In this video I'll show you how you can
create portraits with a limited color
range in a small home studio.
Hello I'm Gavin Hoey
and you're watching AdoramaTV
brought to you by Adorama
the camera store that's got everything
for us photographers.
Now in my small home studio
I don't have a big range of studio backgrounds
to choose from
but the ones I do have have a bit of a
connecting theme,
it's quite subtle
but see if you can spot it?
So I've got my favorite textured
background here and I painted that gray.
I have a nice smooth paper background
that's gray.
I've got a portable pop-up
background that's gray on both sides.
I've got some stretchy fabric
which is kind of gray.
This is actually a white background
that I painted gray.
This is a blue background
but on the other side it's gray,
so as you can see I've got a
lot of gray in my studio
and the reason for that will become clear
as we go through this video.
You can always check out the Adorama Learning Center
to find out why gray is such a good color
for a small home studio
however I kind of like the blue
and I thought in this video
what we'll do is we'll create a really
colorful image using not a rainbow
of colors but a single color.
I'm going to do a shoot with the blue background
that I've got here and then I'm going to do a shoot
with a red background
but I don't actually have.
So we'll get to that in a little bit
but for now I guess I should set up the blue background.
We’ll get some light set, we got a model in
and we'll get shooting.
So it's great to have Beth
back in the studio.
Beth's going to be the model
for this shoot and what I've got
first of all is a blue background.
That's actually one of the very few colorful
backgrounds I have in my small home studio,
so it makes sense if we're going to
have a strong blue color background
to style Beth in similar outfits
and accessories.
So you can see Beth is wearing a blue top.
We've got blue earrings and accessories
and she's been through hair and makeup
and we've got some fantastic blue colored makeup
so everything ties in really well together
and this should make for a really
eye-catching shot.
Now let's talk about the lighting.
The lighting; I've got a key light up here
which is the eVOLV 200,
I've already metered this out for F5.6
and behind Beth I've got a second light.
The second light is there
to add some light on to this background.
Now the setup we have here would mean
that this would go really dark
if I didn't light it.
We'll see that as we go through the video
but for now how much
light do I need out of this background light?
Well that's the question I'm going
to find out by experimentation.
So let's start with that background light
on its lowest possible setting
1/128th just see how this looks?
Here we go Beth
and when I do that you can see there's a nice little
blue spot behind Beth that naturally vignettes out
at the edges.
It looks really nice but
it's not the most intense blue
so how can I change the intensity of that blue?
Well I do it by changing the power
of the background light
so what I'll do is
I'll pop my power for that background
light somewhere in the middle,
let's try
1/16th power,
see how that looks?
Here we go
and that looks great just the
right amount of blue
and that looks like a fairly good match
to what Beth's wearing.
Now it doesn't have to be an exact
match to the blue,
I'm not looking for a camouflaged look here.
I don't mind slight discrepancies
and if it's really adrift
we can always do some fine-tuning in Photoshop.
Okay so this is the basic setup.
I might move that key light around a little bit
but I'm going to leave the background light as it is.
Let's take a few pictures
and see how this looks.
So Beth are you ready?
So as you can see Beth has got changed
and she is now wearing a red outfit
which really wouldn't go with the blue
background we had before.
So what I need
is a red background
and although I have a lot of backgrounds
in my studio,
none of them are red,
but I do have a gray background.
The key light is already set.
Let's just like a picture like this
and see how it looks?
Okay Beth here we go.
Well Beth is correctly lit
but that background,
well it's definitely not red.
It's not blue.
It's pretty much nearly black,
so how am I going to get this to go
red and match in with Beth's outfit?
Well the answer is really simple.
I'm going to use this
which is just a sheet of red gel
and there's a reason that I've got
the gray background because
if we project red light onto a gray background
it'll go red.
Well to do it we need a light
so I've got a second eVOLV 200
which I'm going to pop right in behind Beth.
We’ll attach the gel to the front of
that being careful so the gel doesn't
touch the bulb and pop it right in
behind, so that light is ready to go
but how bright does that light need to be?
So let's do a little experiment
and find out.
I'm going to start with the light on
its lowest possible power setting.
Let's have a look at this,
here we go
and its lowest possible power setting
it's definitely red.
There is a hint of red back there
but it's not that obvious
so let's go to the other extreme.
Let's pop it up to its full power
and see how that changes the picture?
Here we go.
Well that is perhaps a little bit too intense.
I think what I really need is somewhere in the middle
between the maximum power and the minimum power,
so let's go somewhere about 1/16 power.
Let's try that and see how that looks?
Here we go
and that looks really good.
I like that.
There's a nice intensity to the red.
It naturally vignettes towards the edge
and that looks fantastic.
Okay so we've got the light set.
The background is red.
Let's take a few pictures
with this set up and see how it goes?
Okay Beth are you ready?
Okay here we go.
Well if you want to create your own
punchy color portraits then limiting
your color palette is a really good idea.
So getting Beth to wear the same color
makeup and accessories,
an outfit that kind of matched the background,
whether it was real or projected
was a fantastic idea.
Sometimes less really is more.
Now if you've enjoyed this video
don't forget to leave me a comment below
and if you want to see more videos
from myself and the other amazing presenters
right here on AdoramaTV,
you know what you've got to do.
You've got to click on
that subscribe button.
I'm Gavin Hoey,
thanks for watching.