Black Background??

I am sorry for my english ..the worst english on the web ;-)

I am wondering about the tecnique of making the black bakground with the subject in full light.

I shooted this photo and then edited in photoshop for remove all the background.

Is there a way for making such kind of photos directly without the need of using an image editing software?

Thank you

Andrea

Hi Andrea,

Yes, there is a technique. To eliminate all ambient light you need to shoot with your camera set to manual, the shutter speed needs to be as high as possible (maximum sync speed, I use 1/250), and the aperture as small as possible (f22 or smaller). Unfortunately I am affraid you need external strobes to be able to light this, and from your first post I had the impression you don't have one.

Cheers,

Luiz

Hi Andrea,

in addition, set ISO to the lowest possible value or if you don't shoot digitally, choose the lowest ISO film you can get.

As Luiz said, short exposure time, small aperture and low ISO puts down your enviroment light exposure. Goal is to switch off enviromental light completely and light the subject in the foreground with flash light only. flash power has to be gained accordingly (manually or the camera does it with TTL).

What camera / strobes are you using?

Julian

Andrea,

Luiz is correct. The background exposure is controlled by aperture and shutter speed (the foreground exposure is controlled by aperture and strobe power).

Maximum sync speed varies depending upon what type of camera you are using. With a point and shoot style (non dSLR) camera, the speed at which the strobe(flashgun) will still be in sync with the shutter may be faster. With my camera (Oly c4040), I am able to shoot with speeds as fast as 1/500 second or greater. If less light is required from the strobe to illuminate the foreground, even faster shutter speeds are possible, yet still not clip the strobe's influence on the foreground.

Another factor is how much time the strobe requires to emit it's stored energy. Strobes that burn brighter and are capable of emitting their stored energy faster than others can achieve similar results as those strobes that require longer burn times due to less intense light output. This may also allow for faster sync speeds depending on those parameters.

The point is, as Luiz stated, the faster the shutter speed and smaller the aperture, the less ambient light available to expose the sensor, the darker the background.

My point is, it all depends on which strobe and camera you have.

hth,

b

Thank you for the tip..I'll try this technique on my next trip on Maldives next month

I am using a canon a95.

and just yesterday I bought a Sea&sea YS-60D strobe used on ebay at 90$

Now I have to order this adaptor http://www.heinrichsweikamp.net/blitz/indexe.htm

I know that my equipment is not very professional but I am a real beginner and for me is enough.

I have to learn a lot but this place seems the right place ;-)

Thank you

Andrea

Hi Andrea,

beside general recommendations it's worth to have a look how to apply those settings to your A95 camera.

One thing to point out: When you switch your camera into "M" mode, allowing manual dial in of fastest shutter speed and smallest aperture, you don't have automatic flash exposure (TTL metering) available anymore. This means you have to select the flash power manually. That's not bad at all. Unfortunately the Sea&Sea ys-60 has only two power settings: full and half power (you wrote YS-60D? I assume it’s the YS-60?). So it might be impossible to meet the required light output as you can't reduce strobe power further than half power.

However, when shooting in M mode in order to get a black background, I would start with the following settings on your A95:

- You have a choice of ISO Auto, 50, 100, 200 and 400. Set ISO to 50 in the camera menu.

- Select “M†mode

- Select aperture f8 (I think that’s the smallest aperture, meaning greatest f number available)

- Set Sync speed to 1/500s

- In the camera menu: select the weakest strobe power level. Your internal strobe will only be used as a trigger signal for the external strobe

- Start with half power selected on the ys-60

If you suffer from overexposed pictures because half power is still too much light, try using “Av†mode:

- ISO 50 (always)

- Select Av mode

- Select smallest aperture (f8)

- Select “TTL†on your external YS-60

In this mode you have full automatic strobe control (TTL). The camera sets shutter speed automatically within the strobe’s working range (1/60 to 1/500) according ambient light but not below 1/60. To keep the ambient light down, select the following:

- Select exposure compensation “-2†in the menu (named “Exp.â€).

I know this is a lot of data for a beginner But maybe it is worth to go thru the settings in order to get the most possible dark background with your camera. If you have time, I would tryout those settings topside before your next trip in order to find out how to deal with them. I hope this helps

By the way, really nice photo. it really doesn't look like a typical beginner's one.

Julian

Great advice in this thread guys!

Andrea - welcome to Wetpixel - your english is excellent - keep it up.

Another tip for shootin macro is not to point your strobe straight ahead. If you do that you will light up the subject, but also lots of stuff behind the subject that you don't want to see.

Instead, move your strobe over to the side of the subject, pointing it sideways.

Here's an example of when I did that:

It lit up the subject and a little bit of the hydrocoral in the background, but you can't see the sand and muck behind there.

Cheers

James

Wow Thanks a lot at all of for all the info you are giving me.

Jolly-

Yes the strobo is a YS60/S .

thank you very much for your very exhaustive post.

I don't know if I am doing right but I set exposure compensation often at -1 -2.

I think is easier rise luminosity in a quite dark photo in postprocessing then the contrary.

-James

Great photo!!

I saw it only now 'cos You posted while I was writing my previous message. Thank you for the tips

Andrea

James is right. One of the best things you can do it to play with strobe angle. Here is a shot I took during the day in black sand. I shot it at f51 @60th (for good DOF) with only a spot of light hitting the subject, strobes actually pointing outward.

Joe

how can you shoot at f50, most (well at least my) lenses go to f22 or f32 only.

Just wondering (you had also some spare shutter time at 1/60)

Tx

Gerard

It's what happens when you get to maximum magnification with a 60mm on a digital camera. This is a tiny frog fish, about the size of a penny. I am fully magnified. The EXIF data shows F51 using a 60mm focla length.

Joe

Thanks, I did a fast check in the Handbook (Couet), i forgot that the marks on the lens aren't the same as the actual f-stop with macro lenses. Nice that EXIF data show this, with slides you can only guess :-(