Colored filters to light a background VS. different colored background?

I want to use different color backgrounds for portraits. I currently use a white background and I’m thinking of just getting some colored filters and lighting the background with it.

Is there a reason to use different color backgrounds backdrops vs. using my technique for just creating a colored background? I’m not looking for texture, just different solid colors and filters seems like the easiest way to do this.

Thanks.
 
It depends. Gels work best when the flash that is gelled is set to a lower power setting. Unfortunately, the primary and secondary lights might overpower the gelled flashes if the subject is close to the background. It's much easier to buy a bunch of gels rather than many backgrounds, but I find the background route quicker to get the desired result. With gels, you need more adjustments to get the relative distances, apertures, flash powers right to prevent washing out the background.
 
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How do you determine the power setting for the strobe with the gel lighting the background? Is it just trial and error? I’m currently using a key light and a fill reflector at 45 degrees to the subject. I’m varying the distance of the reflector from the subject to create different lighting ratios.

Thanks.

Random Orbits said:
It depends. Gels work best when the flash that is gelled is set to a lower power setting. Unfortunately, the primary and secondary lights might overpower the gelled flashes if the subject is close to the background. It's much easier to buy a bunch of gels rather than many backgrounds, but I find the background route quicker to get the desired result. With gels, you need more adjustments to get the relative distances, apertures, flash powers right to prevent washing out the background.
 
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pwp

Oct 25, 2010
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It depends whether you want good solid colour (choose a coloured background) or a wash of colour (choose gels). Sometimes I use gels on a black background to create an effect, shape or wash. If your subject is easy to extract from the background which is made easier with 255 255 255 white (don't overlight the background so you get lens-flare) or green-screen, you can then introduce the background of your choice.

One thing to be aware of using gels is you may get an unintended colour contamination on your subject. Just keep an eye on that. This will be less likely the further you have your subject from the background. If you've used green-screen and had your subject too close to the background and picked up that ugly green halo around your subject, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Ultimately, it depends on the look you're hoping to achieve. Like most photographers on the planet, the key to understanding is to experiment, test, test and test again. Then you'll know forever.

-pw
 
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kat.hayes said:
How do you determine the power setting for the strobe with the gel lighting the background? Is it just trial and error? I’m currently using a key light and a fill reflector at 45 degrees to the subject. I’m varying the distance of the reflector from the subject to create different lighting ratios.

Thanks.

Random Orbits said:
It depends. Gels work best when the flash that is gelled is set to a lower power setting. Unfortunately, the primary and secondary lights might overpower the gelled flashes if the subject is close to the background. It's much easier to buy a bunch of gels rather than many backgrounds, but I find the background route quicker to get the desired result. With gels, you need more adjustments to get the relative distances, apertures, flash powers right to prevent washing out the background.

Yes, pretty much trial and error. Meter for the room, and set camera settings to be at least 3 stops underexposed so the ambient light results in a dark frame. Adjust flash power on background to get desired look, then set up key light/fill light.
 
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1. How do you get 255 255 255 white? Is this just done by creating even lighting across the background?

2. I am working in a relatively small space and I am getting some color contamination on the sides of my subjects face/head. My subject is about 56 inches from the background, and I’m about 71 inches from the subject. I can move my subject further from the background, though it just creates less space between the front of the lens and the subject. I will need to do some tests later. If I move my subject closer to me/further from the background until the contamination is gone, I can switch from my 70-200mm to my 24-70mm. At what point do I need to be concerned with lens distortion? Any other thoughts about getting real close to my subject in order to create enough distance from the background?

Thanks.
 
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kat.hayes said:
1. How do you get 255 255 255 white? Is this just done by creating even lighting across the background?

