Black opaque screen — contains stray light and prevents lens reflections. Essential for backlit and contre-jour setups.
Anyone working with backlight on set knows the problem: stray light hits the front lens, creating flares, reducing contrast, and making the shot look flat. The Black Tower—a black, opaque shield made of fabric or plastic—is the proven tool to prevent exactly that. It is positioned between the light source and the camera, catching uncontrolled stray light and shielding the lens without interrupting the intended beam of light.
The principle is simple, the effect significant: in a backlight setup—for example, an actor in front of a window or artificial light from behind—you want the contour to be illuminated, but you don't want diffuse light from above or the sides falling onto your lens. The Black Tower shields these scatterers. The result: higher contrast, purer colors, no unwanted lens flares. The effect is particularly noticeable with bright daylight or strong artificial lights—image contrast increases noticeably, and depth of field appears more precise.
Practically, it works like this: The Tower is mounted on a stand and pushed in front of the camera—close enough to block stray light, but never into the frame. Standard sizes are around 60x90 cm or larger, depending on the extent of the set and the distance to the light source. With backlight compositions involving multiple sources, you often need two or three Towers—one for primary shielding, others for side light. While related to Negative Fill (where light is actively removed with dark surfaces), the Black Tower is specifically aimed at the lens.
A practical tip: Don't get too close to the lens—an Abstand of about 30–50 cm is usually sufficient to avoid vignetting. With very wide focal lengths (under 24 mm), the Tower often needs to be further away or larger. Some DoPs combine the Black Tower with a Flag or Bounce behind it—this way, they not only shield but also control where the light is still reflected. When shooting in a studio, it's standard; for location shoots, one or two in the trunk are always worthwhile.