let's take a look at our background impact a portrait
AdoramaTV presents exploring photography
with Mark Wallace bring human innovative techniques
on shooting a wide range of $800 use your host
Mark Wallace hi everybody welcome to another episode in exploring photography
I'm Mark Wallace right here on Adorama TV
well one of the things that beginning portrait photographer sometimes fail to
understand
is the importance up the background in a portrait
I know it sounds obvious but a lot of times it's overlooked
and so today what I'm going to be doing is showing you how much the background
impact a forest you notice in a studio here we've got
are kinda back into got this little red stripe eating here we've got this road
shiny thing that a blue paper background way that they're in a white background
that this black background we even have this back Andre here
that we shot a million times in the studio this is called their French while
said
notice are different colors and summer vertical some more horizontal
and so today when I wanna do is we're actually have a model join us in
oh my gosh at Alexis and guess what my sister is here this is my sister Donna
really like twins
separate little bit of a hike dissidents like the you know I like the
cell phone bar spoon anyway I'm so I we're gonna be
a shooting on location in the studio just a little bit we want to try to keep
things pretty consistent so we're gonna have
a alexis de she's gonna try to keep her face relatively the same with less from
a smug smile
and our intranet keep the light simile that the same as well
and so if you guys happened here positions on Israel talk through what
we're doing here
and so all we have here is we have a single B1 light battery powered
something that all over the place
and got a beauty dish just gonna be just of access and we're I'm she didn't have
my camera right here
gonna try to keep it about 45 feet from alexis here
and then I'll miss me shooting a nice tight had China thing that's gonna
change your all these photos
is just the background and see you can see and what the background really does
to change the porch same lights a model
everything's the same the only thing we're switching up is really the
background and I try to keep the settings on the camera
is ass a similar as possible but only shooting outside with some ambient light
changing
and so we might have to change the aperture a little bit but this much as
possible and I'm shaky
everything the same except the background and so with that
organist are right now that
well
an hour at the park and we met all kinds of different backgrounds here let's look
at the good the bad the ugly
I'm ready to start shooting so let's start right now right well I've chosen
this tree back here and you can see it is pretty narrow
and so if I do a horizontal shot you're just watch what happened so again
and the same position I was before I'll take my shot
just like we normally have it Anna the door so good so on the right side we
have all that nastiness
so I can do here for this background to make it work solid-state my camera and
make it a portrait instead in the horizontal shot
so let's look right at me again I now look at this
now we've at totally simplified it back on and that works are sometimes the
solution is
just rotate your camera and you gonna get great results right let's continue
the quest for good backgrounds
they'll
carries a trick that I we can use on a background like this to me here
so I we have these trees back here that I wanna have behind lacks
and I start my shooting with my normal height at at the same reason they've
been using for all these pictures which is just under a hundred and thirty five
millimeters
so let me first shoot that selects look right at me
I'm economy here my normal height I take this picture
forget where I was before a look at that and guess what
I don't have a great background I have is just on a tree stump
and some green above her head so I need to do is really paid into the background
enough I lower myself
what's gonna happen is it gonna change for that tree lies behind her
thing it more that behind her head slightly do that first may come back
over here wearing only an
and now I'm gonna lower my point of view
it will take this shot when I take a look I'll it's better but it looks like
tree clouds
to doesn't fill the frame I got I love sky poking through
so I need to do for this I'm actually going to zoom
n that can narrow angle love you it's gonna compress
the shots those trees are gonna be closer to Lex is head in so that is
going to be solutions I need a back up just a little bit
come back over here scrooge down
and looking through my lens to see if I get everything away wanted
and now I have the shot exactly the way I want it
and that's what works so skins down zoom in
nariño in love you compress that shot you gonna get great results
they'll
of I think that you should look for when you have a tree
in the background is if it's really leafy orphans laterally brain she
so far we have behind us right now I'd like the branches so unify come over
here and do a
begin a mistake which is just take a picture and we get through these
branches grow native
license head I arranger we don't want that
but even if I zoom in and try to fix this this i really it down here like
this to make her look like some kind of superhero
things are not going to look at and sell that background
it just doesn't work to move along find something that does
they'll
of presidency different backgrounds different portrait
make sure you pay attention to those backgrounds because they really
change how your photos look fact this is the picture I would choose that
everything we shot today
I like the background it looks natural all the other backgrounds didn't really
work for me
I wanna say a special thanks to my sister for helping out this week this is
don she's the one inspired me to take pictures in the first place
taking blame all this on her thanks for helping out and also Alexis thank you so
much for being our model this week
and don't forget there's all kinds of information and portrait photography
lighting and background and all kinds of stuff
right at the Adorama Learning Center so is it over there check out all those
articles are stunned and contributors and
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click it and we will see you next time right here on exploring photography
and similar la that knock
by those portrait looks the now I can top
things that are really change your porch look
now I portrait look means do this mister boy
so always look at your background so you don't mess it up
that's really an insult want to get the most
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