Getting that indicates that the area in question is overexposed; once you get to that it doesn't matter how much extra light you have. As an aside having your brightest parts of your photo around 90-95% of that is good practice.

kat.hayes said:
2. I am working in a relatively small space and I am getting some color contamination on the sides of my subjects face/head. My subject is about 56 inches from the background, and I’m about 71 inches from the subject. I can move my subject further from the background, though it just creates less space between the front of the lens and the subject. I will need to do some tests later. If I move my subject closer to me/further from the background until the contamination is gone, I can switch from my 70-200mm to my 24-70mm. At what point do I need to be concerned with lens distortion? Any other thoughts about getting real close to my subject in order to create enough distance from the background?

Thanks.

I take it you mean light from the gelled light for the background? Putting a snoot (which gave good results in the search box on B&H Photo's website) on that light can help. You can buy one if you want but they're a simple shape if you're crafty.

Your question about lens distortion has a two part answer. Lens distortion is the difference between a brick wall in a photo having straight lines or having the lines curving one way or the other; most lenses are largely free of it by f/8 and Lightroom can correct the rest.

The appearance of your subject changing with distance is called perspective and 85mm or so is popular but not the only option; try framing a subject the same way at something like 35, 50, 70 and 105mm and see how the same person looks quite a bit different in each. My way of highlighting it is to look at the apparent distance from their nose to their ears; wider shots will increase that and vice versa.

As always I hope this helps and I'm all ears if you have more questions.

Jim
 
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Yes, I meant contamination from the gelled light for the background.

I do not think a snoot will help. I think the issue is that my background is solid white so when I put a pinkish gel on the moonlight lighting the background it is bouncing back and partially contaminating my subject.

1. That is why I think my only option is to move the subject farther away?

Regarding lens distortion, I was referring to perspective. I want to make sure that if I move my subject too close to me I do not end up with any facial features looking very different from how they should appear.

2. I was just using my 70-200mm and realized that there is no very clear way of seeing the focal length that you are at? OR am I missing something extremely obvious? I see that you can see generally where it is at though not a precise value that appears on the screen or on the lens.

3. Are you saying that generally 85mm is a good focal length to be at when taking portraits of people to ensure facial features appear accurate?

4. What is a good focal length to be at when using a 24-70mm?

Thank you!
 
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Yes, I meant contamination from the gelled light for the background.

I do not think a snoot will help. I think the issue is that my background is solid white so when I put a pinkish gel on the moonlight lighting the background it is bouncing back and partially contaminating my subject.

1. That is why I think my only option is to move the subject farther away?

Regarding lens distortion, I was referring to perspective. I want to make sure that if I move my subject too close to me I do not end up with any facial features looking very different from how they should appear.

2. I was just using my 70-200mm and realized that there is no very clear way of seeing the focal length that you are at? OR am I missing something extremely obvious? I see that you can see generally where it is at though not a precise value that appears on the screen or on the lens.

3. Are you saying that generally 85mm is a good focal length to be at when taking portraits of people to ensure facial features appear accurate?

4. What is a good focal length to be at when using a 24-70mm?

Thank you!

In order:

1. More distance will help if possible, if not you'll have to turn the power on that light down some.

2. For the sake of understanding how the change in focal length affects perspective the scale on top of the lens is precise enough. In fact outside of some aspects of technical photography (or photo analysis) I don't have an example of where having focal length measured any more precisely matters.

3, 4. It's popular for the look it gives, and it works out to usually convenient camera to subject distances. One way to understand what focal length you like is to put someone in your studio and compose a photo at 24mm, say with their top button at the bottom of the frame and the top of their head at the top. (You'll be pretty close to them!) Then set the lens to 70mm and step back until you again have their button and the top of their head at the top and bottom. Comparing the two photos will show you how the look changes*; after that you can try working down from 70 to see what you like.

Jim


*That leads to an important point: The perspective changes only with the distance from the camera to the subject. You can see this by setting up a photo of something convenient at 200mm (an apple on the table or whatever) and without moving the camera taking another photo at 24mm; you'll find that cropping the 24mm photo to match the 200mm one will get you two very similar photos.**

**Depth of field will be different for the same aperture values; optics is weird sometimes.
 
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