shadow picture taking

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I am interested in taking black ans white pictures of human faces and hands and armsn ly...where the background is totally black and only certain features such as faces, fingers, necks etc are visible...Any help with conditions, light, f/stops, speed, film type, flash , etc will be greatly appreciated... thanx in advanced for your cooperation...

-- Felix Rizo (cokoliso@aol.com), January 24, 1998

Answers

One way of accomplishing this is dependent on your lighting and metering. You will need to prevent the light from hitting that part of the image that you want in darkness, and meter for the highlights. Using this method, only the highlights will be properly exposed, while throwing everything else into darkness.

Another way is to" burn in" those areas that you want black.

-- Harold Todman (harold_todman@dmr.ca), January 28, 1998.


The further away your subject is from the background, the darker the background will be, as long as you dont have any lights directed on it.

The smaller the area of your light source, the contrastier it will be. Dont use an umbrella or soft box for this job.

-- Tony Brent (ajbrent@mich.com), September 22, 1998.


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