background color for skin photos

i was always taught to use blue as a background when taking pix of
skin; is there a reason for this? i would think that neutral grey
would be more appropriate ..

tia

steve

wrote:
i was always taught to use blue as a background when taking pix of
skin; is there a reason for this? i would think that neutral grey
would be more appropriate ..

What reason did your teacher give?

--
Chris Malcolm

wrote in message
...
i was always taught to use blue as a background when taking pix
of
skin; is there a reason for this? i would think that neutral
grey
would be more appropriate ..

I didn't know about blue being the recommended background colour
for still photos of skin, but I do know that blue or green is
commonly used for videos where the background is to be removed by
chroma keying and substituted with a different scene. This is
because living skin contains very little of these colours and
will not change significantly in hue when a narrow band of green
or blue colour is removed. Maybe the experts recommend it for
stills for the same reason.

I use neutral grey myself. The colour of my living room wall is a
very pale lavender, almost white. It produces ghastly skin tones.

On Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:42:41 -0700, pshaw wrote:

i was always taught to use blue as a background when taking pix of skin;
is there a reason for this? i would think that neutral grey would be
more appropriate ..

I don't know why you were taught that. All you need do is look at the
covers of Cosmopolitan magazine (or any magazine that has studio done
covers). Over the years, I think they've (Cosmo) used every color there
is as a background. Which color used all depended on the colors in the
outfit the model was wearing. The background color should complement the
shot, not detract or stand out from it.

If you're looking for cost effectiveness, so you don't have to stock a
lot of paper, then take a hint from the formal portrait photographers.
For backdrops most use either a graduated (lighter in the center, darker
at the edges), mottled browns/tan usually for men or blues/greens for
women.

In my 30 years as a commercial photographer, for shooting people, when I
used seamless paper backgrounds, it mostly was either white, black, light
or dark gray. I rarely used colored ones unless there was a specific
need.

--
Fotoguy
BestInClass.com
"Personalized digital camera recommendations"
http://www.bestinclass.com/digital-cameras

wrote in message
...
i was always taught to use blue as a background when taking pix of
skin; is there a reason for this? i would think that neutral grey
would be more appropriate ..

tia

steve



Depends on what final result you are looking for, but blue is a a terrible
BG colour IMO. Also, you run the risk of blue spill if the background is
too close to the subject.

Personally, I would choose grey, whether black, white or middle grey.

its interesting to read all of your comments:

i am a dermatologist and of course i and my colleagues take 1000's
(actually tens of thousands) of dermatology photos ... and most of us
were taught to use a blue or green background when shooting skin
photos ...

again i have no idea why, but that is what we were all taught ...there
are folks who do nothing but take derm photos for major hospitals so i
will contact some of them this coming week ...

thanks again ...

steve

On Mon, 3 Aug 2009 02:43:49 +0100, "Isaac Hunt"
wrote:

wrote in message
.. .
i was always taught to use blue as a background when taking pix of
skin; is there a reason for this? i would think that neutral grey
would be more appropriate ..

tia

steve



Depends on what final result you are looking for, but blue is a a terrible
BG colour IMO. Also, you run the risk of blue spill if the background is
too close to the subject.

Personally, I would choose grey, whether black, white or middle grey.