Portrait Backgrounds

I have been playing around with different backgrounds for studio portraits.

I have been finding that black really works well for colour shots and look very sharp until I did a family with black hair.

Has anyone else worked with black backdrops for portraits? I have also used more "traditional" backdrops, but I find them to look very so so, been there done that.

I was wondering if something clever could be done with lighting?

A little rim lighting from behind the person with black hair will help separate them from the background. A hair light will help too.

The rim or hair light works very well for separation, and that would be my recommendation.

Mark

Thanks guys I was wondering if something like that would work, I will see if I can get another wee strobe for the job, I would assume it does not need to be too powerful.