Studio Photos With Black Backdrop

Not experience in this area and want to know if I can take professional looking portrait photographs with just the following studio equipment.

1. Two strobe flash.

2. Backdrop color of Black cloth.

3. Excellent camera body.

4. Excellent camera lens.

Need to know what is the secret for studio professional looking portrait shots with the following equipment above. What is the secret to getting the best lighting from the equipment above and how must I position the strobe light in relations to the subjects. I can use an expert studio photographer opinion here.

Do you have an umbrella or a softbox? Those things are essential to get smooth lighting. If the room has white ceiling/walls, then it could be an emergency solution to fire the flash straight up, but it won't look professional.

Google 3 point portrait lighting and see what you can find!

edit: if you don't have a softbox, I just posted a comparison on this board between no softbox at all, a cheap eBay inflatable softbox and my own which I made from cardboard, paper and tin foil. Check that out!

Sure, I've done what you're talking about with only one light. Having a second light is even better because you can use it as a rim light so the person's hair wont blend into the black backdrop.

I'd also recommend checking out Zack Arias' blog for his white seamless tutorial. You can get a good black background out of a solid white backdrop (or not backdrop at all) if you light everything correctly.

http://zarias.com

Thanks for the reply everyone! I am using just two strobe flash with the umbrellas. I don't know if I will need a softbox additional light with even another light for the background. I was told, there are trick to position the strobe flash to get the results I'm looking for with the subject in the middle. Usually, I set the strobe flash on each flash about 45 degree angle in front of the subject with the flash hanging above the subjects head about 2ft. Other than that, I don't know any other way to position these strobes for best results. Please help.

if you're using a black backdrop, you do not want any light spilling onto the backdrop as it will defeat the purpose.

As long as you're metering -4EV reflective from the incident subject exposure you'll get a black background.

Obviously, distance of the subject and subject lighting from the background make a difference but understanding falloff and the relationship between the metered subject exposure and pure black will help you execute pure black backgrounds even in small spaces where there is very little distance between the subject and background.