BLACK VINYL BACKGROUNDS - Why not???
Following numerous requests for this product, we try to explain below why at present (Feb 2008) Studio Decor believe that black vinyl is not the choice if you are seeking to achieve a rich deep black background in your images.
However, many will recall our stout resistance to the wrinkle free muslin myth, recently overcome by Denny FREEDOM CLOTH, and we are happy to look at any black vinyl products with a view to recommending them should we believe them to offer a good solution to the black background problem
1) HIGH KEY PHOTOGRAPHY WITH WHITE VINYL
If you set your lighting correctly for your subject, but do not light your white background at all... What happens?
In the resulting image, your subject appears correctly exposed, but your background appears a dirty grey or brownish colour, hence the need for background lighting to get the RGB Values of the pixels in the background area (in a digital image! ) as close to 255,255,255 as possible.
If you do not understand why additional light is needed to achieve a good white background, research the Inverse Square Law.
2) CREATING A BLACK BACKGROUND
Conversely, creating a truly black background relies on getting rid of all the light behind the subject to get the RGB values of the appropriate pixels as close to 0,0,0 as possible: In practice, anything below about 25,25,25 will still appear as a good deep black.
Let us again have a correctly lit subject but this time in front of a black background. What happens to any light that does not strike the subject?
It passes the subject, and strikes the background - but as the distance from the subject increases its density decreases, but a significant quantity of light will still strike the background.
This light needs to be absorbed - but vinyl is not very light absorbent - in fact most are mildly reflective, and so the black areas in resulting images will struggle to attain low enough RGB values (digitally speaking!) to give a deep black, resulting in dark - or even light - grey backgrounds in many images.
In many studios there is also the problem of ambient light which will further add to the problem where a non-absorbent black background is involved - and remember that this light will be impacting on the background for the whole exposure time, not just for the relatively short duration of the flash.
SO....IF you are wishing to use a black vinyl background...
1) Ensure the product you select has a good matt finish (We havent see one to date that we would consider practical to use as a studio background)
2) Set your subject as far as possible off the background - which brings its own problems in terms of space, framing of the shot etc etc....
3) Restrict ambient light as far as possible...how??
Try Blackout curtains.... which coincidentally are extremely light absorbent.... and make ideal black backgrounds....
This image was shot against a black heavy cotton drill curtain background - please see Studio Decor Catalogue no 314 for further information - Link HERE
Other black background options are paper, or painted canvas, both of which are available from Studio Decor.
This image, shot by Dee Nguyen, uses a carefully controlled honeycombed light onto a black paper background, and you can see how as the intensity of the light falls off from the centre it leaves a grey gradient before finally lapsing into true black.
