Cheap black background ?

Hertsman

Hertsman

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Mark
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I'm looking for a smallish black ,non reflective background.

Ideally about four feet square ,should store easily as well.

Any recommendations please?
 
Cheap? Black material stapled onto a piece of cardboard and stored flat under a bed?
 
Go to your local market/dunelm milll and have a look? Depends if you want it to have a texture or not. Could use velvet, cotton. Or go to a vinyl/sign writters shop and see if they've got some not reflective black vinyl and use that? Depending on what you're doing would matt back paint do the trick or stucco?
 
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You could even probably get a black, blackout roller blind in that size?
 
Shoot at night :) the background is dark and totally free.......................:exit:
 
On a more serious side, why not trawl the charity shops for an old pair of black/dark velvet type curtain.(y)
 
Welshman, dunelm isn't a bad shout either.


I may even try black card.
 
Hertsman said:
Badoom tish!

Not a bad shout in charity shops tho....
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Thanks, you have to balance silly advice with good, it's the Ying and Yang of posting on TP.:LOL::LOL:
 
Mrs h has grabbed some card from hobby craft for me,so will try that and report back.

A3 sized for £3..
 
One of the best black backgrounds is the open door to an unlit room.
Used by many of the best for ages.
... and it is free.
Even a white sheet is black when unlit. The brightness range between a lit subject and the unlit doorway can produce excellent blacks.
 
Why do you need a black background? Black is just a lack of light. Set your camera to ISO 100, f16, 1/160 and almost any background is black, Then add light where it's needed.
 
st599 said:
Why do you need a black background? Black is just a lack of light. Set your camera to ISO 100, f16, 1/160 and almost any background is black, Then add light where it's needed.
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Will you not get diffraction at f16?
 
st599 said:
Why do you need a black background? Black is just a lack of light. Set your camera to ISO 100, f16, 1/160 and almost any background is black, Then add light where it's needed.
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Except he only needs a small one, which indicates small subjects, which would make a proper headache to get the ISL to black out the background.

He should be thinking pedestal though.
 
juggler said:
I've used a 5 in 1 reflector on occasion, as in the image below. Certainly stores easily and has myriad other uses. If you want totally black then velvet is much better than card so long as you can keep it from getting creased.



Self by balancer100, on Flickr
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Sorry for the thread hijack. But how did you do that shot....(I'm a complete noob but just got 3 cheap flash heads..Oh and a SB-900)
 
Forget to report sorry!

I jigged up some supports for the card and bought some bulldog clips - it worked really well and I will be using again.

Result:
lily2 by mark_p99, on Flickr
 
mattyg said:
Sorry for the thread hijack. But how did you do that shot....(I'm a complete noob but just got 3 cheap flash heads..Oh and a SB-900)
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mattyg, sorry, missed your reply. I propped the 40 inch 5 in 1 reflector, black side out, on a sofa behind me - I was sat on a dining chair. It was lit by a single Yongnuo 560III in a 24" popup softbox with grid, about 2ft back from my position behind and 4ft slightly behind me, feathered back and upwards to get the light how I wanted it. Triggered using 3 Aputure Trigmaster modules - one transmitter to serve as a remote, one transceiver on the camera and receiver on the flash. The camera was about 3 feet away from me.

Then I processed it in Silver Efex Pro and extended the background in Photoshop.

I actually took a phone shot of the setup, please excuse the mess:
 
juggler said:
mattyg, sorry, missed your reply. I propped the 40 inch 5 in 1 reflector, black side out, on a sofa behind me - I was sat on a dining chair. It was lit by a single Yongnuo 560III in a 24" popup softbox with grid, about 2ft back from my position behind and 4ft slightly behind me, feathered back and upwards to get the light how I wanted it. Triggered using 3 Aputure Trigmaster modules - one transmitter to serve as a remote, one transceiver on the camera and receiver on the flash. The camera was about 3 feet away from me.

Then I processed it in Silver Efex Pro and extended the background in Photoshop.

I actually took a phone shot of the setup, please excuse the mess:
Click to expand...


Possibly another silly question but did you have that much light when you took the shot. I've not yet experimented with my flash heads
 
Thanks. I think I'll give it a try as soon as I can get a free half hour or so
 
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