Arts and Photography tips and guide

A photographic backdrop is as important as the subject and therefore, choosing the right one can really give your photographs a stunning look. For chroma key photography, even though the background will be removed, what you choose determines the quality of the final output. If you shoot your subject against a wrong color, chances are there that you may not get a satisfactory result. Moreover, you may have to work hard to handle some extremely difficult issues that might spoil your efforts. Here are few things that you must keep in mind while using photography backdrops.

Choose contrasting colors:

Make sure that your subject is not wearing anything that matches the color of the background. If your model is wearing a green skirt or a green scarf, never choose a green backdrop, or else after chroma keying, the skirt and the scarf will visually disappear from the photograph. This rule is also applicable for smaller things such as the eye color or the color of shoe laces. In these cases, you have to use a background that is contrasting with the foreground. If your model is wearing a green dress, use a blue backdrop or a chroma key black backdrop.

Use neutral backgrounds carefully

Neutral colors such as black, white, and gray control reflections and reduce the issue of color spill. However, they create many other issues and therefore, must be used with caution. The black backdrops used in photography often create keying issues. This is because black is a very common color and, when shooting human being, it's extremely difficult to avoid this color in the foreground. A black backdrop will be good for photographing jewelleries where the chances of having something in black are very less. Similarly, white and gray are also frequently found in the foreground and therefore, used rarely.

Never use the colors that are found in the human skin tones

Colors such a red, yellow, and brown are found in the skin tones of human models and therefore, should be avoided in all circumstances. If used, you will not be able to properly key out your background. The core idea is to use a color that is not present in the foreground so that it will be easily keyed out. Green and blue are mostly preferred for photographing humans because they are least likely to be found in skin tones. Green is preferred over blue because blue is a commonly worn color.

Plan your shoot beforehand to avoid the issues of color conflicts.

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