Blacking out background??

[SaraJane]

Been taking some shots in front of a black sheet but you can still see the creases etc in the sheet. I'm sure you all know what I mean.

Anyways, what's the best way to get it just solid black?? I think I'm doing things the hard way, lol.

[CaptainNH]

You can do a few things to help:

Keep as much light as you can off the sheet - use a sheet of card to block the light.
Use spot metering to expose for the skin, this will usually send the background black. Upping the lighting on the skin will help with this.
Put some more distance between your subject and the background - this will tend to throw the background out of focus so you can't see the wrinkles.

In post-processing, try increasing the black point slightly, this will send any remaining grey bits to black.

Here's my version, using that technique.....

[J. r. Weems]

I use a black cloth that was included with a light box I bought. Here is a example of that attempt. Too much light WILL show dust etc.


I have also used a black foam core board: Here is a sample of that taken out of doors.

[SusanH1970]

I shot this one outdoors - had my backdrop stand up with a black sheet. I had the same issues - the sheet looked splotchy and you could still see the wrinkles. So, in post processing, I used the paint bucket tool set to black and it worked like a charm. Hope this helps!

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by CaptainNH

In post-processing, try increasing the black point slightly, this will send any remaining grey bits to black.

That's also a good technique - but it's also a good idea to do it on a duplicate layer and then erase the subject back in so the levels tweak doesn't affect the exposure of the subject.

[teaking]

Just wanted to add to an interesting thread, you can use the heal brush quite well to remove wrinkles in cloth and you can also duplicate the image blur a copy untill the wrinkles have gone and then use a layer mask and pain the areas through on the blurred image to remove wrinkles.

What a great thread

[SaraJane]

Thanks alot guys!! Lots of good tips there!