I use a piece of hardboard painted with blackboard paint which is matt black. I prefer to photograph in bright natural light, even bright sun gives excellent results making the colours shine if you can avoid excesisve light/shade contrasts on the subject. In bright sun I angle the background to avoid the sunlight striking it, ie the background is in shade, may sound awkward but my principal subjects are small and pot grown (Crocus) which allows all this to take place in the comfort of the greenhouse! The black background avoids any of the distractions which can occur in natural backgrounds. The effect can be quite dramatic. I have experimented with pastel shades of art paper (sold cheaply for children to use) but you then need several alternatives to avoid the background clashing with the colour of your subject or the risk of losing the subject in the background colour. I get much smaller file sizes for the same number of pixels when using the black background. No doubt someone with greater technical knowledge can explain this but I assume that a uniform colour saves on memory and perhaps black is 'low cost' on this front. Hope this helps Tony Goode. Norwich UK http://www.thealpinehouse.fsnet.co.uk/