Setting up the background of close up pictures
Setting up the background of close up pictures | ||
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For most kinds of close-up pictures, the background you use is very important. In all cases, the background should complement the main subject and not distract the viewer's attention from it, just as with any carefully composed photograph. For models, insects, or other subjects that have a distinctive environment, you might want to create a background that pictures or simulates that environment realistically. The best way to do that is to actually use the true environment in your photo, which may be possible if you're shooting on location. You'll probably want to clean up the surroundings a bit, removing stray rocks and twigs from a floral photograph, for example. Trim dead leaves or foliage with cuts and tears. Your goal should be to preserve the natural background without having it look unattractive or cluttered. Other types of pictures call for plain backgrounds with no detail at all, so the viewer's attention is totally focused on your subject matter. Seamless white backgrounds, black backdrops, or backgrounds with a small amount of texture might be what you're looking for. Just remember that an unobtrusive background does not have to be a black hole of nothingness. Something as simple as a soft shadow on the background can bring your subject to three-dimensional life and keep it from appearing to be a flat cutout. For close-up photography in a studio, backgrounds should generally be plain, so they won't detract from the object being photographed. One popular type of background is the so-called seamless backdrop, which combines the surface that the subject rests on and the vertical background behind it, with a smooth, often invisible transition between them. Seamless backgrounds are extremely flexible, because you can go for the "seamless" look or use lighting to provide different amounts of illumination on the foreground and background, producing a degree of separation that is still smooth and non-distracting. Use the poster board as backgroundThe poster board you purchased as a reflector can also double as a seamless background. Posterboard is not quite as good as rolls of seamless paper, because the sheets aren't really large enough if your close-ups will involve anything that's more than a few inches on a side. You'll find that the background or foreground (or both) aren't large enough to let you choose different angles (nothing beats a long roll of paper that's 4 feet wide or more in such cases). Posterboard is also more difficult to manage: it's rigid and may not stay where you want it without taping or propping up. However, posterboard is cheap, so you can have lots of colors. | ||