Paint it Black

As far as set up goes, there's hardly anything that's simpler than a Black on Black set.  With a simple stand to hold the black velvet background, an overhead medium sized soft box, another stand to hold the pole or dowel that will have the simple black object attached to it and some white fill cards here and there (as well as the object to be photographed) it's pretty much all there is to it.

The tricky part is lighting it well enough to show three good sides and 'depth' in the object being photographed, as well as keeping the lighting from blowing out behind the object and ruining the black that's back there...

So though the rigging is simple, the execution is very tough.  Add a factor of interest, and you've got the beginnings of a recipe for disaster or utter failure at the very most.  An awesome shot at the very least...  Or something "meh" in between.

After some playing around with the concept of not wanting to shoot the mundane, I did a little creative blackening of the object below and attempted to do it some macabre justice.  I hope I succeeded...

©Carlos Paradinha Photography
Black on Black