Carbon nanomaterials are the promising candidates for potential broadband limiting applications and extremely low reflectance coatings, particularly in the infrared, visible and UV spectral regions. In this paper we have performed the comparative study of diffuse reflectance of nanodiamond (ND), sp 2 /sp 3 composites, onion-like carbon (OLC) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) in visible and UV regions. ND, sp 2 /sp 3 composites and OLC produced via high temperature annealing of the same set of NDs allow us to vary sp 2 /sp 3 carbon ratio, size of primary particle agglomerates and concentration of defects while MWNT set provides possibility to vary NT diameters and length, order/disorder degree (via high temperature MWNTS annealing). The diffuse reflectance of carbon nanomaterials depends mainly on the electronic configuration, defect concentration, size of graphene-like ordered fragments and agglomerates of nanoparticles along with their morphology.