Remove background

[Attila]

I have very basic studio set, three old flashes with trigger + background canvas , certainly not enough white and clean.

To remove and replace background is essential but not easy finally I found an almost working tutorial

http://easytweaks.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/remove-background-around-hair-in-photoshop/

http://www.sitepoint.com/masking-techniques-photoshop/

Carl Zeiss Distagon 35mm f1.4


#1

[iangreenhalgh1]

Excellent, Chris looks good as a redhead

[Attila]

thx!

[fermy]

Frankly, I think that your natural light portraits are miles better. Completely white background is a bit distracting and the light is harsh and uninteresting and screams "Flash".

[nurkov]

you did a good job dont get me wrong but it does not look natural

[Attila]

Yes, right , not looks natural , here key was to remove background and try what can we do with flashes.

[nurkov]

have you tried to put one flash behind person and lit up background so it looks like white?

[Attila]

no, good hints!

[nurkov]

done it before works like a dream just need a wireless flash

[Attila]

[GeorgeSalt]

It's a bit over-lit for me - it's the shadows that define a face and you've lit the subject to remove almost all of them. Are these bare flash? the shadow that is left (under her chin) has a hard edge.

With three lights I'd probably have used one for the background, one with a soft-box for the key at about 45-degrees to the line of the camera and the third as a rim light from behind. If you wanted to fill the shadows a bit, you could keep the set-up the same but use a reflector to bounce some of the key light back as fill light.

Have you found the Strobist 101? - I used that to learn a lot about lighting.

[Attila]

Thank you George, I have zero experience to work with flashes. I will try to do better next time.

[GeorgeSalt]

It's not a bad start. I only started with off-camera flash a couple of years ago. And I stick to budget gear - my first choice flashguns are old Canon 430EZs. To reduce the harshness of the shadow you make the light source bigger - it's the same reason bouncing flash off the ceiling works. The easiest way is to bounce the flash off a large piece of white board.

The low key shot is very much in fashion. So much so that in the UK the blown white background has got a bit of a reputation as the "chav-ground" ("chav" being a term of mild abuse for the sort of person that likes flash cars with loud exhausts, big flashy jewellery, etc).

[Attila]

Thank you again especially for English terms, great help to seek information.

[Orio]

Since your purpose was to make a shot for good separation from background, you have had success indded.
The background is well lit, uniformly (this is important)

The problem in the image is the quality of light, it is very hard. You can tell it by the shape of the shadow, under her chin.
This type of lighting is good for objects (example: jewels), but bad for persons (especially females).
Result is that what wanted to be a beauty shot, becomes a mug shot (police photo)

To shoot this type of beauty shot, of female, white background, you need very large, very soft lights.
It is possible to obtain it with flashes, but you need diffusers.
Diffusers can be softboxes (best) can be umbrellas, or can also be large linen white sheets, if you don't want to spend
money for softboxes, you can use a background stand in front of the flashes, with a white linen sheet hanging from it
flash light will be diffused by the linen sheet.

Also recommended, to place your flash lights as close as possible to the subject.

Another recommendation: for fill light, it's much better to use a reflector panel than another flash.
No need to buy expensive commercial panels, you can make them home made easily with cheap materials.

My final suggestion is: start working with only ONE flash, as main light, set up as I indicated above (as close as possible to subject, and diffused by a large surface),
and for the other lights, use panels only instead of flashes
Then experiment with all possible positions of the one flash + panels.

[Attila]

Many thanks, Orio!

[visualopsins]

Anybody try chromakey green screen for background? Then can change background to anything...

Black background might be very interesting! Colors pop

[Attila]

[Attila]

[visualopsins]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_key

Google show some youtube results.

Photo shops sell chromakey backdrop cloths.

[Attila]

Superb hint!!! Many thanks!

[GeorgeSalt]