Which background do you prefer?

[Davids]

One of my favorite subjects - Drosera scorpioides. Pardon the difference in magnification. Does anyone prefer one background over the other? I tend to use black, but the white can be quite striking:

[g4lab]

imo for this specimen the white works better because it lighs up the droplets.

[leonardturner]

Spectacular subject, beautifully photographed in either presentation. I like the black, but it's close.

[Lou Jost]

I think I like the white because so many macro shots have black backgrounds.
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Lou Jost
www.ecomingafoundation.wordpress.com
www.loujost.com

[Beatsy]

In general I prefer black for macro (when "blurred natural environment" is unavailable), but for this subject I think white works better.

[Lou Jost]

By the way, how do you keep these Drosera still enough to stack? Don't those hairs move a bit, particularly the curved ones?
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Lou Jost
www.ecomingafoundation.wordpress.com
www.loujost.com

[Davids]

As long as the glands aren't physically disturbed they should remain still enough for stacking. I have found that, in some cases, a detached leaf may move it's glands without physical stimulus. This is most likely due to turgor loss.

[JH]

I have looked at them several times, both of the pictures are wery good, if I have to choose I say the white background.
Regards Jörgen Hellberg
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Jörgen Hellberg, my webbsite www.hphoto.se

[doveoflight]

I do like the White background, as the stem's detail just sets better with my eyes.

[JohnKoerner]

The white, although it almost makes the sundew look like a cgi graphic.

[MarkSturtevant]

White. But you can try other colors that 'go' with the colors in this plant.
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Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

[elf]

What technique did you use to switch backgrounds?

[Davids]

Elf, it really was just a simple switch of backgrounds. The black is a piece of cardboard covered in flocking, making sure that it was far away from the subject and all light was on the leaf.

The white background was an experiment. I just had a couple layers of diffusion film that I light with one light and used another to light the subject.

I've been enjoying white backgrounds so much lately that I've considered purchasing a light pad. Rosco offers one, but it's quite expensive.

[MarkSturtevant]

I wonder if one could put a subject in front of a computer monitor that displays whatever background you choose. If that is well out of focus, one should not be able to see the pixels.
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Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

[ChrisR]

That's what I assumed had been done!
You could put a pol sheet against it and rotate to adjust the brightness. Or put an image with a black center on your screen, for "darkfield".
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Chris R