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In under 2 minutes we’re going to show you 2 of the most common problems we see and experience
with backdrop photography and how to correct them. We’re going to show you how to make
these easy adjustments only using 2 lights, and a simple backdrop setup. The main light
with the umbrella is the one lighting the subject and the one higher and to the right
is the one that we have specifically lighting the backdrop. If the power on the backdrop
light is turned too low and it’s not bright enough it will look a little something like
this. Obviously this is a dramatic example, but if you don’t turn you backdrop light
high enough, or you don’t have enough direct light on the backdrop, you’ll have a great
mix-match between the subject and the background and it won’t look realistic. In photoshop
you can correct this mix-match, but it’s much better to do it right the first time
and save yourself a lot of time in post-production. Turn your backdrop light up and then it looks
a little something like this. As you can see this is obviously a lot more realistic and
it will save you a lot of time in photoshop. A second problem that we commonly see is that
the shadow seems to creep up vertically behind the subject, and that’s exemplified here
on the left side. Normally you would want to see a consistent light from left to right,
but it’s darker on the left side of the subject as the shadow creeps up vertically.
This problem can be resolved by turning up the light, repositioning the light, or putting
another light (a second light) on the left side to light the backdrop. You can also have
the subject step farther away from the backdrop so that there’s a much more diffused shadow.
In a normal realistic setting, you wouldn’t see shadow behind the subject, you would only
see shadow on the ground. So our goal is to make backdrop shots look realistic, therefore
we want to defeat the shadow that creeps up vertically on the backdrop… So turn up your
lighting or adjust the positioning of your lighting so that it fully lights the backdrop
and you don’t see shadow where you don’t want it. If you position your lights correctly
and have an appropriate power setting, you should be able to alleviate a lot of time
in post-production, and have great realistic shots ready to go. Give us an email or a call
if we can help with any of your studio settings, or any advice for your backdrop setups. Stay
tuned for many more videos to come.