How to Photograph Dark Subject on a Black Background

3/22/2022 ISO 1200 Magazine 0 Comments

Black on black photography. In this video Tony McMaster takes you step by step through the process of lighting a still life photographic study, using creative lighting to separate a dark subject from a black background.

He will demonstrate how to combine separate images in photoshop to make objects float in a photograph. Everything is covered from the studio lighting using multiple studio flash, through the tethered capture in Capture one software, to the final image in Adobe Photoshop.

So what we are going to do is make a mask that will go in front of the lens, to mask out the majority of the diffusion material, and that mask increases the contrast of one part of the image, which is what we want.

To get the final image, he adds a softbox very close to the diffusion material and as close as we can get to the subject.

To finish and separate the object from the background, we will add a gradient to the background in Photoshop, achieving that impressive look.

Tony will use a Canon DSLR, tethered into Capture one software to show you how to capture your subject from basic image to completed photograph, Profoto D2 studio flash and Canon 24-70mm f2.8 Lens.

Text, image and video via Camera Club Live