Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
What do you use for backdrops? If you’re like most tabletop photographers you have probably built up a bit of a backdrop library, but it’s never enough, you always need another one! Perhaps a light-coloured wood effect when you only have dark wood, or a marble effect when you only have granite. It can get expensive.
Well don’t worry, Scott from Tin House Studio is here to show you how to make and repurpose backgrounds for tabletop photography, on a budget.
Bored of being stuck indoors yet? Shooting against the same white background all the time can get tiresome, so why not switch it up with some creative DIY alternatives.
Early on in my photographic career, I spent literally thousands of hours photographing subjects in front of white walls. This was an incredibly popular look in the 90’s as we moved away from the grey and brown cloudy backdrops of the 1980’s, but times are changing once again as we tire of the stark and clinical look of a pure white backdrop.
A canvas backdrop is a backdrop made, well, from a canvas. Canvas is a type of fabric that absorbs paint well, so it is often colored with textures, and this is what we are going to talk about today. We used canvases from Artery Backdrops, but what we say probably applies to all canvas backdrops.
I’ve heard canvases described in many ways, from cliche to regal and that really depends on how you use it. Annie Leibovitz has a canvas backdrop signature look, but so does those horrible portraits from the ’80s, so should you get one? Let me try and help.
Any city or town can be a source of fantastic backdrops if you just know where to look. In this short, fun and informative video, Tajreen and Chloe of Tajreen&Co will show you four portrait locations you can find in any neighborhood. Even the ugliest one!
Portrait photographers pay a lot of attention to their subjects, but sometimes they don’t pay so much attention to the background. In this video, Jeff Rojas will show you three key ways to make the best out of your studio background and make your photos even better.
Choosing a backdrop for use in the studio largely comes down to personal preference. I rarely shoot in the studio, so I tend to go with cloth backdrops. For those who do it regularly, though, paper is the optimum choice. In terms of cost and ease of use, there’s really nothing out there that beats it. But some people get put off using paper, for one reason or another. Mostly due to a simple lack of knowledge.
In this video, photographer Joe Edelman tells us everything we need to know about working with seamless paper backdrops. Which to buy, how to store them, how to use them, how to make them last longer, and finally a couple of DIY tips to save you some money.
Whether for stills or video, paper backdrops are super handy, especially in a permanent fixture. But they’re also useful when setting up in a small space on location, too. There’s countless portable backdrop stands out there capable of handling paper rolls, and they’re very quick to set up.
Caleb Pike at DSLR Video Shooter has switched over from his old background of acoustic foam panels to a new, clean, paper backdrop. In this video, Caleb tells us why, and offers some tips on working with paper backdrops on set.
Folding reflectors, softboxes and backgrounds are awesome. There’s no two ways about it. They pack down really small for transport or storage, they pop up quickly when you need them, and they’re really lightweight. As a location shooter, they’re perfect for me. Even my white balance card folds away like a reflector. Whatever helps pack the gear down into the smallest and lightest space possible is welcome.
But once they start getting to a certain size, they can become quite troublesome. Gravity kicks in, which then either becomes your best friend or your worst enemy. But there is a simple way to fold up these giant reflectors and backgrounds. In this video, photographer Jason Lanier shows us exactly how it’s done.
Adding coloured backgrounds to portraits is often done in camera at the time of shooting. It’s a quick and easy process that can be done either with the use of gels on your flashes, or by using a coloured backdrop. Sometimes, though, you’re shooting for a client, you don’t know what colour they ultimately want. Or, perhaps it’s for yourself, but you haven’t decided what colour you want the background to be.
In this Photoshop tutorial from Phlearn, Aaron Nace shows us how we can quickly go from a simple grey or white background, to any colour background we want. Aaron shows us some of the finer points of masking around hair to get a clean mask, and then giving the background a more natural feel with a vignette.
Here is a great tip if you are using a studio and don’t pack a bunch of backdrops. Of course, not owning many backdrops does not mean that should deprive yourself from the benefits of shooting against backdrops in multiple colors.
Photographer Neil van Niekerk suggest a simple and effective way to tap into an almost infinite about of colored backdrop by coloring them with light using gels.
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