Did I mess up with the yellow background?

Tittan · Feb 23, 2015

I had some free time, a friend who is a makeup artist had some free time, and another friend who like to be in front of the camera also had some free time, so we had a go in the studio. The makeup was great, but I fear I messed it up by adding a yellow background. What do you guys think?

Forkie · Feb 23, 2015

Yeah, it doesn't really help your model stand out. But it's easily changeable in Photoshop.

You need a good complimentary colour to make the yellow eye make-up really pop. The opposite colour to yellow on the colour wheel is blue. Change the background to blue and mask it off the yellow eyeshadow.

runnah · Feb 23, 2015

yes, changing it in post will only make for a confusing image because there is a ton of yellow cast off from the background on the model's face.

Maybe some color grading would do the trick.

Forkie · Feb 23, 2015

Yes, as Runnah said, and I didn't mention, if you change the background colour, you will need to adjust the skintones of the model too, otherwise it will look like it's been changed afterwards.

Tittan · Feb 23, 2015

Thanks guys, I'll try my best and show you the result.

runnah · Feb 23, 2015

Let us edit and we can help.

Derrel · Feb 23, 2015

My experiences with using light-colored gels on white backgrounds have been more unfavorable than favorable. for whatever reasons. I've found that shooting gelled studio flash at white or cream-colored paper can easily lead to a lot of what I call "blowback", which is what you have in shot #1. Blowback is where the background light comes back to the subject and wraps around the sides of the head and or body...in this case, shot #1 has a strong yellow light outline. The second shot has eliminated/avoided that problem of blowback. I've had better luck using thunder gray paper when I want to make pastel-hued backgrounds. The gray reflects a lot less light than white, and for the lights I have, which do not dial down very low, the gray paper's end results are a lot less prone to what I call "color pollution", where a big sheet of white paper bounces colored light all over the shooting area, which is what I see here...her skin has a lot of color pollution in it, due to the gelled light spilling all over the shooting area.