Thanks. This is a good assortment of basic suggestions. I guess that they sort of summarize to: Pay attention to what's in the background, and adjust composition and lighting appropriately.
On Sep 5, 2011, at 8:01 AM, Bruce Walker wrote: > On 11-09-05 4:09 AM, Larry Colen wrote: >> A couple weeks ago, someone commented that most of my portraits have black >> backgrounds. I do that because not lighting a black background is the >> easiest way to get rid of clutter that can ruin a shot. I've also realized >> that when I'm photographing musicians, I tend to compose in tight, often >> cropping out portions of their head, in my pursuit of getting rid of >> anything that might be clutter in the background. >> >> I also find that I tend to shoot from further away, with a longer lens, to >> narrow the angle of view, and have fewer things cluttering up the >> background. Even if that means that there is a smaller ratio of distance to >> the subject to distance to the background, which conflicts with the >> shallower depth of field of a long lens, to use DoF to blur out the >> background. >> >> There are all sorts of reasons why just making the background, and the >> clutter in it, go away, is a really great cheat > > The word you want there is "technique". :) > > >> for making good photographs. It's often a lot more effort to make a >> background work, than to get rid of it. So, it seems to me, that one thing >> that I need to work on is to learn how to use the backgrounds, rather than >> just making them go away. Or, at least, learn some new ways of making the >> background go away. >> >> What sorts of techniques do you use to make use of backgrounds in your >> photos? What do you look for in a background that'll improve the shot, or >> ruin it? > > Things I do: > > * if you can, choose your background (obvious). > o looking for: uniformity. Eg: simple repeating pattern, texture; > low contrast. Nothing in it brighter than foreground; Elements > that are easy to clone out later, if necessary. > o pick a different room or area; move or rearrange the furniture. > o maybe the background adds to "the story". Eg: pub fixtures when > shooting a bar band. > o temporarily hang a rug on the wall. > o get an assistant to hold a reflector up behind the subject if > you're doing a headshot. I find a 42" 5-in-1 will work with two > people close together. Some PS cloning later to get the corners > filled-in if the coverage wasn't *quite* all there. > * if you can't choose your background, choose your point-of-view to > get a better background. > o perhaps stand off to the side rather than front and center. > o get lower or higher to shift the background's horizon, hopefully > out of the shot altogether. > o raise the camera over your head on a monopod. A "Hail Mary" shot. > * use your foreground to hide parts of the background. Eg: arrange for > your subject to be in front of distracting elements, like stuff on > the wall. > * choose a low-contrast background. A higher contrast subject stands > out well in front of a low-contrast background. > * if you can, light the background evenly so as to reduce its > contrast. Eg: add a little fill light to the background (but don't > let it get brighter than the subject). > * if you're using a black backdrop, light it with a coloured gel. > Create a pleasing oval or circle of blue light behind a portrait > subject. > * blow out the background. If you make the background more than 2 > stops brighter than the subject it goes white. Eg: shoot in front of > a window; you'll have to front-light your subject, and spot-meter > the background and subject to maintain the 2-3 stops ratio. > * DoF your background into oblivion. This is where the argument that > "we don't need large aperture lenses any more because ISO goes so > high" becomes nonsense. > * Photoshop the background: blur it; darken it; lighten it; make it > very low contrast. PS CS5 makes it especially easy to extract > subjects so you can modify the background. It's also easy to use the > Lightroom adjustment brush to "blow out" background areas by raising > the exposure 3 stops. > > > -bmw > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
