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Re: How do I get a true black background?
Old 01-01-2008, 02:58 AM   #4 (permalink)
RobArtLyn
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lvthunder View Post
I have my chair set about 6' away from the background and the light is about 6' away from the chair. ... I'm using a hensel porty light at the lowest power setting it has.
If the light were shining strait at the chair with the backdrop directly behind (no angles), then the distance from light to chair is 6' and the distance from light to backdrop is 12', twice as far. That means the you would get a two stop reduction in light intensity at the background, relative to your subject, no matter what power setting you use. This is still too much light to render black paper truly deep black. You need to either

(a) reduce the amount of light hitting the backdrop relative to the subject by changing the distances/ratios

(b) assuming your light isn't aimed strait ahead, flag it off to a narrower beam so the parts of the backdrop that it does hit are out of the frame

(b) use a backdrop that reflects even less light than black paper, such as black velvet

(d) some combination of above
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