On Black

I recently purchased some Black Velvet backdrop material. This stuff is amazing. I love it! I'm going to purchase the White next. Absolutely no reflections at all.

The drawback, FUR! With 5 dogs and multiple cats with white or light fur, it was impossible to keep clean. A friend with her Aussie came over Sunday for a photo shoot. She wanted a low key photo of her dog, which turned into an impromptu photo shoot with anybody willing.










And my Favorite!


I was warned that the Aussie does not like other dogs, especially not intact ones. OOPS, somebody forgot to tell the dog that. He and Pooh became best buddies. This shot was right before the two of them decided to do Zoomies in the studio. We took them outside and they had a ball chasing each other and wrestling. The Aussie's owner was amazed; "But, he doesn't play with other dogs"

The rest of the gallery can be found here:
http://www.pennyjwillsphotography.com/Portraits/Low-Key/14968558_Wqc25

We had a great time, and the cats were surprisingly well behaved with a strange dog in the studio.

Hey Penny,

These are great. I particularly like the ones of the mountain dog.

James

Thanks James!

Really nice Penny!

Love the on black... is that Austin? My favorite is the first one, Penny... love the comp !

Thanks Julie!


Hi Lesley,

Thanks! Yes, that is Austin. Getting him to hold still was a challenge. He's never met cats before, and we have 8 at home, and 4 are constant studio kitties, then there were my dogs. He really like Pooh.

These are very nice -- I tend to be partial to low-key and these are lovely use of that technique. I find that dogs that are generally "not good with other dogs" are that way because they feel they need to protect their owner(s). Get them away from the owners and they respond to the dogs in their environment in an entirely different way.

Nice portraits Penny. As for the velvet -- I love the first shoot but keeping it clean after that is almost impossible. If the backdrop is black, the dogs will be tan or lighter; if it's white, they'll be black. It's the rule of lint .

Jim

Thanks Jim,

Isn't that the truth about the lint!

These are really great. Did you have to do any burning around the points where dog meets floor, or is the material really THAT non-reflective?

B&H has a roll of black Vinyl that I'm thinking about getting as a companion to my white Vinyl. It's supposed to be non-reflective too.

How wide have you been able to find the velvet? That's been my biggest setback to DIY backdrops. It's hard to find material wide enough.

Hi Jim,

No, the only Photoshopping I did was to clone out the white fur that would not come up with the lint brush. It truly is that non reflective.

Now a couple of the Marley photos ( the marble kitten), I had forgotten to double check my settings with my light meter, and it was a little washed out, but the whole photo was washed out. A little slide on the exposure setting in ACR fixed it.

It has a very short nap, more like Velour than Velvet, and it is on a Poly canvas backing, so it is not soft, but quite stiff. It rolls up easily though. I purchased it from DMKfoto.com They have black, white, blue, gray and Chroma key Green. I am looking at getting the white and playing some more with my fluffy white dogs. No reflection is wonderful. The largest I found was 9'x12', good for a single dog, or a head shot, but not wide enough for a group. I am thinking of getting another one, and draping over my posing table and letting the first one hang separately.

I love the expressions as well as the black velvet. The duo with Pooh and Austin "meeting" is especially good - love their posture and expressions. The tuxedo cat on black is super - those eyes and his white markings glow!

Cj

Lovely images Penny! I also use black velvet and have found that some of the velvet or velveteen material is more reflective than other types. I rub my hand over the material to see if the nap is reflective.

These are gorgeous, I'd like to get some of this material but definitely would have to use it sparingly, at least probably not typical cat show use.

Diana