Van in Black and White

I wanted to practice taking photos on both white and black backgrounds and this is a small number of our results. The black background was a shiny, striped table cloth that we have which was kind of hard to get rid of, if anyone has suggestions on a better background I'd love to hear your suggestions (hint, hint, Kalli), these were taken after dark. The white shots were taken in the baby's room with light from the overcast day, from the small window that the room has. We just set him on a white, fuzzy blanket. I welcome any photographers' suggestions on how to make shots of this style better. I was mostly experimenting with the camera's contrast, sharpness and monochrome settings as well as adjusting the light meter.