All language subtitles for 11. Studio backgrounds

Backgrounds are the foundation

on which we build our photographs.

It's absolutely crucial

that you understand how to work with
backgrounds.

Even when you think about working on
location, you've got to make decisions

about the clutter of your background,
or how busy or how simplistic it is.

Or whether the background is something
that juxtaposes your subject or your

model from the photo, or is something
that complements

the model or subject in the photo.

It's exactly the same when we're
working in a studio, we're the ones

who, as photographers, decide what the
background's going to be, the

background color, the background tone,

the background contrast, or whether
that background is going to be busy or simple.

Now in a studio environment, we can
control our backgrounds very easily,

because we can choose what they are,
and we can light them accordingly.

But there are a number of different
backgrounds that I'd like to show you,

and will start with the most common
one, which is the paper roll.

So what you see here are standard paper
roll backgrounds.

If we look first of all, at this one
from here to here.

This is known as a standard nine foot
paper background.

The other larger one at the top is the
twelve foot size backgrounds, which I

actually prefer by, i'll come to those
in a minute.

So the most common are the nine foot.

And the nine foot backgrounds come in a
variety of different colors.

You can see I've got some different
colors here, blues,

turquoise, browns, and I've got lots of
grays and different ones in the store

room as well.

Now,

this particular background mechanism is
a roll of paper, so here's a gray one,

and I'm winding it down

via this locking roll mechanism.

Now, this is quite a fancy

background

with the

rolling mechanism in this way.

With the geared lever,

normally, or the less expensive ones
are just on a simple pulley chain.

There are, in fact, actually some that
are also electronically controlled as well.

So with this geared background,

I can lower the background down like so.

And generally speaking, your background
would come down onto the floor

to a reasonable distance.

And it would allow you to place your
lighting and illuminate your

background, or put a couple of lights
to illuminate the background, however

you want it.

Gray is one of the most commonly used
backgrounds, along with white.

The reason is that gray is a neutral
tone,

and you can just about photograph
anything on gray

models.

Subjects, whatever clothes and outfits
there were wearing.

It's not going to clash with gray,
because gray is neutral.

The other beauty of gray is that you
can actually illuminate it with colored

gels.

Let me just grab a colored gel.

So by using a colored gel over our
light, i'll just get this light here.

Temporarily

we'll put the light on the background.

But we can actually change the color of
the background quite dramatically

by putting a colored gel in front of
the background.

So we can actually turn

gray

into

color, we like,

with various gels as well.

And because of the saturation and
density of gray,

it's actually easier to turn gray into
a color than trying to light a white

background with a color.

You get a richer color on the gray than
you would by doing the same with white.

So here's the white background.

It's exactly the same paper roll

system.

So white is another

common studio background.

But you have to be particularly careful
how you light white so that you get the

illumination correct.

You get a bright white, but you do not
overexpose

or accidentally exposed your subject,
or flare into camera, and will be

looking at how we do that in another
section.

Now, moving on from this, we go to the
twelve foot background.

And you can see here.

So as you can see, this twelve foot
background

is considerably wider,

and it's very useful if you're working
with larger group shots, or

if your model or your subject is
further away, closer to camera in that

respect, than having a wider background
can also be very useful.

Now, the unfortunate thing about the
twelve foot backgrounds

is that, to my knowledge,

and from what I understand from one of
the main background manufacturers,

because I've quizzed them many times
about this,

the twelve foot backgrounds are only
available in gray, black and white.

So you are limited to those three

neutral tones, if you like, for your
background.

But

paper rolls are not the only background.

As a matter of fact, the background
that I probably use the least move on

to look at some of the others.

So I've laid out on the floor a number
of different materials that I use as backgrounds.

One of the common ones I use is hard
bored, and you can see it's quite flexible.

It's got a very smooth surface on one
side, and it's ideal to paint in mat

emulsion.

As matter of fact, this red one is a
piece that's been cut in half for a

product shot which has been painted in
mat emulsion.

