Experimenting with projected backdrop

[APHPHOTO]

Very cool.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

How are you lighting the foreground subjects?

 

[Tazman32]

Well, my lighting is simple really. Umbrella camera left(Flagged from the projection), Reflector camera right beside subject, hair light high(snooted so as not to spill on projection) right or left depending, and CLS ttl CH A @ -3 for the key and CLS manual CHB for the hair light. sb-700's for key and hair. Pop up flash for the commander. I am using the D800 with 70-200 @ around 150mm @ around F6. I'm shooting in my basement here and the ceiling is fairly low around 8 ft. so I can get head shots ok but full length or even 3/4 would be difficult full length would be undoable I think.

 

[fokker]

These are very well done. I like the first one the best.

 

[Rebekah5280]

This is great! What do you mean a flag between the umbrella and the projected light?? Can you do a pull back shot??? I'm a very visual person. lol

 

[Tazman32]

Rebekah5280 A flag is used here so that it prevents the light witch is lighting the subject from spilling on to the projected background image. If a flag is not used, especially with the umbrella because it throws light everywhere, the projected image would become washed out and dull. Picture a black curtain 5 or 6 feet wide (in this case) hanging from the ceiling to the floor in front of the umbrella that is lighting the subject. A flag can really be anything that blocks a light source.

 

[cynicaster]

These are great. Very inspiring, thanks for sharing.

Come to think of it, I did something very similar last year on a much smaller scale. I was photographing my great grandfather’s dogtags from the first World War, and wanted a flag in the wind as a backdrop. I had a flag photo kicking around so I displayed it on my iPad, put it in the background, and lit the dogtag with a snooted speedlight camera left. I dialed in the flash exposure on the dogtag, and then by varying the shutter speed I was able to tweak the saturation of the background image. Of course, I had to crop the photo quite a bit so as to not reveal the iPad, but I was actually quite surprised at how well it turned out; what started out as a silly time-killer experiment resulted in a photo that my grandmother now has framed in her living room.

 

[Big Mike]

This used to be much more popular. These days it's often 'easier' to shoot on a clean background (often chromakey) and swap in a background digitally. Although, if you have the projector and know how to light it correctly, I think it's a lot easier to do it this way, than to do it digitally.


To OP.
My one suggestion, would be to adjust your WB or even color the light you're using for the subject, because the 'pure white' light on the subject, doesn't necessarily jive with the background scene.

 

[Tazman32]

Thanks cynicaster. The ipad sounds like a good idea for backgrounds for smaller subjects. I lit some chess pieces once with the ipad whilst goofin around. Nice little soft light