For one, you need to prevent the flash from illuminating the background, so don't bounce off the ceiling or wall. You may need to use a modifier like a snoot to focus your light source on your subject. You also need to make sure the background is far enough away from the subject that the light fall-off from your flash is several stops. Use the fastest shutter speed and lowest ISO possible to prevent ambient light from creeping in.

I'm probably missing something... but I think that might help.

[Muskydave22]

Keep the subject away from the background as far as possible, and get the light in really close or focus the light. The closer the light is to your subject the faster it falls off.

Dave

[asysin2leads]

Yep, what Dave said.

Here's some advice (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=817843), not in post #1, though.

[robertnzana]

Awesome tips! Thanks.

Do the same tips apply to portraiture?

[wamguy89]

^Yes, I did this shot like that, and I also had a light coming from behind... There was a large open room behind her, and I had the front light source close and relatively high up/pointing down... Hope this helps!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2516/4214585075_f063ea072d.jpg

[robertnzana]

Great job! Thanks

[george m w]

Robert,
Put a 'flag' between the background and light source. A flag or 'gobo' is something that blocks the light. In this case, you are shooting the light up to bounce off the ceiling, so you need to have something ( like an opaque piece of cardboard ) positioned above, but behind your subject to block the light that is bouncing off the ceiling from coming down and illuminating your background. Make sense ?

[robertnzana]

First I heard of "gobo". I will google it. Thanks alot!

[tkbslc]

Ceiling bounce usually fills the whole room, so I probably wouldn't do that. I did this portrait with a 430EX on camera bounced sideways into a white foam board to direct light on the subject. BG was only 2 feet behind subject and it required no PP to get it black. Also, use a small aperture and a dim room light so no ambient light gets recorded.

http://tkbphoto.zenfolio.com/img/v7/p450379245-4.jpg

[robertnzana]

Great pic! Was the flash mounted on top of the camera or off camera?

[tkbslc]

Great pic! Was the flash mounted on top of the camera or off camera?

Thanks :)

Flash On camera. I just had my wife hold a $1 piece of foam board at about 60 degrees from the subject. Bounced into the board, but since it is a lot smaller than the ceiling only a little gets bounced back. Used ETTL, in manual mode, f7.1 and high shutter speeds.

Also, I just checked the RAW file and I lied about PP, I did have to adjust contrast up just a bit (+1 in DPP) to get the bg totally black

[asysin2leads]

Thanks :)

Flash On camera. I just had my wife hold a $1 piece of foam board at about 60 degrees from the subject. Bounced into the board, but since it is a lot smaller than the ceiling only a little gets bounced back. Used ETTL, in manual mode, f7.1 and high shutter speeds.

Also, I just checked the RAW file and I lied about PP, I did have to adjust contrast up just a bit (+1 in DPP) to get the bg totally black

Good advice.

Something to remember is the sync speed of your camera. If you set your Tv at 1/400th and onboard flash, then it will default back to your max sync speed.

[fhphoto]

I would suggest the following:

1. Find out the exposure setting which kills all the ambient light,
2. Place your light source fairly close to the subject and on lowest power,
3. Adjust the power on your flash until it exposes the subject correctly,
4. If your light source is spilling, use appropriate modifiers to limit the amount of spill.

[aram535]

fhphoto nailed it on the head. Although I'm not sure why #4. If you have a good distance between the background and subject nothing else is needed.

This is with a hand held flash, about 6" away from the flower, the background was actually lit as well as had multiple windows on a bright sunny day. EXIF should be intact.

http://www.tranquilphotos.com/open-gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=38356