I have seen the subject in my search but not the answer I am looking for. I am wondering how a background is changed to a solid color, or are the pictures I am seeing shot on that color to begin with? I am mostly talking about white and black. Is this maybe what you are talking about high key and low key.
thank you and I am sorry if this is a question that has been answered a gazillion times.
Hi SheliaAnne! A lot of the photos in black and white that have solid backgrounds are shot on light or dark backgrounds. High key photography actually lights the background to make it really light. You can certainly do some manipulation that can be done to replace backgrounds in photoshop or to lighten or darken the original background. It really is easier to shoot with the light or dark background though. A continuous background is great too so you don't get any lines in the photo. this was shot on a white background with a lot of light on it:
this was shot on a black background with the light only on the subject:
I am by no means an expert just a hobbyist and maybe others can shed some more "light" on the matter!
365 is a great place to learn! I liked your edit of your Fiesta Ware! great job!
@jackies365 this was exactly what I was trying to figure out. I just didn't know if people were setting up their shots on the specific background (which it sounds like you are) or if they were being manipulated in PS (which I am very new to).
thank you very much!
@sheilaanne this is actually bulletin board fadeless paper I bought a roll at Hobby Lobby on sale for $5 lol! if it rips or gets dirty I just roll out some more! I have used freezer paper and 11x14 white copy paper for white backgrounds too but now I have some curtain lining I use for white.
I always shoot a high key on a lighter background and low key on a darker back ground if possible, failing that I use Lightroom for a bit of manipulation which always seems to work well. Lighting plays a huge part as well - I can highly recommend at least a ring flash! We also made a lightbox for high key shots as well, which works really well.
@graemestevens I am just playing with LR. It seems to be a great program...I just need to get it all figured out. Ohh a ring flash, I just had to look that up! suggestions? Thank you very much for your help. @jackies365 I am headed to the craft store!
@sheilaanne I spent $75NZ on an after market one that seems to work just fine - I didn't see the point in spending big money on something that I just wanted to try first - and I highly recommend a light box of some sort as well. Lightroom is excellent but there's a lot to learn - I have a big fat book for it that I've never opened...trial and error
Black backgrounds for lo-key can be helped a lot with a low power flash setting and the fastest shutter speed possible. Shoot "M" and lower the ISO (no auto-ISO), dial in a stop or two of "flash compensation" and get as close to the subject as feasible with as much space behind the subject to the background as you can. Especially if you have an "advanced" camera (your D7100 will be fine, Custom Setting e1 and choose one of the two "fp" - focal plane - settings) and a hot shoe flash supporting "high speed synch" you can do well with shutter speeds all the way up to 1/2,000 or even more. Without having to have any special treatment of the back, and there will be a "natural" tapering off of the power as the flash fires many times. Off camera remote flashes too rather than a flash mounted on the camera will help with the "edge" lighting too especially for larger figures, but that is nothing to do much with the background per se.
As for editing, big Photoshop (Elements is most serviceable too) with layers and selection and masks and selective exposure adjustments can do even better than Lightroom/basic Camera Raw, but it's not trivial to do a full background exchange that looks realistic. "Compositing" it's sometimes called in its full manifestation.
Depending on the background, you can increase or decrease the light to make the background black or white, but it depends on the picture and the subject.
This photo didn't originally have a black background, it was dark green. But, because the gladiola was white, I was able to darken it enough to make the background black.
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this was shot on a black background with the light only on the subject:
I am by no means an expert just a hobbyist and maybe others can shed some more "light" on the matter!
365 is a great place to learn! I liked your edit of your Fiesta Ware! great job!
thank you very much!
@jackies365 I am headed to the craft store!
As for editing, big Photoshop (Elements is most serviceable too) with layers and selection and masks and selective exposure adjustments can do even better than Lightroom/basic Camera Raw, but it's not trivial to do a full background exchange that looks realistic. "Compositing" it's sometimes called in its full manifestation.
This photo didn't originally have a black background, it was dark green. But, because the gladiola was white, I was able to darken it enough to make the background black.