So it's very easy with a roller to put
a couple of coats of paint on a sheet

of hardboard.

Hardboard is not expensive, is readily
available from diy stores,

and it makes a great background.

The problem with it as a background for
portraiture

or larger subjects,

is that it's not very big.

It only comes in this sheet size.

So sometimes you have to put more than
one of them together and fill the joint

with a filler or decorator's cork, and
paint over it to create a bigger

background.

So two of these panels on a frame does
give just about sufficient size for a background.

If you're working with product
photography,

then smaller backgrounds are obviously
acceptable.

And instead of painting a background,
you can also work with this, which is

mount board artists'.

Mount board

it's used for framing pictures, makes
the cutout mounts that go around

picture frames.

This is available in many, many
different colors,

and is available from most art shops and

art framing shops.

If you want to add rigidity to your
backgrounds, then you can build a

frame.

And you can see here that we've built a
wooden frame, and in this case we're

actually supporting

a sheet of

solid mdf

as

the.

Backwell, move that around

so you can see that this is

a solid block of mdf.

You can see the thickness of that mdf
on the edge there.

And again, mdf paints very well as a
nice, smooth background,

but

it is limited in size.

So therefore on occasions we need to
join two of these together and filled

the joint to make a background.

But it gives you the luxury of painting
at any color.

And you can obviously repaint it over
and over.

Here here's another interesting one.

So this is also on a frame exactly like
that one.

But instead of painting this piece of
mdf,

we've actually wallpapered it.

So there are quite a few print
wallpapers

with images of concrete or textured

wood, or floorboards, or various things
that can actually make very good,

deceptive backgrounds that look like
the real thing.

So this is something else that can be
applied.

And if you have a studio

with a solid wall, then you can apply
the option of painting that solid wall

different colors, or wallpapering it
and removing it and painting over it,

and using just a flat wall of your
studio

as a background that can be coated,
different paints, etc, for different

photographic purposes.

The other background that I use is
canvas.

This is a canvas from an art supply
shot.

And this background we made ourselves
by simply painting it with water based

emulsion paint.

We actually have a video of how we made
this.

So we'll probably insert a little bit
of that clip now for you to see the process.

Now you can also buy these

canvas backgrounds ready made.

Some of them actually are quite
expensive, so you might want to

consider the option of making them.

I'm probably going to change this one.

I found it a little bit too blue.

So it will be very easy for me just to
repaint this with another grayer wash

to create a more neutral background.

But canvas backgrounds and fabric
backgrounds, in this modeled effect,

are quite common.

Let's move on to another background.

And this one is used more for business
photography or portraits on location,

because it's a portable background

that

collapses and pops open

and allows you to take it out on
location.

So if you're doing business, portraits

in someone's office, where they just
want a plain neutral gray, or they want

a plane white, than these collapsable
backgrounds can be quite useful.

But to be honest,

they're not something that I use very
regularly.

The most preferred background of choice
for me is this.

And this

is what we call a Cove or an infinity
curve.

Let's take a closer look at what this
means.

A Cove gives us a seamless background,

but they're more common in larger
studios like this one.

However, there are smaller studios that
just go with a single curve on their

back wall.

So if your studio width was safe, from
here to about here, maybe four or five

metres wide, you could still build

a Cove

on one of those walls.

This is an l shaped Cove, because
obviously the Cove and the curve

continues around.

The corner it's more difficult to build.

And sometimes you even get u shaped
curves, where the Cove continues all

the way around in a u shape.

So those are some of the most common
types of backgrounds that are used in studios.

But you can also create a background
from anything.

I've photographed, backgrounds where
we've created a wall, cut loads of

holes out in it, put light through it,
where we've created a wall and

decorated it in lots of different
flowers and ornaments, or fabrics or

shapes.

So there are a multitude of backgrounds
that you can create yourself

that

dependent on the style of the chute
that you're trying to achieve.

Now, there are a couple of other
important things for backgrounds, and

that is how we light them.

And we're going to look at that in
another section.