Lighting coloured backdrops in the studio

Techniques

25 October 2007 16:01

While it’s best to start off shooting on a white background, you will eventually want to start using different colours to add impact. Unless you are trying to create a special effect, then you will want to stick to matt-finish backgrounds.

In our experience, the easiest and cheapest solution is some large coloured card from an art shop – it doesn’t wrinkle easily and is simple to tape into a curve. You could use material such as old curtains but when you are working with small subjects, the texture of the material will become more apparent and may ruin your shot.

Whatever you decide to use, once you add a coloured background you will have to take more control over the shadows cast by your subject. The shadows will really stand out on the coloured background and the true colour of the background won’t be accurately rendered in your images. To get around this, you will need to add a background light.

As the name suggests, this is simply a light that illuminates your background, bringing out the colour more vividly and neutralising the majority of shadows. In order to bring out the colours in your background you need to take some time to make sure that enough light is hitting it. The trouble is that you also need to take care that the light isn’t bouncing forwards and lighting your main subject.

With larger subjects you can minimise your shadows by moving the subject further away from your background, this will serve to soften the shadows and make them appear less defined. With smaller subjects on small backgrounds, as shown here, it can be a little trickier but we’ll show you a simple way to make it work.

Two-light standard: The standard two-light set-up will ensure your subject is well lit but as the subject is so close to the background you are very likely to get nasty shadows across it. Without any light on the background it will look very dull and need a lot of work in Photoshop afterwards. Ideally we’d use a third light as the background light but most users will only have a two-light kit, so here’s how you can get it right in three easy-to-follow stages...

Main light only: To improve on the standard set-up, start with the main light. Position it at the standard 45-degree angle around 3ft away from the subject. The flash head should be level with the height of the subject or slightly above. Set the power so that none of the subject’s highlights are blown out. To check this, take a shot and review it on the LCD monitor and adjust the power. Just using the main light alone will cast a big shadow across the background and create shadows on the other side of your subject.

Main light with reflector: Now we can easily get rid of the shadows on the subject by adding a reflector. As before, you can use almost anything as a reflector with a simple piece of thick white paper or card being the cheapest option. Position the reflector so that it bounces the light back onto the dark side of the subject, and as you move it around you should be able to see the shadows lighten and the face become much more evenly lit.

Background light only: You can now switch off the main light for a moment. Our background is small compared to the subject, so we’ve lit directly from above and behind. Position the stand behind the background and tilt it down to lose any shadows. The background light should be less powerful than your main light or you’ll risk more shadows. With a larger background where the subject is further away, place the flash to one side to spread the light evenly.

Final set-up: Switch all the lights on and the face is well lit and the background has a bare minimum of shadows, but most importantly it really shines out with a bright and vivid red tone. If you compare this shot with the same shot on white, you can clearly see why you should vary your background colours. Here the white on red combination creates a far more interesting picture.