Hello, i have a canon 600D, and a tripod, that's all I have. I'm trying to achieve a totally black background given anywhere, as tomorrow I'm helping a friend to do some photoshoot and i wanna try this pitch black background portrait, we will be doing this in his house, at a day time, i've done my research on this particular subject, and given a few tries myself, but I still can't achieve what I want. I tried taking a few shots, and it's either my surrounding is just a fading dark circle of black, and the chair ( which is in the middle and the main focus ) is also kind of black, but still visible. All these is done with my built in flash, and on manual settings, I believe i got the settings correct, since I also play around with it, but I don't know why I still can't achieve the image I want. I heard I need reflective and external flash but I don't think I'll be getting them because tomorrow is just a one time thing. So hope to receive some suggestions and advice from sifus here.

Sample image of what I am trying to achieve with just my dslr and tripod

Just photochop it...

May I know if there is any good video guide on how to achieve a natural black background looking portrait ?

Need faster shutter speed with flash, probably external one. Though I'm not flash expert.

To create a dark background u need high enough shutter speed that not enough lights get in and flash just strong enough to lit the subject but not spill into the background.

This post has been edited by TrialGone: Sep 8 2018, 07:25 PM

1. set your shutter speed to about 1/200 or 1/250 (depends on your external flash sync speed)
2. Set your ISO to lowest possible
3. choose aperture around f/5.6 to f/8
4. set your external flash gun at your preferred lighting angle (you need to play with the flash power yourself)
5. Happy Shooting!!!

The shutter speed can be set lower, depending on the lighting condition. What you want to achieve is a near black image, with the subject's outline barely visible.

This video probably has a better explanation.



This post has been edited by hellojeffo: Sep 13 2018, 11:59 AM

If OP is saying you want to use the pop up flash, then its probably not gonna work.

The reason for the external flash is to flash from an angle and only highlight the subject while not having any light spill onto the background. By using the popup flash, you are flashing subject AND the background, to which the background will show up.

Reflector not needed kua, if wanna budget. pinjam someones external flash?

(I could be wrong, never tried this before, but giving an educated guess)

Technically speaking, you can flash the subject "directly" with high enough shutter speed that the background remains dark. Just that pop up flash by default can only go allow lower shutter speed due to flash synch.

This post has been edited by TrialGone: Oct 4 2018, 04:22 PM

The key is to have a large distance between your subject and the background. that way it's less likely the flash will hit the background. Of course, Photoshop helps a lot here.

I won't say it's impossible but using built-in flash might be difficult. Both your flash and lens are pointing in the same direction, so for sure you'll capture a lit background. Even an external flash mounted on camera would face the same problem. The best choice is to have a light source off to the side of the camera, pointing to your subject, but not the background.

It doesn't have to be a flash. A shaded lamp will do the trick if it's bright enough + you have a fast enough lens.

what you need is to control the light spill...

I have used snoot/softbox add-on to achieve all the above... either self built or bought...

high shutter speed is recommended, and small aperture setting...

go kamdar beli jer black velvet 2-3 meter

Helpful thks

Nice images