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Category: New Answers

Photography Question 

Kevin Anderson 		 

Studio photography


Is Black velvet a good choice for using behind shooting still life?
will it appear Black or Brownish.


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August 10, 2005

 

Michael H. Cothran 		  Velvet has one of the highest light absorbancy (sp?) rates of any material. Black will only turn brown if your color balance is way off, or, for example, if you are shooting daylight film with incandescent lights.
You should obtain a good black otherwise.

Two words of caution about velvet - 1. It seems to be a magnet to lint. And lint will be very visible in your image. 2. If your lighting is too close to the velvet, you WILL pick up the texture of the cloth in your image, whether you want it or not.

Outside of that, velvet makes a fine choice for textureless black, or even for deeply saturated colors.
While you're at the fabric store, buy some satin also in black, and maybe some different colors. It has a beautiful surface texture that will reflect different amounts of color yielding some very nice backgrounds. It adds more depth (in my opinion) than velvet. Velvet, if used properly, will yield a black "abyss" whereas satin will provide the black background, but with visible depth. They're both fun.
Good luck
Michael H. Cothran
www.mhcphoto.net


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August 10, 2005

 

Debby A. Tabb 		 
 
 
Michael, is right about your choices- I my self prefer satins, but am posting one useing felt- felt has the same lint problem as velvet.
but when it comes to this size of backdro it of course was much cheaper.
(note type of shot takes 2-3 sides of felt, making a type of black box)
also, if you have to much light on your black , you will get a brownish to greyish look in stead of the deep black.
hope this helps,
Debby


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August 10, 2005

 

Kevin Anderson 		  Thank you sooo much for your advise.
It gives me something to think about.
I've been trying to photograph still life using flood lamps that was purchased at Home Depot and black construction paper from the local art supply store. I was trying to keep the expense down. Did I go in the wrong direction? :(


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August 10, 2005

 
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