How To Photograph Black Products On A Black Background Easily

Who doesn’t like the royalty of black? Bet it jet, matte, gun, or shiny black, it can add eliteness and sophistication to almost every image.

We use black as it has some feelings to express - dark, serious, mysterious, or as said, royal. But how do you photograph black products on a black background?

It could be a little trickier, however, it can look astounding if you pull it off the right way. Let’s find out how.

5 Tips Are All you Need to Photograph Black On Black

I wouldn’t take much of your time, and I won’t ask you to create some great adjustments to capture that one perfect shot. These 5 main tips are all you need.

Tip #1. Camera settings

The first thing you’ll need to be careful about is your camera settings. You need to aim for a completely black background. However, this can be really tricky.

Here are a few things you need to set for your camera to photograph black products on a black background

• Keep the settings to manual to keep complete control over your tricky shots.

• Set your shutter speed to the highest so that you don’t miss those details and that outline to distinguish your black products on a black background.

• Set your ISO to the lowest level. This reduces the camera’s sensitivity to light.

• Keep your aperture to f/5.6. If you don’t get the dark, black background, set your aperture to f/8.0

Tip #2. Put everything under the exposure

You can use the histogram function on your camera to check if your exposure is dark enough (Go to your playback settings to find this function).

You’ll be seeing a graph. Bring all the pixels to the far left of the graph. This means that the image is enough dark that the background will appear black, the more pixels you get to the left, the darker your background gets.

Tip #3. Throw light on your subject

Photography lighting plays a major role here. Throw a sharp ray of light on your subject so that it unveils all the edges and details of your black products on a black background.

You can play with the lighting and decide from which angle you throw it. More light will mean more highlights on the products. You can use softboxes for small subjects to throw enough and even lighting on your complete product.

The sharpness of your light will decide how well you are separating your black products on a black background.

Tip #4. Use diffuser

As you’ll be throwing the direct light on your product, it may either spread all over or bounce back if your subject is shiny.

Use a diffuse to soften the edges. This beautifully enhances the shape of your product and allows your product to show its distinct presence on the black background.

Tip #5. Use contrasting blacks

Not all blacks are "Black". There come lighter and darker versions of blacks. You can mix and match, and play with these shades of black.

Do not completely go and choose grey as it can ruin the idea to photograph a black product on black background.

Also, keep in mind that there’s nothing like ‘Pure black’. Your camera will still be able to pick up any tiny difference in light.

Bonus Tip!

As I said above, your camera will still pick up some light. This can create some grain and variance in your black product on black background.

To combat this, you can use the help of editing software or hire professional product image retouching services to fix such issues.

Product image editing is highly necessary to achieve the desired result, no matter how well of a photographer you are, Manipulation is something that raw images can’t simply have.

Editing your image will help you achieve the shades you desire, clean your black products on a black background, and improve their overall quality.

Chetan Menaria is Partnership & Collaboration Manager at PixelPhant, an eCommerce & fashion photo editing service provider. PixelPhant edit product images to make them look professional & eCommerce ready.