Pet Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots by Alan Hess

Author:Alan Hess [Hess, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Pearson Education
Published: 2014-09-28T21:00:00+00:00

Choosing a Background

The background of your portrait can make or break your photo. The background needs to add either a sense of place and time to the image, or it needs to be plain and nondistracting so as not to draw attention away from the subject.

One of the easiest ways to create a simple background is to use a plain backdrop. Some great options for backgrounds include:

• Collapsible backdrops. These backdrops are built like regular reflectors or diffusers, but instead of using reflective or semitransparent material they are solid colors on both sides, such as black and white or yellow and orange. Lastolite Plain Collapsible Backgrounds sell for about $200 for the 6×7-foot large models or $140 for the smaller 5×6-foot reversible models. Also, the 6×7-foot Black/White Collapsible Backdrops from Westcott are available for about $240. All these backdrops collapse to a compact size for ease of use on location and for storage.

• Black foamboard. This is the cheapest and easiest background material you can use, and is my favorite, especially when I’m photographing small pets. Any good art supply store will have pieces of black foamboard in stock. You only need a piece larger than the pet you want to photograph, so it’s perfect to use when you’re photographing cats or small dogs.

• Backdrop stand and seamless paper. Seamless paper has long been a standard in portrait photography. To use seamless paper, you need to hang the roll from a backdrop stand; therefore, you’ll need to purchase a stand as well if you don’t already have one. The seamless rolls come in various sizes; the smallest is usually 53 inches wide by 12 yards long. This is a good solution if you already have a backdrop stand and just need to buy some seamless paper.

• 30-inch solid black block. This solid, black light modifier from Westcott makes a perfect backdrop for small pets at a great price. It’s only 30×20 inches, but it collapses down to one-third its size, making it easy to pack and use on location. It is built to last and costs only $50.

Using a plain backdrop gives you several options when choosing locations for your pet portraits. You can see a setup shot in Figure 6.2 and the final image in Figure 6.3.

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