Exposure Trickery

[sabrina860]

I read that I can make a background go completely black or white just by how I make my exposure. Im just a little stumped because the site didn't go into much detail on how its done. How is this done?

[jojonac]

I think you need to check out the Flash Photography section in this forum. I dont know of anyway to make a background go black or white without using flashes.

[carl yeomans]

The Inverse Square Law - what it means to Photographers

[candleman]

you can make the background pitch black by horribly under exposing, and blasting the subject with flash.

you can make the background white by flashing the background (a wall for example) with some light and not on the subject.

just an idea

[RichardTaylor]

Here is an example - shot outside on a sunny day.
The background would have been in the shade



Camera Canon EOS 350D Digital
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200) (Maximum synch speed)
Aperture f/29.0 (To kill the ambient lighting (Background by at least 4 stops) Background was beyond the range of the flash at F29.
Focal Length 100 mm
ISO Speed 100 (To allow me to kill most of the ambient lighting.)
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Fired (Off camera to illuminate the subject)
Exposure Program Manual

I probably tweaked curves & levels in Photoshop when PPing the RAW file..

[LeeR]

I would strongly suggest you look into the Zone System. It was developed by Ansel Adams and friends a number of years ago and it will allow you to place tonal values where you want them. If you want an area of an image to be black you simply place it there. Same goes for gray and white. Of course, where you place these values will effect other areas of your image so you have to learn to see in your mind what the final image is likely to look like, but the Zone System will help you do this. Yes, it gets very technical in a hurry, but there are websites that will help you understand the basics without a degree in engineering.

[inkista]

Making the background go black doesn't necessarily require a flash. Just a scene with a really high dynamic range and exposing for what you care about.


Canon 50D. EF 400mm f/5.6L USM. iso 1600. f/5.6. 1/1000s.

[Jonbar18]

Originally Posted by inkista

Making the background go black doesn't necessarily require a flash. Just a scene with a really high dynamic range and exposing for what you care about.

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