How do I fade photos to black?
July 10, 2009 11:52 AM Subscribe
Please help me find photos containing portraits or objects that fade into darkness, then please explain to me how to recreate this technique - in Photoshop or IRL. Example here.
Quick trick:
Place your subject far away from any light sources and walls and turn the shutter speed way up on your camera and turn on the flash. (I do this at parties sometimes.)
posted by gregr at 12:20 PM on July 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
Place your subject far away from any light sources and walls and turn the shutter speed way up on your camera and turn on the flash. (I do this at parties sometimes.)
posted by gregr at 12:20 PM on July 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
Black velvet background and a hard light, preferably with a snoot. Snoots are excellent at taming light and can be made with some black cardboard and duct tape.
posted by JJ86 at 1:40 PM on July 10, 2009
posted by JJ86 at 1:40 PM on July 10, 2009
to shoot:
single directional light on subject
no light on (black velvet) background
subject at least 6-10 feet from background
light can be strong and close as long as there is no light on the background at all
pay attention to direction of light and the shadows that result (try side lighting, or 45 degrees, or front lighting for example)
with any photo that has strong light on subject you can make the photo high enough contrast to simulate this effect, but it won't be as good as shooting it like above in the first place. Or shooting it under less than ideal set ups than above you can still do the same adjustments and make it better.
use curves or levels
curves: take middle of curve and bring it down - play with it a little (moving down and left or down and right) and add more points and move around to get some crazy effects
levels: take black point slider and move right, take white point and move left - play around
posted by smartypantz at 9:35 PM on July 11, 2009
single directional light on subject
no light on (black velvet) background
subject at least 6-10 feet from background
light can be strong and close as long as there is no light on the background at all
pay attention to direction of light and the shadows that result (try side lighting, or 45 degrees, or front lighting for example)
with any photo that has strong light on subject you can make the photo high enough contrast to simulate this effect, but it won't be as good as shooting it like above in the first place. Or shooting it under less than ideal set ups than above you can still do the same adjustments and make it better.
use curves or levels
curves: take middle of curve and bring it down - play with it a little (moving down and left or down and right) and add more points and move around to get some crazy effects
levels: take black point slider and move right, take white point and move left - play around
posted by smartypantz at 9:35 PM on July 11, 2009
It's the combination of flash on the subject, no flash on the background. Either get the flash (not necessarily the camera) very close to the subject, and make sure the subject is far away from the background; or put something between the flash and the background to make sure none of the light hits it. Then use a fast shutter speed to kill the ambient exposure. Practice with a small subject so that you can get the flash in nice and close: this (self link) was taken outside, during the day, with a light-coloured wall in the background, but I was able to get the flash within a couple of inches of the subject which did the job nicely.
posted by primer_dimer at 3:23 AM on July 13, 2009
posted by primer_dimer at 3:23 AM on July 13, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by strangecargo at 11:56 AM on July 10, 2009