How to get awesome photos with a boring background
Sep 5, 2017
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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Shooting indoors, especially in somebody’s home, often leads to some rather dull backgrounds. Usually, you’re stuck with just a bare solid coloured wall. But whether you’re using flash or continuous light, there are things you can do to make things more interesting.
This video from photographer, Svitlana Vronska shows us one way to make things more interesting. With the help of a large sheet of white board from the dollar store.
Essentially, Svitlana is making a gobo or cucoloris (Cookie). This allows her to cast a shadow onto the subject and the wall behind her. The process is very simple. Take a big board, draw out your design, then cut some holes. The goal here is to create a realistic portrayal of real world environments. Windows in your house, the venetian blinds covering it, or great big church windows.
A very inexpensive and effective way of adding some interesting light to the boring plain wall. You don’t have to use the same light source for both the background and your subject, either. You could simple have this on the background with a second light hitting your subject separately.
Of course, there are other options, too. You can put pretty much anything you want between your light and your background to create an interesting look. See how Joe Edelman does it with dog toys and toilet paper. Or, you could go with something like the Light Blaster, which offers a great level of control.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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2 responses to “How to get awesome photos with a boring background”
Awesome way to bring life to your portraits photography, especially the way it’s done in a living room and not in a professional studio, so literally it’s something every one can do! Great tutorial! ?
Excellent post. hope you will share more.