Sadly for you I don’t always have someone around to help me test things out, so you get stuck looking at me. I was trying to achieve a pure black shadow on the face with a pure white background, without having to tweak anything in photoshop. In certain conditions this isn’t all that challenging, but if you have been to my studio, you probably realize I have just a little more than the minimum amount of space I need. Because of this, and because I have the walls near my cyc curve painted white, it is hard to not get a lot of bounced light when I shoot something high key. (I am thinking about repainting the walls and ceiling middle gray.) Depending on the monitor you are looking at this image with it may or may not look like there is a pure black in the image, but on a calibrated monitor it is very close, close enough you probably couldn’t tell the difference in the border and the face shadows in print. To achieve this shadow in my studio I have to use a negative or black reflector (reflector seems inappropriate, but I don’t know what else to call it . . . absorber?). I placed a single light with a very very small reflector on the right, and I placed a 6 ft. black reflector just out of frame on the left. The background lights have gobos between them and the subject, but you can see they are being reflected from the highlight on the left of the hat, which is why I am thinking about painting the ceiling. The background is a little over 6 ft. behind the subject.
Couple of random things, before Hud calls me on it, I did convert the image to black and white in photoshop (grayscale evaluation of pure black is easier to me) and I added the full frame border in photoshop (I knew the border is an absolute black giving a good point for comparison).
So, if the shadow isn’t the same as the black of the border, what does that mean? Clearly, my screen isn’t calibrated but I guess what I am wondering is why the black of the border wouldn’t be the same shade as the shadow regardless of the calibration. Like, if one is pure black and the other is pure black how come they don’t appear the same?
And, it hadn’t even occurred to be to call you on either the border or the photoshop thing but thinks for clarifying.
I don’t think I was very clear . . . near the top of the ear should be the only pure black in the shadow. As far as why the pure black wouldn’t be the same . . . good question.
I’m not sure that this is going to be an accurate description but its the only way I can think of to describe the difference. The pure black in the photo seems to be matte while the black of the border seems to be glossy.
Why would you not paint the room totally balck? That way all the light in the room would be deliberate, right? Seems like you could get some great stuff out of a black room, even using a white backdrop.
Would it be better to paint the whole room black? Then any light would be deliberate and more controlled, right?