quite simple. They are meant to sup-
port the client’s image and the idea
behind her session, not to to be the
focus of the photograph.BACKGROUNDS
Black Backgrounds. For complete
focus on the subject, it’s hard to beat
no background at all. I use black
quite a bit, and the secret to getting
it truly black (not muddy black) is to
keep light off of it. In theory, a back-
ground that receives five to six stops
less light than the subject will appear
black to the camera. Black seamless
paper works well, but it’s still a little
bit reflective, so you have to be care-
ful about stray light. You may want
to eliminate the fill light, since you’re
going for a contrasty look anyway.
Black felt is great at absorbing stray
light, as is velour. Many background
companies offer a light-absorbing
black material as well.
For a variation on the simple black
background, add some smoke from
a fog machine. Then, put a little light
into the smoke to make it show up.
In the image of Vicky (facing page),
we’ve used a strip light directly over-
head and slightly behind Vicky, mak-
ing it both the hair light and the
smoke light.
Next let’s take the smoke and add
some gels to the light(s) to give the
smoke a color we like. Rita and I
wanted to create a Mardi Gras feel to
her portrait (next page), so I built
the background beginning with
black seamless and then applied
smoke from a fog machine. The
background lights were gelled in
vivid purple and orange. A strobe fitted with a 10-degree honeycomb lit
Rita’s face, leaving the fill to light the rest of her supple, barely covered body.
The masks and beads were added to support the theme.STUDIO AND INDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY 59Notice how Brooke’s blond hair and tanned
skin tones jump off the black background.