Background Advice

When shooting brown or darker-skinned female models, what type and color of
background will provide the most versatility? Right now, I only have two
backgrounds...bright white and a blackout background. I'm looking to
purchase another color (old masters brown-ish type color maybe?) but I want
to buy something that will look good with darker-skinned latina or
African-American women. Any advice?

Sean

"Sean Ras" wrote

When shooting [darker-skinned latina or African-American women,
what type and color of background will provide the most versatility?

Well brown is a very low value unsaturated yellow / yellow-orange.
A light unsaturated blue such as a pale sky blue would be a good
choice as it complementary. A pale blue is also a very versatile
color. Very few things on this earth are pale sky blue (look around
yourself right now - not much, is there ? [don't look at the sky,
that's cheating]) and so it will contrast with almost anything.

Whatever you do don't have the background either the same
value (shade of grey if you were shooting B&W) or the same
color as the subject: a medium dark-brown/yellow mottled background
and you will be photographing Ms. Invisible.

Look in a black magazine with lots of ads - Ebony - and
see what background looks best to you.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/