Hi all several other togs have asked me how we get those lovely colored studio backgrounds great for all kinds of fun photography. The technique is simple really all you need is a selection of colored gels to achieve colorful backgrounds.
The background we currently use is a medium grey paper roll purchased from Calumet not white, you really don’t need a white background to produce these gorgeous colored backgrounds, or for that matter a white or black background.
For white background, the meter needs to show + 3/4 to 1stop over the key,
No more!! what they say in the books is wrong. (White Background)
If using a grey background +1.3 stops. to create RGB 255,255,255. (White) if you use two or three stops it basicaly becomes the key light, hence why you get the white background light bleeding on the subject.
All people see the colour white differently, for a bench mark open photo shop great a canvas and fill with RGB colour 255,255,255 this will be pure white. other variables are screen calibration, temp. WB, Paper, printer.
Example with the background light set at key + 1 stop place a colored gel on the front of the light clipping the gel to the spill reflector. if your getting a hot spot behind the subject your light maybe too close to the background.
To saturate the colour further either lower your power on the strobe or reduce your shutter speed.
Set up, Elinchrom Ranger RX power pack on a boom, Rotorlux 70cm Octobox soft box with front removed shooting into a Lastolite tri-flector. One Elinchrom Ranger Quadra for background light 2 x Calumet 6 x 4 black reflectors 1 x Calumet medium grey paper background, Model with no hair :-( Dorothy from ebay.
Settings used 200 sec f6.3 100 iso (lens 105mm 2.8)
Have Fun!
