Inspired by this post at the digital photography school blog, I’ve experimented with using black backdrops (which I’ve shortened to blackdrops, but I don’t mean this) to photograph flowers (for now at least). The basic principle is simple: place your subject in front of a bucket so that you’re photographing into a shadow. In practice, you can get away with a black coat or clothing. Anything that absorbs light.
Here’s the setup I used the other day. I needed to wash out the kitchen trash can, and noticed that in addition to its primary job of holding trash, it was well-suited for photographing flowers. Particularly useful was the starfish shaped hole that was designed to catch the trashbag — it was perfect for holding a stem.
While not quite as convenient as a bucket on a tripod, the results were quite pleasant. A sample of pictures taken over Labor Day weekend:
