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Green backgrounds?
I was watching a webinar recently on posing and lighting for classic portrait photography. It was pretty standard stuff, but at the end the presenter (who had probably 40-50 years of experience) was asked about the best background colors for portraits. Without skipping a beat he said "Green!" and went on to explain that it makes all skin types, from African Americans to Scandinavians, look good. He didn't say what shade of green, but in context I'm pretty sure he was not talking about chroma key green. Intrigued, I looked through about twenty MM VIP and standard portfolios and couldn't find a single example of shooting with a green background except outdoor foliage and grass, both of which have potential problems with reflected green tinting of the model's skin. So, finally, here are the questions: Does anyone out there in MM Land regularly use green background material, either seamless or fabric? What shade do you use? And if you have images in your MM portfolio, would you provide a link? Mar 26 13 08:56 am Link DP Mar 26 13 09:00 am Link That's just one man's opinion. It's as valid or invalid as anyone else's, but very few would seem to agree with him. Mar 26 13 09:01 am Link I use green seamless paper regularly. It's Lastolite grass green. Customers often are unsure but when they see the images are usually pleased. The most common remark is that it has a relaxing look. I also use it for glamour and it looks well. https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/31347415 The colour on the floor is the actual colour of the paper. If you plan extracting the subject, don't directly light the background and it's easy after that, well easier anyway. Mar 26 13 09:05 am Link Very nice, and thanks for the link. By the way are leprechauns green or is it just their clothes? We don't have many around here ;-) Mar 26 13 10:29 am Link WCR3 wrote: Just their clothes! Mar 26 13 10:38 am Link When I was in school (psych major), they specifically mentioned the impact of green in art. I was taught to avoid large sections of it as it makes humans nauseous. Dogs are not affected, however. Then again, in the 90's they were still teaching that males and females are exactly the same psychologically. We all know what BS that is.  Mar 26 13 10:45 am Link Well, it looks like the old "pro" giving the webinar was voicing an opinion that's not shared by many. Robert Jewett wrote: Dogs probably aren't affected because they don't see colors, only monochrome. Mar 26 13 02:24 pm Link WCR3 wrote: Mar 26 13 02:53 pm Link Blue makes skin look cold. Red makes skin look warm. Green makes skin look - well, green. I don't know of anyone who who uses a green background on a regular basis, and I would never recommend it. Mar 26 13 03:01 pm Link  . Mar 26 13 03:12 pm Link Raoul Isidro Images wrote: Of course, the photographer there chose to blow out the green background so that it didn't have any effect on the model. Mar 26 13 03:33 pm Link Robert Jewett wrote: That is so species-ist! Mar 26 13 03:48 pm Link I don't think he was referring to green seamless. If he has a traditional grounding in the arts, and he's talking classic portraiture, what he's talking about is a greenISH hand painted canvas. Like this: http://www.dennymfg.com/BackdropDetails … d4baddb137 Myself, I prefer brown tones if using such a canvas. Mar 26 13 04:44 pm Link Giacomo Cirrincioni wrote: I saw the webinar myself (Frank Dispensa/Sekonic)and you are definitely on the right track here. Mar 26 13 04:55 pm Link  The modern cinematic equivalent is the much loved and much reviled 'orange and teal' palette. Mar 26 13 04:57 pm Link The Space Cowboy wrote: If I remember correctly I believe the school of thought that promoted this followed the same logic that we use when shooting green screen - noting on people, except sometimes the irises, is green. This causes the sitter to pop off the background. It's actually for this very reason that I prefer brown tones, I like the more unified pallet. Mar 26 13 04:59 pm Link The Space Cowboy wrote: Yep, it was the Sekonic webinar with Dispensa. Based on everything here so far, I'm not rushing out to buy a green background. But I might use green gels on a black background if I can ever find a redhead to shoot ;-) Mar 26 13 07:11 pm Link I GIS'd "portrait photo". About 1 in 100 was a green background with the clear majority being some tone of gray. Some white, some black, some blue. It appears this person is doing something that almost no one else does. Mar 26 13 07:20 pm Link Good Egg Productions wrote: Again, I'm assuming he was talking about classical portraiture in painting (commissioned). Mar 26 13 07:36 pm Link Good Egg Productions wrote:
Mar 26 13 07:37 pm Link The Space Cowboy wrote: It's become popular in movies to push things green to effect a certain mood. It all stems from The Matrix. Every scene where they were in the Matrix had as much green added as possible, and as much blue removed as possible to show a kind of sickly environment. Mar 26 13 07:54 pm Link A client requested green a while back for a shoot. (15 different people, simple head shots) It is a bright cherry color, and went well with all skin tones. As long as you have the model away from the BG then you won't have any color bleed.  *Green is not my go to color, but what was fun is all the different photos sure did pop out from all the traditional duller BG shades that people use. Mar 26 13 08:00 pm Link D-Light wrote: Did not think a green background could look this good - not a bad model also! Mar 26 13 08:06 pm Link WCR3 wrote: Not true, dogs (and many other animals) have dichromatic vision. Mar 26 13 09:28 pm Link David Parsons wrote:
Mar 26 13 09:59 pm Link The knowledge of the old masters of portrait photography is lost on today photographers, if you study the work of photographer like Joe Zeltsman and Phillip Stewart Charis you will see they used green backgrounds in many of there portraits. Many of todays portrait photographer use such busy backgrounds you are lucky to notice the person in the portrait. Mar 26 13 10:53 pm Link I don't know about that, but "back in the day" when you used film and did little post-production work, you'd sometime shoot a dark-skinned male, esp. a dark skinned Caucasian male with a light green filter because it did good things to their skin tones. Mar 27 13 06:44 am Link ArtisticPhotography wrote: But that was in B&W to balance the over sensitivity of the film to blue. The green tones obviously did not show in the photos. Mar 27 13 06:55 am Link Phantasmal Images wrote: I stand corrected. That's very interesting, especially about bird vision. Thanks. Mar 27 13 09:03 am Link WCR3 wrote: We don't have any here anymore, seems that with all the rain they have all drowned. Mar 28 13 10:07 am Link Sorry for your loss. We could use some of that rain here, though. We've been in a drought for the past two or three years. Mar 28 13 10:32 am Link  Velasquez Mar 28 13 05:55 pm Link  Mar 28 13 05:56 pm Link Same model, same shoot, this one (18+) http://www.redbubble.com/people/raysfin … re-studies (18+) used the green background "as is" and this one (again, 18+) http://www.redbubble.com/people/raysfin … re-studies (18+) has it changed out to another color and this one (yet again 18+) https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/23404443 (18+) has her in black and white. Personally, I don't see any intrinsic benefit to the green vs. another color vs no color. I think it's just a matter of personal preference. Oh, Yeah, the green is just one of the Home Depot auto-mixes. I don't know the number. Mar 28 13 06:14 pm Link Rays Fine Art wrote: Try a less saturated green and see if you like it better Mar 28 13 06:15 pm Link |
