How Do You Photograph Black Fiber?

That's a question which really needs to be posted on a Ravelry forum; however, life is too chaotic now with overtime at work and marathon knitting, crocheting & beading going on during the Olympics at home. There's no time to start and keep up with a forum thread.


What lead me to this question was this charcoal grey neckwarmer that was knit over the past weekend. (It's a basic turtleneck without the sweater. Easy peasy to knit while watching downhill skiing!) I wanted a picture of this item before I mailed it off to its destination because a variation is jelling in my brain-o. (Jello is my brain, oh, too much TV!)

A photoshoot for just this neckwarmer seemed a little silly, so I grabbed a couple of black things for a challenge: a jet black scarf of machine knit tuck lace and a jet black crocheted purse that I got from a friend.

Golly, black is probably just as hard to photograph as red is. (More on that subject later.)


Here's a close-up of the scarf. Does it look jet black to you? The best I could get was this photo-edited version. All my shots were over exposed and I had to reduce the light levels and luminosity settings. To me the photo looks a deeper shade of charcoal grey, not jet black--but how can you photograph black and still show detail? I googled, but didn't find a satisfactory answer.

Here's the purse which is crocheted out of jet black nylon cord:


You have to throw some light on the subject or you can't see any detail. Too much light and the black looks washed out. Too little, no detail. Shooting at an angle seemed to help.

Anyone out there with suggestions?