Black velvet

On my last trip to Ethiopia, I brought a piece of black velvet with me specifically to do studio-like portraits of some of the tribal people. When I first brought out the fabric and told my group what I wanted to do, they thought I was crazy and wanted nothing to do with this technique . . . until I showed them the pictures. Then everyone wanted to do it. Sure, taking environment shots is important and part of the travel photography experience. I did lots of those types of pictures. But doing something like this is unexpected, very dramatic, and forces all of the attention on the subject. This only works, though, in diffused light. If the sun is out, then you can use the 2-yard piece of fabric to block the sun and create shade. I use available light only -- no fill flash at all. This woman is from the Hamar tribe in the Omo River Valley, and my settings were 1/400, f/5, 500 ISO. I used a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens hand held. My next photo tour to Ethiopia is in January, 2019.