How To Achieve Black Background Without Using One

Chroma key black backdrops are considered to be the best ones for shooting portraits. They not only enhance the look of your subject but also add a lot of drama to your work. Being a photographer, you are always required to carry your equipments but chances are there that you may not have them, especially the black backdrop, when the shoot is unplanned. Here is a technique that will help you to block the back light of the subject thereby creating an invisible backdrop for your pictures.

• Put your camera into manual mode so that you can have complete control over its shutter speed, aperture, ISO, etc.
• Decrease your camera’s ISO to its lowest possible limit, probably 200. The lower the ISO, the less sensitive the camera’s sensor will be towards light. Such setting will give you minimum grain or noise.
• Set your camera to its maximum sync speed at which your camera and flash can work together. The optimum speed can be around 1/200^th or 1/250^th of a second. The faster the shutter speed, the lesser will be amount of flash light entering your camera’s sensor.
• Set your aperture to f/5.6 and click a picture to see how it looks. If you get a completely black picture, the settings are accurate, however, if you can still see some part of the surroundings, change your aperture setting to a little lower i.e. f/8.0.
• Now since your invisible Chroma key black backdrop is ready, position your flash as per your wish. Pick a power level of ¼ and click your pictures. You will be amazed to see the results.

This technique is extremely helpful to click dramatic pictures and portraits. Although it sounds simple, you would need a lot of experimentation and practice before you come up with the perfect piece.