Photography Challenge 9/19

[scraprascal]

Photography Challenge 9/19

I love the photography challenge for two reasons; the first being the sheer amount of beautiful art I get to see every time there is a new challenge and the second being the sheer amount of knowledge I glean from each participant!! It's time for another photography challenge, so I hope you all are ready to give it a go!

I know we all find ourselves drooling over certain qualities in a photo, and particularly aspire to really make our subject stand out. This challenge is to make yourself a backdrop and get creative with it! It doesn't matter what you use or your subject matter, just make your subject the sole focus of your photo and the background secondary! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

I did find an interesting link for you that talks about making your own backdrop from muslin...now, I'm really not expecting you to go that far, just thought it would spark some ideas! Making Your Own Backdrop (http://www.betterphoto.com/exploring/MakingBackDrops.asp)

Just for kicks, I'll share my photo that sparked this idea with you; This is my daughter's "Smelling Blanket" I wanted to make a layout about it, so I wrapped her up in, put her in my desk chair, wrapped the rest over the back and pushed her in front of the window! Hope that you have a blast with this one!
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y216/scraprascal/Smelling-Blanket.jpg

[HillsCass]

I've been waiting for the next challenge with bated breath! I love using my own backdrops, my personal favourite is a hideously misdyed dark PURPLE sheet that has paint stains on it too - it looks great and grungy!! especially for b/w or sepia.

I was experimenting with this a few weeks ago, and came up with this one...... now you have to work out what I used and how I did it.

This should get the brain cells ticking!

Candle (http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1946&cat=532)

[Nevermore]

Cassie, are we to assume that this bg is in real life? Or did you create it in a graphics program?

[HillsCass]

Apart from a small amount of post processing done to the actual photo, everything else is very real! I'm not that good, honest.... :) If I was I'd be doing all sorts of things like designing my own papers.... it's just a photo, not a trick!

[Nevermore]

Miss Cassie, I could whip this background up in about 2 seconds in photoshop but I have no clue whatsoever how you did it in real life--so I think you are very very good! I am dying here, ok? When are you going to let us know?

[SAHMom]

Okay, I cheated by using some OLD photos.. hopefully I can do something in the next week too!

I knew I would be converting the photo of Thomas.. because I wanted to do the selective coloring on the "Hug Me" part of his shirt.... so I wanted a dark background... and all I could find was a large piece of BLUE felt.. haha! I do like how it made his eyes REALLY look blue and his hair REALLY red.

http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1984&limit=recent (color)

http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1985&limit=recent (converted)


The Grace one, she just decided she wanted me to take her photo.. but once converted, it's still one of my favorites. BRIGHT ROYAL BLUE backdrop and all.. LOL

http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1983&limit=recent (color)

http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1986&cat=532 (converted)

[HillsCass]

So Sarah, (Annie Girl) gets the prize, even though she doesn't realise it!!

It was a humble piece of paper!! Plain turquoise blue paper (A4 size even!) from my stash.

I propped it against an upended tissue box (Height!) and let the bottom curve naturally down, then plopped the candle onto it at the bottom.

By bouncing my flash (external, but there are ways around this too...) off the ceiling I was able to get really close but still get a natural diffuse light - this was shot about 9pm at night in my kitchen.

I had to do some very close shooting to make sure no other stuff crept it, but the result was totally amazing!

I grabbed anything and everything from the cupboard to experiment, this background colour for still life is really very good, makes the browny yellow tones really pop.

Here's another one from that night for you.

Apple (http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1992&cat=532)

Sorry if I gave anyone a sleepless night over this one - but I just wanted to prove that a backdrop is limited only by your imagination! :)

[Annie Girl]

And I love your imagination! This is so cool. Just a little piece of paper! I love the color, and red looks great against it.

If you want to use paper on a larger scale. There is this stuff called seamless paper (http://shop.store.yahoo.com/cinemasupplies/seamlesspaper.html)
I've never used it myself but I've seen it used, and it looks very much like what you did. It comes in 2 sizes I think. And for about $40 (without the stand) I think it's compariable in price to yards and yards of fabric. The smaller size might be good for a one person portrait, and the larger for family portraits.

I'm going to keep your method in mind the next time I need to photograph a small object. Your photos look so professional. And I couldn't tell that you used the flash. Very cool!

P.S. What's the prize? :p J/K

[Annie Girl]

For backdrops I've used a white bed sheet before. It's not really long enough, but it works okay. I also bought some black fabric, but I don't think I bought a long enough piece of the that either. They say to place your subject about 4 feet from the back of the backdrop if you can. This way you can blur your surroundings more then you could if the person is tight up against whatever you choose to use for your background. If you can afford it, get 12 to 15 feet of fabric. Place your subject 4ft from the backdrop, and you should have enough fabric to be laying on the floor in front of them.

If your fabric is not long enough for the person to sit on and still be 4ft from the wall of fabric, I've seen a chair placed 4 ft from a hanging piece of fabric have smashing results as well. I'll probably be using the second method here for this challenge. Now I have to think where in my house I can set it up next to a window. :p

[Nevermore]

It was a humble piece of paper!! Plain turquoise blue paper (A4 size even!) from my stash.



I am rolling on the floor laughing! Unbelievable effect you got. The reason I am laughing so hard is that I used pieces of coloured paper to create a grid for my background and used----Apples! for my photo! I sure didn't get the effect you did but my paper was lying on the floor with the apples on top of it and I had to take the pictures from way up on a chair bending over them. I think it is kind of nutty that apples and paper came together in two households for a photoshoot! :D


http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1964&cat=500&ppuser=1423

[Candylouu]

Haven't been doing these as I would like to but here is my submission...
http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=1994&cat=500&ppuser=565

Thanks, Jenn- you have wonderful challenges!

[Annie Girl]

I posted mine. Here's One (http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2003&cat=532) and the other 2 are next to it.

This was a great Challenge, Jenn. The photos didn't turn out as well as I was hoping, but I got a few poses that I like. When I learn more about how to get the proper exposure I'm going to try it with this backdrop again. Thanks.

[suburban_chick]

This one is my comforter:
http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2029&cat=532

A bath towel:
http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2028&cat=532

And a sheet:
http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2030&cat=532

I love using everyday items as backdrops! When Chloe was a baby I used to drape a blanket over whatever she was sitting in. :)

[NishaM]

Here is mine :cool:

Honeyeater (http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2102&cat=500&ppuser=1449)

[ScrapNGirl]

ok, mines a bit more traditional... just a black piece of fabric! lol

my backdrop challenge (http://www.scrapartist.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2136&cat=532)

[kander]

Great idea!
I was talking with a photographer friend of mine and she was telling me that this is how they shoot products for catalogues and flyers too, they often use a piece of white bristol board so there are no lines in the background.
Kirsten