What is the best background colour to use to take pictures of your figures? Does the background colour make a lot of difference to the final image result or take away or add anything to the final image.


I have been trying to use white lately with lots of illumination but am finding that the pictures are coming out to dark which seems a bit odd! White background+light should be bright and make the figure stand out, not for me! I do not use the flash because of the slight reflection it gives off.


Any thoughts on this


Tommi

I've always used a Dark Blue background for my pictures since it absorbs a lot of light making the figure stand out when illuminated. Works for me

I too use a dark blue background to photograph my models, and it works OK for most colours, except when I'm photographing a figure with lots of blue in it. Then the figure tends to get lost in the background colour.

I've hung a dark blue sheet over a picture frame on my hobby desk and it leans up against the wall. Whenever I want to take a photo I don't need to do any set up, I just put the figure on the desk in front of the blue sheet, and snap away.

It's quit simple.
EVery camera has a lightmeter in it. What matter of color there is, it always turns it back to 18 % grey.
So if you have a white background the picture looks darker and the background is not as white as you thought.
If you use a black background the picture looks brighter then it was and the background greyish.
So, what ever you do, use a spotmeter or better take more measurements around the object.
You can also use Photoshop to correct the lightvalues.
In the darkroom we used burn and hold for that.

Marc

I like to use orange and purple.

Joe

A fairly soft and neutral colour backdrop is usually the best, and as Tony mentions one that doesn't correspond to the figure ie, green for a WW2 US soldier or red for a Roman. Never use a bright colour such as white or yellow etc as it will blow out the light reading on your camera. Some people like to use a backdrop such as coloured cardboard that gives an even texture behind the figure, others like to use material such as a bed sheet that will give a soft uneven texture. The trick to using the uneven version is to bring your figure forward of the backdrop and use a small number apperature on your camera to blur the background. Bringing the figure forward also eliminates any shadow behind the figure also.
Ben

Most that I see use a large (30x40"?)piece of flexible posterboard. Half makes the "floor" then the other half curves upward and is taped to the wall. That way there is a seemless, cornerless background.

Background colour can make a huge difference; the right background can enhance the figure and the wrong one can make it look pants. Neutrals are fairly safe, if a bit boring (and the right value is important) but the wrong strong colour can clash with the major colouring within the paintjob and similar colours can reduce the impact of the figure.

Pick poorly and you're not doing your figure any favours, pick well and you can complement it:



A solid colour can look a bit, well, flat. But add a simple gradient and things look much better, even for boring grey:



These were all done within Photoshop, but some of the same effects can be achieved directly, with a backdrop and lighting.

If you are already committed to changing the background in Photoshop you can get pretty advanced about it and go full-on for a dramatic effect:

The meter in the camera is trying to get a midtone, this is why standard metering tends to produce photos of light subjects that are too dark and dark subjects that are too light. The classic illustration of this in photo books is a white egg on a white sheet of paper, which invariably ends up looking like a grey egg unless you compensate

Anyway, all you have to do it change the exposure settings. Try +1 to begin with, then more if necessary. Alternatively, get a photographer's grey card and set exposure manually on that.

Another alternative, if the shot isn't too dark you can adjust very simply using Photoshop or another image-editing software (this is one the easier image adjustments, and nearly all photographs need some adjustment to look their best).

Einion

Hi all

Very intresting thread.

"Background colour can make a huge difference; the right background can enhance the figure and the wrong one can make it look pants."

Is thre any "rule" to pick a backdrop colour, conisdering the overall color of the figure? I mena, let's say qe have an ACW union soldier. Which colur woulg match good as a background with the overall blue?

saludetes

Einion,
Can you give us a small tutorial on how to change the background in PS.

Marc

Thanks Einion, gives me a few things to try out and quite logical when I thing about it

Tommi

Nope, definitely not. Many things can work well for the same pic and it's as much personal taste as anything what looks right to each person.

If we take these two for example, I think they work about equally but if someone likes purple then they'll probably prefer the one on the right:

Yep! Already planning it*.

Also going to do one on the four or five basic steps to improving most so-so photos and a couple of other retouching issues.

Einion

*The basics are actually very simple - you just erase the background and then put something behind it as the new background. The difficult part is in erasing the existing background to produce a believable, clean edge, especially if there are any areas of the figure or the groundwork which are out of focus.

Well, this thread is going to solve a lot of questions and problems in the photo shooting proceeding. Looking forward for new informing posts by the "experts".

Great work. I want to know how to use photoshop.
Thank you
Tony

Excellent thread.
John