How to get complete pitch black backgrounds ini photos?

9 years 4 months ago #413561 by Marvel Fan
When you are trying to get a completely pitch black background and only have one flash to keep your subject completely lit, what is the best strategy for doing so?  I keep running into light bleeding into the background.  Or my subject half lit.  

Help please.  :thx:


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9 years 4 months ago #413566 by Sawyer
High speed flash sync.  Crank up your shutter speed while using your flash 

Canon 5D Mark II | Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM | Canon 35L | Sigma 85 1.4 | Helios 44M-6 58mm(M42) | Zeiss 50mm 1.4 (C/Y) | Canon 135L | (2) 430EX II
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9 years 4 months ago #413602 by Richard Torble
Shutter speed controls ambient light. Therefore, the faster the shutter speed the less light is being let into the camera and the darker the environment would be.

However as Sawyer touched on, you can often run into a problem when using off camera flash (especially wirelessly) where you are limited to a 'sync speed' of around 1/200sec (camera dependant) which may not be fast enough.

High speed sync may help you but their are some limitations. You could also consider using a ND filter but this would darken the whole frame and your flash would need to be powerful enough to light your subject correctly through the filter.


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9 years 4 months ago #413663 by Joves
Flash with a slow f-stop. Granted it does increase the field, but also lets in less light, so the flash if used correctly will be greater than the ambient light.


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9 years 4 months ago #413821 by Nancy Hait
:goodpost:


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