3 Steps to a Perfect Studio Backdrop

[Melv]

Found another explanation here and got good results http://www.ephotozine.com/techniques....cfm?recid=303

[DJ Dubovsky]

Looks like you're coming along pretty good Melv. You'll just have to play around with some color blends or maybe stay close to the color like a violet with maybe pink or a blue with a light turquoise. Grey scale is good too. Black or dark grey with real light grey to white make a nice backdrop.

Now a hint about your selected image. To make it look more like an image was taken in front of your back drop or to fit into any scene you put it into, you need to soften the edges of your selections by using a softer brush if you're working in the quick mask mode. Hard edges tend to give a paper cut out look. Or if you use one of the lasso tools, apply a slight feather of maybe 5 to 10 pixels to the selection.

I liked the site you found and it seems to have helped you along. That's exactly how I taught myself to do these techniques too. I just searched for any tutorials I could find. Excellent job. You're really doing pretty good.
DJ

[GTakacs]

Here is my version of this technique!

[Melv]

Ah feather the selection! Ok that makes sense. I am using the polygonal lassoo tool do I feather it in its original place (Before I cut it) or afterwards when it has been pasted into the backgroung? I am assuming in its original place when the image has been surrounded by the marching ants of the lasso tool?
Melv

Originally Posted by DJ Dubovsky

Looks like you're coming along pretty good Melv. You'll just have to play around with some color blends or maybe stay close to the color like a violet with maybe pink or a blue with a light turquoise. Grey scale is good too. Black or dark grey with real light grey to white make a nice backdrop.

Now a hint about your selected image. To make it look more like an image was taken in front of your back drop or to fit into any scene you put it into, you need to soften the edges of your selections by using a softer brush if you're working in the quick mask mode. Hard edges tend to give a paper cut out look. Or if you use one of the lasso tools, apply a slight feather of maybe 5 to 10 pixels to the selection.

I liked the site you found and it seems to have helped you along. That's exactly how I taught myself to do these techniques too. I just searched for any tutorials I could find. Excellent job. You're really doing pretty good.
DJ

[Con Looymans]

Hi DJ,

This is probably the Late News, but I've been using a slight varioation of this for several years.

What I've been doing is creating about 4 "Background" Layers and using the Render>Clouds filter in each one. The trick is to use some different colours in each Layer and then combine them using Blend Modes or Opacity to get a nice mixture of colours. Once I'm happy with the result I flatten the Layers and apply the Render>Lighting Effects filter to compliment the lighting on the subject.

I think it just gives the whole image more "Depth".

Regards

Con Looymans

[DJ Dubovsky]

Thanks for the tip Con. I definately liked the results you got on your example. I'll have to give it a try. What I intended was to give people just the most simple basics so beyond that anything to improve that is a plus. I think the more options available to us gives us that much more control. Thanks again for giving us another good way of doing things. That's what it's all about.
DJ

[denisp]

i wonder whats the point of using such kind of 'studio' backdrops at all? those texures are there to grabb away your subject's expression and kill the image ...

a studio backdrop must be plain white/grey