Black Backgrounds

[Harvey_nikon]

Hi,

Just used my first backdrop and decided to use black.

I was getting the background black with very little overspill on a few, and none on most of them. However, as I was shooting children there was a lot of low down shots including the foreground, which in the flash light is showing as dark grey.

Do you normally leave this or PP it so its all black?

If you PP it, what method is best to use?

 

[JonathanRyan]

TBH I find black harder than white to get right.

You need to keep all possible light off the b/g. If your subject is a "correctly" illuminated, perfectly 18% grey target then your background need to be roughly 4.5 stops darker to render true black. Separation distance will help but key is control of the light.

FWIW I usually light the subject a lot more on black to make sure that stray light hitting the b/g is less significant.