ok...so i dont do portraits (now i need to ask for some help)

gus

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Nandita

Hi Gus,

Don't know if I can help because I do only outdoor portraits so the background is usually medium-toned and I tend to bokeh a lot.

My personal feeling is that the background depends on skin tones. A light background helps with darker skin and vice versa. Especially if you want the option to convert to b&w.

Just my 2 cents.

System

hey gus-

I love a black bg for portraits-

hah!- an opportunity to throw up some recent portraits-







some would say I don't do portraits either, so, take these for what they're worth-

JimW

Gus,

Generally speaking, white backgrounds make for a more upbeat, happy, cheery feeling. Dark backgrounds are more dramatic, evoke deeper emotions, and usually create a little more depth. A very dark or black background will create the most depth, as black is a recessive color and eye falls off into it.

I rarely use black backgrounds, simply because I love shadow detail. On my smugmug website (work-in-progress), I have 3-person families with both white background (#4) and dark (#11), in case you wanna see samples.

But here's what's really important Gus. I just gotta know. What is that dragon of yours doing, unless he's shy and won't say?

Jim

gus

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