lighting advice needed

[liv21]

Hey, i have got a wee job in which i need some help on.
its shooting fashion items in which are all black! But the items all have some sort of detail on them and the client wants the detail to be shown!
i am wantiong to have a white grey background in all the shots and then the items on models but all i need to know is how i would photograph the items to show off the dress aswell as the detail in the dress!
any advice will be great thanks ash

[Chris Hawkins]

You can't have everything, but if you want to photograph black clothes then spot meter on the clothes and set exposure compensation to -1 EV. Likewise if you were shooting snow you'd set +1 EV. Camera meter assumes it's shooting an 18% (or 13% depending on your perspective) grey card.

Hope that helps.