Photos - Best Background

[edresonate]

Hi,

If I am taking images of a non-white / non-grey item, is the best background white? I am thinking what best to use as, after I have taken the photos, I need to work on them in photoshop and I normally find the magic wand works best with a white background.

Many thanks

Ed

[lightphase]

if its for your website, i would stick to one colour, you dont want changes through different colours on dif pics. try keep to a standard, white should do the trick

[edresonate]

Thanks. Will bear that in mind. So far, I am removing the backgrounds from the photos with photoshop so I can put the part of the image I want against a black background on the site.

[HappySheep]

traditionally you use a black background, but white can look fresh and modern, other colours can also look good but need choosing carefully. It's all a matter of preference, really!

Cheers
Judith

[edresonate]

Thanks. Do you have any suggestions for what makes a good background material? Have seen several photos where a white sheet has been used but the folds that tend to appear don't look that great. So, so far, my preference has been to remove the background with photoshop.

[bodrighy]

Have a looik for light tents on ebay. Not too expensive and easy to use (I have been meaning to get one myself dfor about a year...onto the NY list it goes:D

Pete

[HappySheep]

I've got a light cube and it is really useful. Before that I used to clip a sheet to a cupboard on the wall, put the item on my dining room table and raise the blinds on the window! Very technical ;)

I got a basic studio set up in a sale on prostudio360.com which had the light cube, two daylights, stands etc. but you can use angle poise lamps and a cardboard box with a white sheet draped in for the real budget (and blue peter) option :) The cubes start from about £25 for a small one - unless you're shooting jewellery or something fairly small, get the biggest you can afford as you never know when you'll need a large space!

Cheers
Judith

[edresonate]

Thanks to you both for your suggestions. I'll see how I get on with the new batch of photos I need to take. Light box might well be the answer.

[Kiamyka]

Maplins light tent may work out cheaper as postage is less than most on Ebay
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=38260
hope this helps x

[edresonate]

Chris,

Thanks for the suggestion. Well I have a Maplins nearby and this morning I headed down to the shop dodging the heavy Christmas Eve traffic.

What do you know that they even had one is stock and at £9.99 who can complain! I'll be taking a bunch of photos after Christams and will put them on my site and my gallery here...so watch this space.

Ed

[Kiamyka]

oh thats good ed look forward to seeing your pics

[edresonate]

Chris,

I have now redesigned the site and have added the new shots. I bought a new digital camera (Canon IXUS 9515) to take the photos and I am really impressed with what it can do. Let me know what you think of the site and photos when you have a moment!

Happy New Year!

Ed

[pablozzo]

I apprecaite the light cube too :)

[musivarius]

I went to a professionals studio to see about getting my mosaics photographed and the chap there said that if I wanted a black background it is actually a very dark brown cloth he uses as this shows up as black.
White is great for a 'modern' look but I do prefer black. And yes just use one colour, I've got images of my work with white, black and dark red backgrounds and it does look messy. Just haven't had the time to get them all redone!

[beads4breakfast]

I designed my own box and background.

This is how it looks

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k247/wiccajasmyn/IMG_3072.jpg

just a simple shoe box with A4 white paper for back ground and a blue rose in corner(don't ask why I dunnno lol) my camera on a tripod for steadiness.

and this is what my pics look like after the cropping

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k247/wiccajasmyn/IMG_3067.jpg

[watsonrodriguez]

Hello
The best advice I ever found on taking pictures was for taking photo's at any garden or where there are many plants and trees.Photography is a skill you develop like painting and singing; You are not born with the know-how to create masterpieces of expression. you must develop it.

[Albion]

In my opinion you have to choose background those which become opposite of your images...like if you have wore black dress so white background is best but if you wore white dress so white background is not suitable

[ricky@artofmetal.co.uk]

If you use a blue or green background for your photos, photo shop can easily cut out your products with the magic wand. much easier than using a white background as you get shadows....

[ricky@artofmetal.co.uk]

Take a picture of your product and use photoshop to place your product into any background you like. this way you will know what looks best..

[dave88]

Stick more the white colors, combine with peach color or pink. The black is not that appropriate.

dave,

[LaraCraft]

I often use a white simple background.
I think you dont need decoration when youve got nothing to hide ;) Ive got a similar box like beads4breakfast :)

[woodspinner]

There is a very good video on youtube on building your own light box I cannot give you the url at the moment as I am a newbie. however if you go to youtube and type lightbox into the search engine im sure you will come across it.

Brian

[woodspinner]

Further to the lightbox on youtube I have just taken my own advice and HEY PRESTO it happened the video you want is tushygalore hope this is uiseful

Brian

[woodwizz]

U
You can use lining paper as a backdrop.

16723
The natural curve of the unrolled paper gives a seamless background
The pic above shows kind of what I mean

[monica nel]

stick to one or two colours..more then two colours seems little... awkward

[sewantiques]

I tend to use a grey/blue background as many of the objects I need to photograph are white. Also I make sure the background is curved so no horizons show in the photos. Any strong matt finish paper works, with or without a light cube.

[nerusmith]

I am taking images of a non-white / non-grey item, and black. As my opinion is that if the poster is coming from an inkjet printer this can make large areas of black look like a murky dark green.If you are mounting the photos by hand on to a backing sheet this would be better, however large sheets of black paper will be expensive.But its looks are so good.

[Arborvita]

Hi,

I will go against the grain on this one! I guess it depends on what your selling, what your customers are used to seeing and also your pricing. If your selling mass produced imports at discount prices then plain backgrounds is fine. You can probably get the images from the supplier anyway.

If your making your work, being more creative and charging more, I think more effort is needed.

I'm new to this so on a steep learning curve but I am looking at what others are doing and learning what works and what doesn't. Example:


http://www.gobareskincare.com/i//gbb.jpg
http://ny-image3.etsy.com/il_570xN.193538583.jpg


Both are sugar scrubs. The first image gives no context of size or dimensional shape. It looks like vomit.

The second image gives size as being relative to the breakfast bowl. We can all guess how big the bowl is so we can guess the cubes are maybe a couple of inches square.

The wood shavings infer that the cubes have ex foliating properties.

Which one is more pleasing to the eye and make you want to buy?

Personally I steer clear of black or white backgrounds and also heavy photo shopping.

My photos need a lot of work. I intend to retake all of them at some point as I can see more flaws and problems. Some of my mistakes have included too much noise in the shot (distracting objects), product too small in image (should've cropped closer), Product at strange angles.

Hope that helps if you want to 'think out of the box' a little.

[flb89]

white or black depending on how light or dark the items are. you want the background to be the opposite so the wand doesnt pick them up you can also change the wand picky upy ness lol its in the top left corner somewhere a %