Having trouble with Black Background

[bookie02]

Hello All, I can't seem to master shooting portraits on a black background, I have tried several other suggestions and none seem to work for me, when I shoot the portrait either the persons skin turns purple or the background itself turns purpleish blue. Can someone help me please

[SusanH1970]

Can you post an example with your EXIF?

[Benji]

Originally Posted by bookie02

Hello All, I can't seem to master shooting portraits on a black background, I have tried several other suggestions and none seem to work for me, when I shoot the portrait either the persons skin turns purple or the background itself turns purpleish blue. Can someone help me please

I suggest shooting in manual, shooting in Raw, shooting a grey card first then in ACR click the white balance eyedropper on the grey card and selects all and you will have perfect white balance.

Purpleish blue blacks usually mean underexposure, are you using a fill light?

Benji

[private]

I was going to ask about your light. When I photograph on a black background, I prefer thatthe light hit my subject and I try to splill over as little as possible. Cuz then, its the fix it in photoshop trick. It could also be the kind of black backgrund you are using - I like the velvet b/c it seems to absorb the light more.

[WooD]

Originally Posted by private

I was going to ask about your light. When I photograph on a black background, I prefer thatthe light hit my subject and I try to splill over as little as possible. Cuz then, its the fix it in photoshop trick. It could also be the kind of black backgrund you are using - I like the velvet b/c it seems to absorb the light more.

+1

I try my best to keep the light off the background. I have a dark blue velor backdrop that if shot right will come out super black.

Back in the day I used king size black sheets. I'm not sure what they were made of, but they reflected light something awful. They would come out black, but had a weird shine to them.

[Life in Motion]

I do not have any lighting equipment yet...so what i've been doing is using a fleece type black from my local fabric store. i've found it to soak up all the light great. you don't want to use any material that will reflect light. i can also use a flash or diffuse my popup flash and it still is black as when i use no flash. i just use it in a nice lightened window area or even outside in the shade and it works great for me so far.

here is an example with what i use...hope this helps! good luck