flowers on a black background

[mastertrinity]

if you look at my flickr you'll notice i shoot alot of flowers on black backgrounds however it requires alot of photoshop work to actually paint the background and its getting on my nerves.

when i put the flower in in front of the background, every metering mode seems to make the background greenish. i suspect its metering on the stem but how do i go about getting the background black?

it doesnt matter if it requires a little PP but as long as its black im happy.

 

[Dark Star]

I use black card. Sometimes underexpose as the camera will try to compensate for the dark areas.

When I process I select the bg and darken carefully - especially makin sure that the edges of the flower/leaves etc don't show unnatural fringing effects, sometimes simply upping the contrast overall will do it as well.

And thats all I do Seems to work for me most times

I did this one last night using that technique

 

[Arkady]

^ Agreed - use a Black card and spot-meter on the flower...

 

[Scotty B]

I use a large box lid which has been lined with black card. The sides of the lid prevent window light from entering leaving it black.

I use spot metering on the flower which works well and shoot RAW.

Have a look at my rose picture on my Flickr page, that was done with the above and I didn't have to adjust the background at all even though I changed the exposure to make the Rose pop.

 

[mastertrinity]

cheers, i use black card already and think its a clever idea to get a pack of multi coloured for all sorts of effects.

i used spot metering but the background still turned out green, so really i should underexpose slightly and then blacken the background slightly in photoshop.

 

[Just Dave]

Agree with John and Scotty, plus dont have your flower to close to the BG say about 5" to 6" away from the BG and try not to let any light spill onto the BG

 

[mastertrinity]

cheers guys, im definitely going to go out today to get some more flowers, and then start shooting again with the tips you've gave me.

p.s. when i get round to it i'll post the results on here too!