11. Studio backgrounds

Backgrounds are the foundation on which we build our photographs. A background can make or break an image, so it’s crucial that you understand how to work with them.

There are a multitude of choices when it comes to backgrounds, both for studio photography and work on location. This photography class covers the main types of backgrounds and features a bonus clip on how to make your own.

This photography class also covers:

  • Commonly used materials for backgrounds
  • The most versatile background colors
  • How to change your background colors using lighting modifiers
  • Making your own photography background
  • Portable backgrounds for location work
  • Infinity coves

To learn how to make your own canvas background, watch our ‘Making a canvas backdrop‘ photography class.

NOTE: This photography class is available with English subtitles.

Comments

  1. One question Karl, technical. Why do all videos seem to fail to stream – they all pause at 0:12, and I have to manually skip the first 12 seconds manually for virtually all videos so far!

    1. Hi Gregg, I’ll pass your comments on to our tech team but we are not having any issues here. Please check your connection speeds and that there are not other people downloading high levels of data at the same time as you. If you are still experiencing problems please email us with your operating system and computer details and we can look into this further.

      1. I have found the solution.
        Forcing the quality to be 1080p (or higher) before pressing play fixes the issue.

        Don’t know if it’s possible via wordpress+vimeo combination here, but if its so – I’d love a setting that would make that an automatic choice.

        To be fair, watching some of these tutorials in lower than 1080p resolution is quite pointless anyway!

        1. Hi Gregg
          I am having the same problem and usually refreshing resolves the issue m(stop the video, press refresh icon then try again – you may have to do it a couple of times), otherwise I cannot get past the first 12 seconds until I refresh – it just goes in to a constant loading cycle.
          Regards

          1. I think it’s the Vimeo issue, sadly. Yes, refreshing helps here too.

  2. Hey Karl, you may want to move the 12-foot paper a bit to the right as it’s covering the emergency exit.

    David

  3. Karl, I love the fancy lever rolling background system you are using in the studio. I would like to get rid of the hanging chains and I do not really trust the electric drives so this looks like perfect solution.
    However, I was not able to find anything like that on internet. Could you let me know who produces those?

    Thanks a lot for your help.

    Cheers, Tomas

    1. Hi Thomas, this is a Colorama background system which is owned by Manfrotto. It may be under thier Lastolite brand now?

  4. Hi Karl
    Can you tell me what the size of the plasterboard is? I looked it up and it seems that it can be bought in a number of sizes.
    Thanks
    Tim

  5. Hi Karl.. I do think the light meter has its use a much as it may not be the best tool for creative work. Where the shoe was introduced to show a different material would require that the light reading is done again for that specific subject in my opinion.

  6. Hi Karl , thanks for your great videos . I want to say that it exist colored papers background bigger , I am buyinf them at Calumet , 2,72m large .

  7. Is Hardboard Wood? What does MDF stand for? I love that infinity cove because, well, it looks like it goes on for infinity.

  8. If you are looking to create a wide canvas backdrop theatre supply companies can be a good place to look and normally supply canvas in extra wide widths.

  12. I’ve found canvas to be far superior to muslin in terms of it’s resistance to wrinkling even though it’s a bit heavier. Another great lesson.

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