hey guys, i'm still extremely novice but learning constantly.
after shooting more and more, i'm finally starting to get into portraits. I've seen a lot of examples where the background is completely black, successfully isolating the subject.
example,
i've been playing around with attempting something similar, but i can't isolate myself (self portraits) from the background. my light seems to flood over my background as well, making a textured dark gray that i've been unable to photoshop out (messes with the midtones in my face). what am i doing incorrectly?
here's my typical setup so far.
it seems that no matter how parallel my light is to the backdrop, the overall ambience of it is just enough to mess up the effect i'm trying to achieve.
1) use black velvet, it absorbs lots of light.
2) move further from the b/g
3) isolate the light from the b/g with barndoors or flags
4) Angle the light to keep it from the b/g.
5) Use levels in PS to finish the job.
i didn't expect so many replies so quickly. thank you, i appreciate the feedback. i'm going to try some of the techniques later today, i think my problem is that my background was only like 2 feet behind me, so i'm going to move it further back, and work from there.
Use anything you can find to stop the spill. Doesn't have to be a barn door. I have used reflectors at times. You can use poster boards, or flags, or whatever. You just want to block the ambient light. And from the looks of that window, you might consider putting a blanket over it or, over the back half as to stop that ambient spill from happening.
Use anything you can find to stop the spill. Doesn't have to be a barn door. I have used reflectors at times. You can use poster boards, or flags, or whatever. You just want to block the ambient light. And from the looks of that window, you might consider putting a blanket over it or, over the back half as to stop that ambient spill from happening.
thanks for the ideas. BTW the window is covered durring shooting or i can jsut crank up the ab 800s to over power it:P
thanks for the ideas. BTW the window is covered durring shooting or i can jsut crank up the ab 800s to over power it:P
The problem isn't overpowering the ambient light, it is getting rid of it all together so you have a nice clean black background L()L
At Least thats what I thought? 6-;
Yeah, definitely don't want to be adding MORE light to get black backgrounds. The more light you put out the more spill from reflected light you have to deal with. Black is better suited for low-power shooting.
In a perfect world you entire "set" would be surrounded with black (including the ceiling)
thanks for the ideas. BTW the window is covered durring shooting or i can jsut crank up the ab 800s to over power it:P
The problem isn't overpowering the ambient light, it is getting rid of it all together so you have a nice clean black background L()L
At Least thats what I thought? 6-;
Yeah, definitely don't want to be adding MORE light to get black backgrounds. The more light you put out the more spill from reflected light you have to deal with. Black is better suited for low-power shooting.
In a perfect world you entire "set" would be surrounded with black (including the ceiling)
hey guys, i'm still extremely novice but learning constantly.
after shooting more and more, i'm finally starting to get into portraits. I've seen a lot of examples where the background is completely black, successfully isolating the subject.
example,
i've been playing around with attempting something similar, but i can't isolate myself (self portraits) from the background. my light seems to flood over my background as well, making a textured dark gray that i've been unable to photoshop out (messes with the midtones in my face). what am i doing incorrectly?
it seems that no matter how parallel my light is to the backdrop, the overall ambience of it is just enough to mess up the effect i'm trying to achieve.
