   best material to photograph subjects against
  when im taking photos of certain things i wanna be able to remove the background easily.whats the best material to place an object on so no reflection or shadow gets shown when i take a photo?at the moment im using black cardboard but it still reflects light.what to use? to quote spinal tap i want blacker than blackta zed   
  blue screens are common.  they are emmisive to overweigh any reflections.   ;  Bluescreening is a great way to go, but aquiring one would be very expensive, and if you don't have an "in" somewhere it may be difficult to borrow one as well..  the next solution would be to check out photography suppliers, and get a photographers backdrop...  Matte black or white come to mind. But any solid colour can generally be used for the same technique   ;  yes thats an alternative, though it will have to be another color than blue, ill have to experiment just hope it works outs better than the example presented herehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluescreen   ;  green is another common color used. don't know why lol.  what exactly are you having trouble doing?   ;  also rmemebrthat lighting is very importantandoftenoverlooked, you needto light the bluescreenproper behind the object so that it is solidin color.;  ifyour keyboardsspacebar broken?   ;Quote:Original post by timwgreen is another common color used. don't know why lol.  what exactly are you having trouble doing?im gonna buy various colored pieces of papier today and choose the one which least resembles the photographed objectjuging from this screenshothttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluescreenit looks like there is no magical material that reduces reflected light, ie the blue in the background covers a wide varience and not a single solid blue (which would be easy to remove in a image program)   ;  It's generally a remove-by-hue, not by exact color.  Basically, convert pixel to HSV.  Have some ranges for acceptable hues, saturation levels, and brightness levels, and remove pixels that fall between.Bonus points for interactive sliders :)PS - I believe that some programs, like Adobe After Effects, have built-in color screening.[Edited by - Drilian on December 3, 2005 8:05:20 AM]