Portaits and Backgrounds

[BuS_RiDeR]

One of my next investments will be a background stand for portrait photography.

I am wondering how common/uncommon it is to use a Chromakey green or blue screen and substitute a background of your/the customer's choice as opposed to a pre-fab muslin, paper or other texture BG?

For example the one below that I made up really quickly in Gimp....

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

Bump... Please.

 

[MissCream]

Sorry no answer, I was wondering the same thing... My Sister in law lives in Riverview btw

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

Sorry no answer, I was wondering the same thing... My Sister in law lives in Riverview btw

Cool! Has she been here long? I've lived in Riverview for about 34-35 years now...

 

[tirediron]

Not sure why you'd want to go to the extra work unless your customer has some really specific background requirements. I would say a background frame with a light and a dark muslim and maybe a roll of seamless white would meet 99.9% of all requirements.

 

[MissCream]

I would say a background frame with a light and a dark muslim and maybe a roll of seamless white would meet 99.9% of all requirements.

Hehe I think you mean muslin.

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

Not sure why you'd want to go to the extra work unless your customer has some really specific background requirements. I would say a background frame with a light and a dark muslim and maybe a roll of seamless white would meet 99.9% of all requirements.

Thats what I was thinking... But I have some pre-made high rez ones that I made up a while back... As far as more work... if a Chroma key background is used. It only takes a few seconds to add a background layer and mask out the green/blue/whatever in Gimp..

I see the advantages of both... I just want to know what other people do as well.

 

[tirediron]

I would say a background frame with a light and a dark muslim and maybe a roll of seamless white would meet 99.9% of all requirements.

Hehe I think you mean muslin.

:er: oops...

 

[Big Mike]

There are some photographers who use digital backgrounds, but there is a big difference between just doing it, and making it look good. I consider it mostly a gimmicky type of thing.

You don't really need to use Chroma-Key (blue or green etc.), as long as your subject doesn't blend into the background (which you can control with lighting) you can extract your subject from the background. In fact, the chroma-key backgrounds present an additional problem in that you have be careful of that color being bounced back onto your subjects and coloring them.

It only takes a few seconds to add a background layer and mask out the green/blue/whatever in Gimp..

Few seconds to do....maybe a lot longer to actually make it look good.

There are many other ways to get creative with your backgrounds. With a grey backdrop and a set of color gels, you can get many different colors. You can create patterns or gradients by the way you light it.
And believe me, it's so much better to get your backgrounds 'in-camera'...because spending a lot of time fixing the backgrounds on a whole set of images, really sucks.

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

Few seconds to do....maybe a lot longer to actually make it look good.

Good point.

it's so much better to get your backgrounds 'in-camera'...because spending a lot of time fixing the backgrounds on a whole set of images, really sucks.

This makes sense as well. Thanks for the input.