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How to Expose a Photo With a Black Background

Solid black or white backgrounds can be confusing to cameras that want to meter the photograph to properly expose the entire scene. When a camera is faced with an all-white or all-black background, it tends to overexpose or underexpose the shot to compensate. If you will be photographing an object on a black background and wish to keep the background black, prepare in advance for good results.

Instructions

- 1
  Choose spot metering mode on your camera. This tells the camera to meter and adjust exposure based on the brightness of a single spot, rather than on the brightness of the entire scene.
- 2
  Underexpose the shot by an additional f-stop to keep the background black. Reducing exposure by one stop of light can be achieved by halving the ISO (e.g., from 400 to 200); doubling the shutter speed (e.g., from 1/1000 of a second to 1/2000 of a second); or adjusting the aperture by a full stop (e.g., from f/2.8 to f/4 or from f/5.6 to f/8).
- 3
  Increase the amount of light on the subject with a flash unit or studio light. Bringing more light to the subject will compensate for the stop of light you intentionally underexposed.
- 4
  Examine your histograms. The brightness histogram (or your three individual histograms for each of red, blue and green) should appear underexposed (i.e., the peaks should appear slightly to the left of center).

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