Backgrounds

I have talked about backgrounds various times before on my blog. They are one of the most important elements of portrait photography and often over looked by photographers, who focus on cameras and lenses.

I have 12 backgrounds of various types but today I am only going to focus on 4.

Bessel Black/white velour background
Lastolite Joe Mcnally Ironworks, collapsible background
Lastolite Smoke/Concrete, collapsible background

Lastolite Tabacco/Olive, collapsible background

The reason I focus on these 4 backgrounds is because they are my most used backgrounds.

Lastolite collapsible background

The Lastolite collapsible background are able to fold up on themselves, making them easy to carry and store. At full size they are 1.5m x 2.1m. This means they are not the largest background available but you could easily shoot a couple of people, particularly if you use the magnetic support, that allows the background to be mounted vertical or horizontal.

Apart from their average size, the other disadvantage is that they are mass produced. A lot of professionals have painted canvas backgrounds. These can be any colour but can be very expensive, unless you make your own.

Effect a background can have on an image

Below are 14 unedited photos, taken with these 4 background.

2 x white background (white lit with flash, grey unlit)
2 x black background (black unlit, lit by flash)
6 x Lastolie Joe Mcnally Ironwork (colour background turned 4 times, 1a back of background turned vertical).
2 x Lastolite Smoke/Concrete
2 x Lastolite Tobacco/Olive

So unedited we can see a distinct difference with the 4 backgrounds, particularly when lighting with the black and white images. Below I have edited the images, slightly to try and make them stand out a little more.

Now these are rather quick edits but give a flavour of what an edited shot would look like.

White: With my white background, I don’t like to over blow the background and I generally don’t have too much contrast on the subject. I also light the subject a little brighter to begin with.

Grey: This generally works, the only thing that can stand out is the shadow of the subject on the background due to the main light.

Black: Black leans itself to heavy contrast but the subject does stand out and that can look awkward.

Black lit: With the lighting, the subject pops out from the background but you have to be careful how you light the background.

Joe Mcnally Ironworks: This is a very adaptable background but isn’t a master of anything. You can have very good results but it can look odd if you don’t get it right.

Smoke/Concrete: This background is great for black and white, it is probably slightly better blurred out more than the images you see here, which is easily enough done but I wanted to keep everything the same.

Tabacco/Olive: Probably my favourite portrait background. What makes this so good is it works well with skin tone.

Hopefully this demonstrates the difference a background can make on your photos.