We had a comment on one of our videos, from a Mr Ian rutter,
who said how can I make a portrait a moody black background portrait
without a black background cloth,
Ian, stop being so tight go and buy some black cloth a bit of black velvet.
But i'm only joking, there is another way.
Notice where i'm standing here, there's a doorway
and look its pretty much black inside there isn't it.
To my eyes it's not black,
I can see all the way in there to the back of the hall way
so one of the Foundation's, one of the building blocks of photography
and you'll understand that your camera sees light completely differently to the way your eyes
see light but Mike i hear your cry,
I can see some sort of a detailed in that doorway I can see this thing
just here, there's a white thing here isn't there.
What is that white thing? well it's the post at the end of the stairs
but I can see every detail in there but in your
camera in you watching me in the film, you really can't so much.
why is that well the light out here is many times brighter
and the light in there and so as the light is falling off
the camera can't cope our brains create a image in our heads
of everything that we see
but the camera really any has one bite of that cherry, and so the light is falling
away.
now when we go inside you'll start to notice
it's gonna get dark for a moment, the exposure changes
to keep pace with me. You see we've got like
white walls, you now can see the back of the hall way a bit,
but the back of the hall way is really quite dark isn't it? That's because from here
in the doorway
light is falling off as I kinda come down through here,
it's falling away and getting darker and darker and darker as we come to the back
even though the video camera is now at it's widest aperture, you can hardly see me.
right let's put into practice let's shoot a portrait
so ladies and gentlemen please welcome the awesome Abbie Hills
once again.
so Abbie we're gonna do another one of your splendid head shots she's got long hair
since last time. I keep looking up here into the monitor instead of here in the
lens because I can't actually see the lens properly.
Right let's go back outside now folks, and shoot
a bit of a portrait so we can see how this actually works, did you see how the light
change then as we kinda came outside
I'm glancing at the monitor on the video camera as we're doing it because then I can
see what you can see and then I can comment
I'm not ignoring you and avoiding eye contact. Right the important thing to think
about
is we need to isolate stuff so if we're gonna have Abbie
against the dark background you can kinda see at the moment I'm against the dark background
and so is Abbie, we wanna lose these door frames here. Abbie could you go to one side just for a tick thank you.
We wanna lose these door frames here because
they're not gonna look so good in the shot, we wanna isolate what's going on in the
background
so a longer focal length because it has a narrower field of view
means that we'll be able to do that and choose what's in the hall way
as our background. What about that white post
there at the bottom of the stairs, well it's really simple
come with me just a tick.
That could interfere with our shot,
this down here could interfere with our shot because it is quite bright and it is quite close to
the light source which is the doorway.
How about just getting a coat a dark coloured coat and just hang it over the
end of the stairs.
You know, think. Use your brain box. Let's go back out Lorna.
You think use your brain box, your brain block.
your brain is the foundation of all your photography. Think about things,
don't just do it and go why didn't it work? question it. Think about it.
Abbie, my lovely Abbie, woop about there. Now all we've gotta do is line abbie up so
she's in the middle of the doorway.
not to one side.
By playing with the focal length as we do the shot
and start to isolate Abbie within the door frame
so like if I had my focal length a little bit short
and also let's say the camera that way up, landscape way up
well that's not gonna work very well is it because we've got the
door frame there. So turn the camera the other way, make
it suit the shape, extend the focal length
and that's cool Abby now the first thing that's going to happen because abby is
wearing
a black jacket against a black background as the cameras gonna try make
that grey and it's made her face
much too bright so underexpose.
I'm under exposing by 1.3 stops
so that her face is correct but the black-on-black
kinda works look at that.
it's really great working with you abbie because you're such a moody cow
I made her laugh haha. But anyway okay.
moving on, another moody one, cool, that black on black look
and something which has worked really well over here guys is
abby is wearing black on black but the shininess of the leather
is picking up some of the light out here and it's giving little glisters of
sparkles.
she's against a totally black background, see how easy that was.
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