When it comes to photography, sometimes we don't have a roll of black paper. In this video from The Creative Contrast, they show us two and a half ways to get an invisible black backdrop with both natural light and strobes.
Invisible black backgrounds are fantastic for many reasons. Sometimes it just looks nice, but they can also make things like compositing easier, or wanting to add text, or even make a poster. The ability to make invisible-black is an integral tool to photographers. However, not everyone has black paper (which is much less useful than white paper), or a black wall. Many of us just have the walls that are there by default, or our V-flats. This video helps show a couple of different ways to achieve this look with a couple of different methods.
The point made about how lighting is all relative is great; As long as you can control your light and make it a lot brighter than the ambient, you can likely get invisible black, no matter the color of your wall. And when using lighting modifiers like the Rogue Flashbender, you can even use really small spaces to ensure no light is reaching the wall.
What do you think of the video? I'd love to see shots you've done with invisible black backdrops you've made in the comments.
One of the key mathematical principles is incorrectly stated.
By doubling the distance, you have 1/4 of the light. As the function is (as the name says) a square function. intensity = 1 / distance ^ 2
Yes in fact a very misleading statement. I wish the author would make a correction in the article.
Totally agree. They need to go back and re-read that math stuff. In addition, the inverse square law doesn't affect gravity, It mathematically describes how the mutual attraction of two bodies is affected as the distance between them changes. They need a science advisor onset! (lol)