Category: #conservatory

Experimenting with backgrounds: using black ‘muslin’

I often have odd ideas that I like to experiment with. This set of photos is using a black muslin-like material as a backdrop that allows an impression of the view behind.

These were all taken in our conservatory using my wife’s flowering plants forming the subject and other plants for the background. I also include some of the set-ups to give context to the images:

Example 1: Potted flowers with the background showing some detail. Taken at f8.
Set-up for 1: This shows the setup for the above example
Example 2: Close-up view of the potted flowers with the background showing some detail. Taken at f16.
Set-up for 2: This shows the setup for the second example.

Below I show the background without any subject, just to get a better feel for what is happening:

Example 3: Just the background focussing on the material. Taken at f4.
Example 4: Just the background focussing through the material to the plants behind. Taken at f4.

I think this technique has potential but I need to experiment more…