In short, anything! I keep several king-sized flat bedsheets wadded up in a
quickbag, along with one or two "real" backdrops -- a big grey muslin, a
purple nylon mesh (doesn't show wrinkles much), along with black, white, cream
sheets, and one (expensive!) sheet of red satin. You can light from the front
in traditional style, or fire a light from behind the backdrop for an unusual
effect.
In-house, I keep roll paper handy -- black and white, of course, but I've had
alot of fun shooting on red/crimson -- really versatile. If you go for blue,
keep it darker -- light blue is tough, only works for some subjects. And I've
never felt satisfied with greens or yellows -- yech! -- but plants may do OK.
W/B&W film, of course, you can use filters to darken/lighten your subject in
relation to the backdrop anyway.
Just for fun, I've shot using bamboo shades as a backdrop, bricks, bookcases,
paneling that looked like tile, you name it!
voop@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Just a question for the portrait wizzards out there: what do you use as
> backdrop for portraits? In the past, when doing portraits (and similar
> things), I've been gifted by access to a pro studio, or I've been able to
> do with "the nature". But since moving to France, studio-access is a
> couple of hours away in an airplane, and nature...well...not pratical.
>
> I've been wondering if the "way to go" is to invest in a couple of
> "real" backdrops (and if so, which come reccomended?), or if there are
> other methods (fabric etc.) that are as good. I've not given much thought
> to this in the past since backdrops were just "there" - but advice before
> investing would be good ;)
>
> The target will be to have something usefull for two different kinds of
> work: one for (mainly b/w) work on portraits in the classical sense. The
> other will be for photographing bonsai's (another passion), both b/w and
> color. For the bonsai's both black and white backdrops will be required, I
> suppose.
>
> Any reccomendations?
>
> --
>
> -------------------------------------------
> Thomas Heide Clausen
> Civilingeniør i Datateknik (cand.polyt)
> M.Sc in Computer Engineering
>
> E-Mail: T.Clausen@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> WWW: http://www.cs.auc.dk/~voop
> -------------------------------------------
>
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