Sometimes it would be nice to be somewhere else apart from the studio, a stately home, a sun drenched beach or even a derelict building but it isn’t always possible so we started to look at what we could do in the studio to add some variety to our images. Backdrops are the obvious solution to making changes and there are some quite realistic ones around nowadays but printing limitations mean that most are relatively small and are really only useful for three quarter shots at the very most. But what if you photographed the background on its own first and then superimposed the model over it afterwards. It might sound complicated but with all the editing software now available it doesn’t have to be as difficult as first thought.
This idea started to grow more recently when we were considering future workshops and came up with the idea of trying to create a Vettriano type of look for one of them. This presented a few problems, the major ones being that ideally we could be with backgrounds, rooms, beaches, windows and that type of thing and also we ideally needed to add some sort of texture to the images to give them the look of a painting. Two very different problems. The textures weren’t too much of a problem as there are a multitude of programmes available now for doing just that. Basically the choice is yours and everyone will have their own preferred programme that they use.
The backgrounds do present a little more of a problem as I said above, they’re not really big enough to use for full length photography. So I decided to photograph the backdrops on their own and then looking at superimposing the model afterwards. Again, cutting out images can really be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be these days as there are an array of programmes out there designed to do just that. Again it’s down to personal preference.
So it’s work in progress and we continue to learn and improve as we go along. Our workshops won’t tell you how to do it but they will give you some idea of how we do it and hopefully give you a starting point to develop your own ways of working with your images. If you are interested in coming along to any of our events at JFYP Studio then don’t forget to check out the studio events section on here and please, get it touch if you have any questions.
Below are a few of my images from my recent experiments. Still room for improvement but if you don’t try new things you don’t move forward.
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