Joel Grimes - Lighting Part 1

Learn how Master Photographer Joel Grimes creates his stunning and edgy portraiture.

David Beckstead - Visual Chaos

Image taken from the "Invaders"

Learn how to place your subjects or yourself as the photographer to create visual chaos in your art.

Chris Grey

Chris Grey shares his secrets on shooting those Sexy and Glamorous Boudior portraits.

Creating As Many Backdrops As You Want

Written by Stephen Dantzig

One of the most overlooked yet critical components of building your set in the studio is the background. It is also one that can be surprisingly costly. Seamless paper backdrops are great for many purposes, but the price of replacing them consistently can be steep. Muslin backdrops obviously have a much longer lifespan than paper, but they too can be costly. Here is a very inexpensive way to create many backdrops from one:

Please log in or sign up for a free Silver Account to access the rest of this articles and others{rokaccess !guest}We start with a relatively dark backdrop of mottled greens and browns. The first option is to not light the backdrop at all. There is a slight and subtle spill from the hair light that keeps this backdrop from going completely black, but we could have flagged off the back light if we wanted to.

We have spent a lot of time looking at the effect of changing the relative exposure of the different lights on your set. You can create a variety of backdrops simply by adding a background light and modifying it’s output.

The addition of a background light create a whole new look, In this case we metered the background light [it is a front light, so the incident meter faces the camera] to match the main/fill exposure off 11. The background looks a bit light for that reading, but that’s what the meter said! I prefer my darker backdrops to be, well, darker.

Suppose you go out and buy a darker muslin backdrop and play with various lights, exposures, grids, etc., but still find something missing? You might be looking for some color. Now, before you rush out for a new seamless or muslin backdrop, remember that we started with a dark backdrop. Dark backdrops will absorb color beautifully when we throw color on them. Pick up a sample set of gels [we used Roscoe Gels for this series] and you’ll have as many backdrops as you have gels in the pack! Simply tape a gel over your background light, re-meter and make the necessary power adjustments and you have a whole new playground. Here are some examples:

No, I didn’t buy a new muslin sheet for this shot—we just taped an aqua gel over the background light.

Here is the same set-up with a green gel over the background light.

This time we placed a red gel over the background light.

We liked the red backdrop the best and shot tthe rest of the series with that gel over the background light.

You don’t need to break the bank in order to have many different backdrops—just a little imagination and creativity—try using several gels for overlapping ang changing colors. Note that you can do the same thing with lighter backdrops, but the colors will be muted and fade faster---creating even more effects.

Many mahalos to my beautiful model Lindsay Furuya for sitting in on this session!

Stephen Dantzig
		About the author:
		Current Author Promo: Please visit the bookstore at www.dantzigphotography.com for information on ordering signed copies of my lighting books. Stephen Dantzig is a nationally renowned lighting expert and author of Lighting Techniques for Fashion and Glamour Photography for Film and Digital Photographers, Mastering Lighting Techniques for Outdoor and Location Digital Portrait Photography and Softbox Lighting Techniques for Professional Photographers (Amherst Media).His fourth book, Back to Basics, is in production. He has written more than fifty articles and lessons on photographic lighting and ethics. He is a frequent contributor to RANGEFINDER Magazine and his lessons have appeared in Professional Photographer Magazine, PC Photo Magazine, Studio Photography and Design, ProPhoto West, ShootSmarter.com, ProPhotoResource.com, the Photoflex Web Photo School.
	Read More >>

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]

Latest Forum Posts

Topics	By	Category	Date
Re:Help me with 2008 Marketing	Jennifer Grigg	Marketing For Photographers	18-11-08 20:53
Re:Help me with 2008 Marketing	edanrene	Marketing For Photographers	18-11-08 15:23
What's Working Right Now?	StanCox	Marketing For Photographers	16-11-08 11:02
Re:Outsourcing Post Production?	ATS	Wedding Photography	07-11-08 18:33
So, who's using a D90 for video?	KirkTuck	On and Off Camera Portable Flash	30-10-08 18:25