Portrait backgrounds.

[mporter012]

I'm starting to take some botanical portraits, and looking at different backgrounds. A few months ago, I was considering taking some portraits of people, as well, but that has yet to materialize - but hopefully it soon will. Between paper, canvas, ECT - what background would you recommend? At this point, I'm using black and white film, so just looking for a simple plain lighter color background to get started. B&H has this 'savage seamless background paper' - that seems like it may be ok for what I'm looking to do, but I thought I'd see what others opinions are..

Thanks!

 

[frank]

Unless you have a permanent, dedicated studio, I would waste money on paper which rips and wrinkles. I bought a canvas material backdrop that stuffs into a bag.

 

[wiltw]

Choice of backgrounds is a matter of personal preference, particularly for portraiture! You can get a neutral tone (grey) and gel lights to color the background, and use lighting brightness to control how dark or how light in tone that is seen in the resulting photo -- if you separately light the background from the subject.

Usually the combination of shallow DOF and separation between subject and b/g is used to blur the background pattern or wrinkles in b/g cloth.

 

[cliveh]

I once read an interesting description about the use of 19th century backgrounds for portraits, where the background cloth was attached to a board suspended behind the sitter. This would then be swung (a sort of reverse panning effect) to create a blurred background and thus enhance the relative sharpness of the sitter. I don’t know if anyone does such a technique today?

 

[frank]

I once read an interesting description about the use of 19th century backgrounds for portraits, where the background cloth was attached to a board suspended behind the sitter. This would then be swung (a sort of reverse panning effect) to create a blurred background and thus enhance the relative sharpness of the sitter. I don’t know if anyone does such a technique today?

Cool! I'd never heard that before but it makes perfect sense.

 

[snapguy]

The old swinging background trick. Well, I have never heard of it either but it sounds great. In California we just wait for the next earthquake. Seriously, think about delivery charges. Those things are bulky.I'd buy something inexpensive and experiment.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I'm starting to take some botanical portraits, and looking at different backgrounds. A few months ago, I was considering taking some portraits of people, as well, but that has yet to materialize - but hopefully it soon will. Between paper, canvas, ECT - what background would you recommend? At this point, I'm using black and white film, so just looking for a simple plain lighter color background to get started. B&H has this 'savage seamless background paper' - that seems like it may be ok for what I'm looking to do, but I thought I'd see what others opinions are..

Thanks!

white backgrounds are very common(Avedon style but ,I prefer contrast )and therefore,I use a black backgroundfor caucasian skin.for darker skin, I'd use a light background an rub the skin with baby oil for shiny highlights.but that's just me and my style

 

[tkamiya]

Botanical portrait? Do you mean "still" photography of botanical, or is this going to be photograph of people with botanical background??

Is this going to be outside or inside? What kind of lighting??

I ask all this because they make some difference in what's practical and what kind of problems you might encounter. With any photographs I make with a definite "star" subject, be it people or flowers, I try to achieve separation by not having anything else distracting by them. With nicely smooth and texture free artificial background, this is relatively easy. But few times, I ended up using paper background in not-so-good condition. I was in studio with strobes that didn't turn down so much. That meant my aperture was closed more, and that meant DOF was pretty big. I ended up having texture and crease of background being focus and rather visible. THAT didn't work well. You may encounter similar situation outdoors as well.

If this is going to be a people portrait and be outside in field (botanical), is having an artificial background even feasible?

In other times, I use no artificial background but make sure everything is de-focused and devoid of color that may be distracting. (I see you are doing B&W)

For small stuff indoors, I had used anything from towels, t-shirts, mat boards, and anything else I may have around.

 

[John Koehrer]

A small canvas painters dropcloth(6X9') from the big box store and/or velvet(~48" wide) from the fabric store.

 

[Lench]

Foam core panel + your choice of paint. Not very portable but pretty effective

 

[fotch]

The old swinging background trick. Well, I have never heard of it either but it sounds great. In California we just wait for the next earthquake. Seriously, think about delivery charges. Those things are bulky.I'd buy something inexpensive and experiment.

Ha Ha

 

[benjiboy]

I use these http://www.lastolite.com/category/61022.1067031.0.0.0/Collapsible_Backgrounds

 

[darkosaric]

I once read an interesting description about the use of 19th century backgrounds for portraits, where the background cloth was attached to a board suspended behind the sitter. This would then be swung (a sort of reverse panning effect) to create a blurred background and thus enhance the relative sharpness of the sitter. I don’t know if anyone does such a technique today?

Thanks for the interesting info . I will test this for sure.

 

[cliveh]

Thanks for the interesting info . I will test this for sure.

Please post the results on the gallery, as I think it is quite an interesting technique, particularly if applied with today's technology and one which I have never tried.