Background Advice?

WingsOfLovePhoto

Hey all, back to ask for some much needed advice. I am so glad you are all here! I have been shooting mostly a white background and I do have a black background and I think I am getting that down pretty well. I am wanting to move on to mid key. I shoot ALOT of newborns and kids under 2, some seniors and families. My preferred style is limited props and kind of vintage. So.......if you could choose only one background to be multifunctional what would it be? A scenic, a master? Color scheme? and where is your preferred place to buy backgrounds?

ChatKat

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote:

Hey all, back to ask for some much needed advice. I am so glad you are all here! I have been shooting mostly a white background and I do have a black background and I think I am getting that down pretty well. I am wanting to move on to mid key. I shoot ALOT of newborns and kids under 2, some seniors and families. My preferred style is limited props and kind of vintage. So.......if you could choose only one background to be multifunctional what would it be? A scenic, a master? Color scheme? and where is your preferred place to buy backgrounds?

I have a tan/beige and white spattered muslin from Www.backgroundoutlet.com
that I really like. And I have a Red and Black one that is wonderful for Christmas, Boudior and Valentines Day too.

Nikolai

I have a slightly different take on the subject. Since I started to use gelled bg lights against the black background I realized I often can do without any gels at all. There are boundaries, naturally, and it maybe tough sometimes to reproduce an intrisinc pattern multicolor muslin, but in general it's all doable in PS.

Here's a mild example:
original (black/gray):



final (bluish, keyed off her nail polish. I could easliy make it more intense, but had chosen not to)



A bit more extreme example: my gels don't cover the floor (on purpose), so original looks like this:



However, one minute in PS and you get this:



I'm still putting gels on to get an immediate idea how things work (and minimize PS time:-), but technically all it could have been colored in PS with a very little time and efforts spent.

Give it a thought:-)

dogwood

I'd say white is your most versatile. You can make it white, gray, or even black just by moving lights. You can also gel white easily enough.

I know white can get a bit boring but check out the newsstand. Notice how many covers feature models on a white background. Just my two-cents, but I'm sure a lot of marketing research went into those decisions since many of those magazines are high-budget, international mags.

Nikolai

dogwood wrote:

I'd say white is your most versatile. You can make it white, gray, or even black just by moving lights. You can also gel white easily enough.

I know white can get a bit boring but check out the newsstand. Notice how many covers feature models on a white background. Just my two-cents, but I'm sure a lot of marketing research went into those decisions since many of those magazines are high-budget, international mags.

Pete, do you by any chance have some samples of said gelled/grayed/blackened white?
The reason I'm asking is I tried to used it (with not enough lights to make it highkey) before, and I really didn't like what I was getting out of it...

WingsOfLovePhoto

dogwood wrote:

I'd say white is your most versatile. You can make it white, gray, or even black just by moving lights. You can also gel white easily enough.

I know white can get a bit boring but check out the newsstand. Notice how many covers feature models on a white background. Just my two-cents, but I'm sure a lot of marketing research went into those decisions since many of those magazines are high-budget, international mags.

Thanks for the info. I can make white white and make it gray but not sure how to make it black. Can you elaborate on your lighting to do that?

WingsOfLovePhoto

Nikolai wrote:

I have a slightly different take on the subject. Since I started to use gelled bg lights against the black background I realized I often can do without any gels at all. There are boundaries, naturally, and it maybe tough sometimes to reproduce an intrisinc pattern multicolor muslin, but in general it's all doable in PS.

Here's a mild example:
original (black/gray):



final (bluish, keyed off her nail polish. I could easliy make it more intense, but had chosen not to)



A bit more extreme example: my gels don't cover the floor (on purpose), so original looks like this:



However, one minute in PS and you get this:



I'm still putting gels on to get an immediate idea how things work (and minimize PS time:-), but technically all it could have been colored in PS with a very little time and efforts spent.


Thanks Nikolai for all the examples. Can I ask what you use for a background light and where you put it to get this effect? I like it!

Nikolai

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote:

Thanks Nikolai for all the examples. Can I ask what you use for a background light and where you put it to get this effect? I like it!

I use two AB400 on small backlight stands. Usually flagged and barndoored to prevent spillage.
I posted this shot before a few weeks ago, but just in case:



You can see it all here: lights, stands, gel holdes, gels, barndoors and flags..