Best Black Velvet Backdrop Material
 

Hello again OB. I'm starting to work on a little home orchid photobooth, and I'm wondering what the best type of backdrop is. I've read black velvet is ideal from various sources, but I'm surprised to find numerous different types. Varying levels of rayon fabric, "silk velvet," crushed velvet... this list goes on.
Anyone have a good recommendation, or would most anything work. Thanks everyone. Really looking to get a good pick in for the calendar contest.

The background question is a tricky one, with more opinions than photographers. So expect a variety of replies from the black aficionados to the black despisers.
I like black as it is a neutral "color" not competing with the object, and if you think about matching prints down the road, black (or also white) makes life much easier.
Re velvet, the idea is to have a very dark, but unstructured background. Velvet is somewhat shiny, so on occasions one can get problems with local reflections. A strategically placed gobo usually solves the issue.
I have not looked into different kinds of velvet, except for crushed, which has a macroscopic patterning, so should be avoided for the standard, featureless background.

I would not worry too much about the particular kind.

I don't have velvet in my set-up, but rather use a woven dull fabric with slightly lower D-max. This has nothing to do with painstaking experimentation, but with what I have lying around the house. By placing the plant well in front of the background I can avoid any visible patterning on the photo. Second, as I frequently use flash, the light fall-off from subject to background (remember inverse square law) provides plenty of darkening.

My elaborate photobooth is a wood cutting board with black cloth tucked over it, and standing on the kitchen counter, leaning against a hanging cabinet. I use a 5DmkII/RRS L-bracket with Zeiss glass, on a gitzo CF tripod with Linhof Profi II ballhead plus Arca QR. My usual reflector is either a cookie sheet or a white piece of cardboard. I do have a couple of lite-discs 5-in-1. So I use top-notch stuff where it makes a difference, but for other aspects, cheap and easy works just as well. I mainly shoot close-ups (1:5-1:2) to macro (1:1 to 5:1), so background questions are more forgiving. Depending on size of plants you want to photograph, consider also the option of seamless paper.

I don't know what velvet trop is seeing, but mine is anything but shiny!

The idea is to have a uniform, shadow-absorbing background, so use the plain (not crushed) velvet with the deepest nap.

Don't forget, however, that a deep black background can lead to overexposure of the subject, especially if it is small, showing lots of background. Lots of light and/or spot-metering will overcome that.

i use a dark red/maroon velvet. but only because i had it laying around. my main setup is this. -

i have a white walled room so i get good bouncing of flashes. i have the piece of dark red velvet hanging on the mirror on my dresser. and i set up my sb-600 on a tripod shooting at the wall directly across from the backdrop, and pointed slightly towards the ceiling. and i shoot by hand with my d90 using a 50mm prime at around f 2.2.

the trick is to have the subject distanced from the backdrop, so the focus and most of the light ( hopefully ) will be directed on the subject instead of the background.

i dont get reflections from my velvet either.

Re reflection, it is certainly not like flashing in a mirror. Take a flashlight, and shine on the velvet at different angles. Then notice the change in the amount of light absorbed/reflected, which I would estimate at about 1/2 f-stop. That's all. That effect is less pronounced with matt fabrics or paper.

I do knotice highlights in my backdrop it it's wrinkled. But I just assumed that was because the wrinkles got pines closer to the flash



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