How do they do that?

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attackfish21

attackfish21

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 13, 2009
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Seattle, Wa
Ok, so I read the rules of Photo of the month and it says no photo manipulation, But I am in school learning all the ins and outs of photoshop. It is possible, but really hard to tell when a photo has been manipulated, and most of the ones I see with the black backgrounds look to me like they have been manipulated to have that smooth perfect black background.

Again, I am just a student and still learning. I have taken photography classes as well and know about flash and lighting so I am just curious how these photographers are getting such a smooth black background naturally. Tanks I have photo'd in the past with perfect painted black backgrounds don't even turn out that pure black cause the flash reflects off of it even when taking the picture in a completely dark room. I have a Newer cannon rebel xt with some decent lenses, and a good light set up But without Photoshop, I can NEVER get the black to look BLACK.

So, basically I am just curious what is the trick? I want to learn from the masters if this is actually possible, how to pull it off. So many seem to, but I always thought it was photoshop. After reading the rules, it confused me. :confused:

I would like to eventually take good enough pics to submit as well. And it seems as though it is almost always the blacked out photos that win, So I want to do what it takes to have a fighting chance in the competition. LOL

Any tips on what I can do to naturally get this blackest black background in photos, please help!

What equipment do you use? specific lighting? or just a lot of practice? Please be honest! I really want to know!! Or, if it is Photoshop, I would like to know as to not feel so:screwy:

Thanks!
 
the only way ive even come close to pics like the above mentiond was a good light behind or next to the subject and no flash but i think there is some color enhancement and photo shoping going on as the rules state you can do some blacking out you just have to send in a befor and after pic in your submission to be verified there was no radical changes going on.
 
It helps with a wider tank and having the back painted black to start with. That aside, I don't shoot with any flash. Only the tank lights. Having those tank lights at the front of the tank helps to light up the subject without showing the background. Camera settings will also determine how much background is shown. Most cams come with some form of software to at least adjust contrast,sharpness and light levels etc. Often it can be achieved by simply adjusting the brightness and contrast of said pic but the pic needs to be pretty dark in the background to start with. For the record,this is not photo-shopping but simple photographic adjustments. It is considered photo-shopped once you cut and paste or manually change the back ground altogether to acheive a blacked out back ground.
 
I haven't had much experience and I agree with greenterra on this one. I've been experimenting, and when the light is right and the fish has been at the very front of the tank, I've had my blackgrounds turn out black even though it is a metallically blue. It all depends on the lighting. I believe there are some more photos with black backgrounds (one is photoshopped) on my thread "New Oscar" if you want to check it out

Sample of one of the times I lucked out and got a dark background:

IMG_1968.jpg
 
^ what he said...
 
o thats what those settings are for lol. all i got as of now is a cam phone 3.2mp its got a crap tone of settings i guss i just dont experiment enoph with it
 
Modest_Man;3994023; said:
Remote. Overhead. Flash. The light then bounces down and up instead of off the background and back to the lens.
Click to expand...
^
 
Wide aperture, correct exposure, no on-cam flash (side/overhead works, even underneath if it's barebottom), black background.

smallermale.jpg
 
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