shooting a black background with Macro!?

[BLUESEASONBALI]

can anyone help out by suggesting techniques for creating a black background using strobe positioning etc for when shooting macro photography?

any help would be great!

 

[Maddog59]

can anyone help out by suggesting techniques for creating a black background using strobe positioning etc for when shooting macro photography?

any help would be great!

The easiest way to do this is to select a higher shutter speed and larger apeture, this allows your external flash to overide the ambiant light. I shoot at 1/250 sec and acheive the black background I require. Sometime you might need to increase the ISO speed to compensate for the lack of light being allowed into the camera lens. I tend to shoot with very low ISO when ever possible (80 -100) when I'm shooting Macro


Peter

 

[AndyT]

Fast shutter speed, small aperture (large f number). Also try to have open water as your background. I saw an article somewhere on the web on strobe positioning, will try to find it later for you.

What camera are you using?

 

[AndyT]

Ok, here's one underwater strobe positions|Underwater Photography Guide

Thanks to Scott (a member here) for the abovementioned resource.

There is something on strobe positioning at the bottom of the article.

 

[AndyT]

More info Super Macro Underwater Photography - The Definitive Guide, Part 3 :: DivePhotoGuide.com - The Underwater Photo & Video Portal

 

[trossphoto]

Hi,
I don't know what type of housing you shoot with, but generally speaking, during daylight, I try to shoot at f22-45 to make everything black. Then I put the stobe(s) at an angle that just clears the lens to avoid backscatter. Then get as close as you can, sometimes only afew inches if the fish will let you. If you want to see a pretty good example of what I'm talking about, the opening page of my website has a cowfish with a black background. terrencerossphotography.com There's also a nudibranch, and an octopus that I did using the same technique. The nudibranch was at 8:00 in the morning with bright sunlight.

 

[randini]

Think of it like depth of field: the smaller the aperture and the slower the shutter the more background light gets in through the lens. In macro that means the lighter the background.

For a darker background, open up the aperture and speed up the shutter as if you're trying to get a shallow DOF.

 

[oly5050user]

AndyT had it right..use highest # f stop (small aperture) to increase depth of field and increase sharpness and go with a faster shutter speed when using a digital camera to darken background.The faster shutter speed will darken the background as light from strobe does not travel very far. Shoot at a horizontal position so that additional light from the sun does not make background lighter.Do not shoot in downward position as strobe light will reflect background to camera.The strobe will light up foreground and if using ttl will expose it properly without overexposing.Hold strobe 8"-12" away from subject.

 

[bvanant]

Think of it like depth of field: the smaller the aperture and the slower the shutter the more background light gets in through the lens. In macro that means the lighter the background.

For a darker background, open up the aperture and speed up the shutter as if you're trying to get a shallow DOF.

Not quite. Shoot at the fastest shutter speed you can sync with and the smallest aperture that you can to still get your strobe to light the scene. In general, the faster the shutter speed the less ambient light gets in. The smaller the aperture the less ambient light gets in. Shoot upward to clear water, and set your strobe to whatever power you need with the fastest shutter speed you can and use an fstop that you want to inversely control ambient light and depth of field. Meaning, small fStop (higher numbers) means larger DOF and less ambient light.
Bill

 

[jghflash]

With my Oly 5060 and an Inon D180 I can sync at up to 1/750 and get an almost black background. Adjust the aperture against the strobe power you are using. You get a bit less ambient light with the fast shutter but if you are shooting close (<12") it doesn't make much difference. I usually use f5.6 and adjust strobe power as required.