Challenge to any and all members

[theantiquetiger]

I challenge anyone to do the invisible black background portrait.

I guess you could use a flash light if you don't have an umbrella.

As seen here in this link http://www.photography.ca/Forums/photo-tips-tricks/23073-invisible-black-background-portraits.html

[Runmonty]

A (very) quick self portrait tonight.

The background was closed curtains. I did have the room lights off, but it was still daylight outside when the shot was taken, so the room wasn't real dark. I chose to use direct off camera flash. As I was shooting inside I was getting bouncing of the light, so by using harsh direct light from left and behind I managed to eliminate lighting up the background. I did have to change to a black T shirt as my lighter shirt was too bright.

Only processing was to crop, B & W conversion, slight contrast adjustment and sharpen.

20117

[Marko]

I'm in - but it may take me at least a week or 2.

[theantiquetiger]

Here is mine. Taken outside about 2:30 pm, cloudy

Hard to do with timer, making sure focus is correct, etc.

Didn't realize the sun was reflecting off my gray hair until I uploaded it.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7417/16562725132_03e6e8e686_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/reAi9q)challenge (https://flic.kr/p/reAi9q) by Theantiquetiger (https://www.flickr.com/people/68094784@N03/), on Flickr

[Runmonty]

Nice one - at least your model smiled. It is tough to get the focus right when you are running to the spot waiting for the self timer

[asnow]

Well done guys. I really like these.

[klaesser]

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1464/25197181746_c43d208785_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/EoA9h3)

[Moghrion]

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa248/Moghrion/Moghrion001/07_41_zpsmafw34yw.jpg (http://s196.photobucket.com/user/Moghrion/media/Moghrion001/07_41_zpsmafw34yw.jpg.html)

[Shinnen]

I love these. How is normally done?
(I have no equipment.)
..... john

[Runmonty]

I love these. How is normally done?
(I have no equipment.)
..... john

John. there is a link in the very first post in this thread describing the technique.

[Risacher]

My avatar or whatever the little picture there is called these days, is one of these done using sunlight through the window, so don't let anyone tell you you need even a flash to get this done! Here it is bigger, sure you can see the background a tiny bit if you turn up the brightness... :clown:

20719

[Shinnen]

Hi,
Thanks for the link. Just to make sure I have the concept right here. The initial shot(s) are to find the conditions under which one gets a black screen. My camera only goes to F8, so I used an ND filter at 1/250 to darken it. Would a shorter exposure time also do the trick? The umbrella flash combo it to highlight the profile? Why a flash? Why not just a light?
That should do for starters.
Thanks,
....... john

[Risacher]

You could use a light, you need it to be direct and fairly bright so that you don't end up lightening the background. Shortening the exposure time will increase the amount of light you'll need to illuminate your subject. Use a low ISO value along with your F8 and ND. Basically the aperture controls the black background, while the shutter speed controls the light on your subject (ie: flash, flashlight, streak of sunshine, etc.) The only real reason to use a flash and umbrella is to give more control over the entire situation, which also makes it easier to do.

Play around, and if you can't get it to work out in the sunshine, do it at night!

[Shinnen]

Thanks Risacher,
I will give those a try, and post the results.
... john

[Shinnen]

Thanks Risacher,
I will give those a try, and post the results.
... john

Hi,
Here's my first attempt. (My beautiful grand-daughter is my model.) I jury-rigged my ring flash (with an extension) so that I could place it anywhere in the room. I see that my picture does not have the nice skin colour as yours. Is that because of the flash? I'd appreciate any suggestions you might have for improvement.
Thanks,
...... john

20725

[Iguanasan]

That's a good entry into the challenge... I'm going to have to do one of these. :)

The skin tones are likely a factor of white balance. I'm not sure of the technical portions of your set up but if you are photographing in RAW format and using Lightroom as many people do then you can use the white balance slider and adjust a little further down towards the warmer side of things (yellow). You should find that helps.

[Shinnen]

No, the raw and the jpg have the same colour. Oddly, one of the pictures, just before this one, showed good skin tones, but it was a full side-face exposure. The other odd thing is that changing the saturation did absolutely nothing. Maybe something to do with reflection? Could the ND filter have changed something?
Thanks,
.... john

[Risacher]

I agree it looks like the wrong white balance. What Iguanasan was saying about the RAW is if you have the RAW you can change the white balance to whatever you like with a photo editing software, such as Lightroom. My guess is you need to set it to flash. If the previous photo has good white balance but not this one, it is probably because the camera is set for automatic white balance, and it happened to get it wrong for some reason.

It's a really good start though! If all fails for getting the colour you want, converting to black and white hides every white balance issue.

[Shinnen]

Hi Risacher,
"Play around, and if you can't get it to work out in the sunshine, do it at night!" Right, well, that has turned out to be an entirely different kettle of fish. I have an odd issue with doing it at night; and that is that my flash refuses to fire, unless there is some light. I've never tried shooting in complete darkness before. Is this normal behaviour for digital cameras? I'm using a Lumix FZ150.
Thanks,
...... john

[Marko]

There should a control somewhere in your camera menu to boss the flash around. (Some common choices in other cameras are Always fire, never fire, fire automatically.)

[Shinnen]

Hi Marko,
Yes, you're right, there is a force flash option, which is what I've been using; but after some experimentation I've discovered that the the problem is the ring flash. (That's what I've been trying to use because it allows me to place the flash anywhere, within about 15 feet. The camera flash will always fire using the force flash option.) The ring flash is an old lomography flash that only has one connector to the hot shoe, so I'm guessing that it's not receiving an instruction from the camera under low light conditions. Maybe someone here knows more about it.
By the way. Is there a way of making my speedlight a remote flash? That would be much better.
..... john

[Iguanasan]

Hi Marko,
Yes, you're right, there is a force flash option, which is what I've been using; but after some experimentation I've discovered that the the problem is the ring flash. (That's what I've been trying to use because it allows me to place the flash anywhere, within about 15 feet. The camera flash will always fire using the force flash option.) The ring flash is an old lomography flash that only has one connector to the hot shoe, so I'm guessing that it's not receiving an instruction from the camera under low light conditions. Maybe someone here knows more about it.
By the way. Is there a way of making my speedlight a remote flash? That would be much better.
..... john

Depending on whether you are Canon or Nikon or other, find the right Yongnuo Triggers for your camera and you would be good to go to use your speedlight.

Here's the ones I have and they work great!

Yongnuo RF 603II RF 603 II Flash Trigger FOR Canon 550D 500D 450D 400D 350D 300D | eBay (http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Yongnuo-RF-603II-RF-603-II-Flash-Trigger-for-Canon-550D-500D-450D-400D-350D-300D-/151192323051?hash=item2333c3c3eb:g:qjoAAOxyUrZSsoi Y)

[Shinnen]

Good. Thanks. I'll look into that.
..... john