Chinese Anemone

[Bo_]

I took a picture of this Chinese Anemone (Anemone hupehensis) in my garden - it is one of the last flowers in this season - its sadly getting colder. This was taken on a bright sun shine in the afternoon. After experimenting a bit with the exposure bias - I got this picture - with a nice black background effect. Could anyone tell me any hints on getting this black background effect?

Any other comments on the picture?

Aperture: f/4.5, shutter speed: 1/2000s and exposure bas: -2 EV.

[RexK_Cozumel]

You mean the black background with out an actual black background? This look can be done using a off camera flash unit. just position it so that it is firing onto your subject 90 degrees from the camera. Use a snoot to control where the light goes and be sure to illuminate only your subject. Then all you have to do is control to power of the flash and your camera settings to expose your subject and underexpose everything else till it goes black.

[weatherwise2]

I like the photos of flowers with a black background. You said you did it with photoshop? Maybe a mask?

[Bo_]

Yes - - sorry - - my question was on how to do it again (but my poor English) - I wanted to know how to get a black background under different conditions.

The picture in question was taken in the late afternoon where the sunshine only hit the flower itself.

In a way - it's like having a large flash unit (cheap but powerful). But I can understand from your explanation that I need an external flash unit. Rex - thanx for your hint - I really appreciate it.

I have thought of using Photoshop - but I think I need a bit of practice to get a nice result (and maybe Photoshop ) Thanx to you Weatherwise2 for the answer and critic.

[Nicole]

I've had some success with getting a black background just by using the built in flash and stopping down the aperture until just the part I wanted was lit up. The result was this:

Aperture: f/6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/500 (the fastest my camera will go when using the flash)

It seemed to work pretty well. One other trick would be to meter so that the flower is properly exposed. If you just expose for the flower, the background would almost certainly be darker. But... I still need to go back and play with the levels slightly to make the background pure black.

[Bo_]

Looks nice - I have to try it myself - hope I can get a similar result with my canon powershot s3is.

Thanx for the hint..

[RexK_Cozumel]

Bo_ you do not need an external flash really.. any light source will do. Basically you are just trying to create a large exposure difference between the background and the subject that way you can set your camera to expose for the subject correctly and then the background becomes very under exposed or completely black. the key to it is to be sure that the light is hitting only your subject and not spilling over to the background which is why I suggested the external flash with a snoot but really any light source will work. perhaps one of those 500W work lights that you can pick up for $20 USD only thing is that you will have to be careful of where the light is going.

The look can also be done in photoshop or any other post processing software really. Just mask out your subject and delete the background. A lot easier than setting up all the lights and what not but some people consider it "cheating"

[jiminyClickit]

Bo_,

Here's another way, which I used before figuring out in-camera solutions:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/223/5...3ec75434_o.jpg

Larger version on Flickr (click photo) is easier to read.

[Nicole]

Originally Posted by jiminyClickit

Here's another way, which I used before figuring out in-camera solutions:

Jim's "patented" bucket method resurfaces

[jiminyClickit]

Nicole,

Still a good idea, especially on windy days. "When all else fails, bucket."