Background effects

[mattchewone]

I have a nice new white/black pop up background on its way to me. How would I go about using flash gels to create different colours on the white without the colour leaking into the subject etc?

What sort of distances and set would be needed to do this. Was planning on using to flashguns one to colour the background and one to light the subject.

Thanks in advance
Matt

 

[Garry Edwards]

Basically you need to have enough space between subject and background for the light on the background not to bounce back onto the subject. How much distance this actually is will depend partly on how much power of light you put on the background and partly on the angle of incidence - if the light is hitting the background at an acute angle you can manage with far less space.

Be aware though that using lighting gels is an additive process, you are adding light to an already white background so the effect can only be a pastel colour - and the more powerful the light setting, the more pastel it will be.

If you want deeply saturated colours you need either an enormous distance between subject and background (so that very little of the light aimed at the subject reaches the background) or a grey background.

 

[mattchewone]

Thanks Garry that it's really helpful.

I did think that the subject light would blow out the colour a bit. Will have to do a bit of experimenting with distances. The background does have a grey side also would this make a difference with colours?

 

[Garry Edwards]

Yes, using the grey side will make a massive difference. Just experiment.