Photo Backdrops...

[Mungo Zen]

I hope this is the right place for this question...

I have been working at setting up a photo area for minis and have been doing a bunch of reading on it. Mostly on the camera work and lighting, but now I have come to the backdrops and have a question.

Traditionally it seems that people use a white to blue fade up on a matt paper. Has anyone tried any of the following with any success?

- backdrop colours starting with cream rather then white, and blending up to greens or yellows? other colours?

- backdrops blending colour to colour, such as a tan to blue or green to blue?

- rather then using a pure blend, using a blocky blend (read hand painted with a 2 inch brush style)? or a cloud style? other kinds of distortion to the blend?

If anyone has any suggestions for backdrops please let me know. I will likely take the top 3 recommended ones and get them printed off and see what happens. Oh, one other thing, what size is a good size backdrop? I was thinking of getting 11 x 17 inch. Will that be big enough or too big?

 

[Greymane]

Fades

Blue graduated fades or white seem to be the weapon of choice on the site.
I have a pink/violet backboard (an accident due to the blue running out on my printer ) which is OK but I find that experimentation is the only way to go.
Some colours detract from the effect and can clash with the mini.
I think your Idea to try a few is the best way to go.

 

[airhead]

The blues tend to counteract the yellows in the incandesent lights as well as provide contract for the yellows in fleshtones. One of my airbrush instructors favorite lines is \"yellow is the color of life.\" Almost all live things include yellow (browns, oranges and greens).

A tan backdrop will clash with the yellows.

Look at professional portrait photographers. They use blue backdrops or greys as a general rule.

Now, if we are not talking about \"fleshed\" minis. Then alternate color backdrops might work fine. (light green for red space marines, etc.)

 

[vincegamer]

I used a lot of different fabric backs in the past. Currently the only things I use are the white/blue fade and for figures with a lot of white I sometimes use a piece of black velvet.

 

[t_haye2]

the problem with heavily coloured backdrops and digital photogrpahy is that hte camera will \'read\' the backdrop as a normal white most of the time. this means that the backdrop will always influence the tone of the figure, red backdrop, your ultramarine will become purple etc. that\'s why the blue to white fade(although mostly done in photoshop atferwards), and light grey backdrops are best, they have the least influence

 

[Mungo Zen]

Ok, so blue sounds like it has a good reason to be used. What about patterns then. Nothing major, but subtle blocks or clouds of colour blends, maintaining a white and blue mix. Any ideas or comments on this?

Oh and sizes? 11 x 17 is to...

Thanks guys and gals

 

[flynn]

Originally posted by t_haye2
that\'s why the blue to white fade(although mostly done in photoshop atferwards), and light grey backdrops are best, they have the least influence

People actually add the blue to white fade afterwards with photoshop? Really? I just printed up a blue to white sheet of paper on my photo printer and have used it as my backdrop ever since.

 

[Sand Rat]

I\'ve got the blue to white fade, but use a slightly different blue background - the inside of a blue hanging folder, since to me it is slightly more neutral than the fade backdrop. You may want to check at your local photo shop and see if they have an 18% grey card - a standard backdrop for photographers.

 

[Chrispy]

I use an 18 x 14 piece of paper I\'ve airbrushed to fade from blue to the paper colro. I think it\'s starting to age, as it faces my window so I might have to get a whiter piece or paint it again.. This may explain why all my minis seem yellow on teh pics from my camera... :]

 

[Nelson]

I printed out a blue and white gradient, and I think it works great, \'cause even if you don\'t have a great printer (me, for example) you won\'t notice any grain in the print quality, cause it\'s all out of focus. Can\'t say I\'ve ever tried to photoshop it in, but it might work a bit better as you won\'t have any shadows showing.

 

[airhead]

Mungo,
He is a backdrop in JPG for you. backdrop

I have found that 8.5 x 11 (standard letter) is fine for most minis. Start doing tanks, dragons or 54 mm stuff and you will obviously want to go bigger.

 

[Mungo Zen]

Thanks guys, and airhead for the backdrop.

 

[Klute]

I use a self printed A4 blue to white.Ive also got smaller ones so you get the full gradient on the pic.

 

[IronWorker]

Originally posted by t_haye2
the problem with heavily coloured backdrops and digital photogrpahy is that hte camera will \'read\' the backdrop as a normal white most of the time. this means that the backdrop will always influence the tone of the figure, red backdrop, your ultramarine will become purple etc. that\'s why the blue to white fade(although mostly done in photoshop atferwards), and light grey backdrops are best, they have the least influence

If you have a good enough digital camera you can combat that problem by setting a custom white balance. That is basically telling the camera what is actually white and it really helps get the colors right from the get go. I\'m not sure what level of camera you can get that feature on but all the higher end ones have it. It really is far better than an auto white balance which usually does what you just explained.

 

[Mungo Zen]

lol, well now there is a practical application for that feature. I have Canon A70 and it has auto/manual white balance, but I have never used it before. I spend too much time fiddling with focusing stuff.

 

[Chrispy]

Oh, in all my haste I forgot to mention, if you tape the sheet to the ground and then curve it and tape it to something standing up, you get those profesional photos that GW or Rackham uses. I once saw the same thing for a company\'s photoroom.. it looked like a skatboard wall, but there is no horizon line, thus making it look like your floating in space.