During the winter when shooting is slow outdoors due to the lack of any life or color, I like to shoot backgrounds for later use. I find tree trunks with interesting bark to shoot, and also I have used my ice abstract as background for a main subject.
Here I am lining up a shot of a Birch tree trunk.
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Here are a couple of my trunk shots, that I will use later at home shooting indoors.
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I will make a print on a matte photo paper of these backgrounds and lay one on the floor and add on a main subject like a butterfly mount or a leaf, or whatever I come up with. Here is one of my ice abstracts with a butterfly mount. I know butterflies and ice don’t mix, but hey I’m just creating some unusual art here. I position the camera right over top with the front of the lens parallel with the print on the floor. I will shoot in the f/8 range as there is a little depth with the subject on top of the print.
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Here is the same background but with a different butterfly, and I used the Nik Software’s Bi-Color User Defined for the split colors. This surprisingly has been a good seller at the art shows, mainly selling to younger people.
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I enjoyed your post and especially appreciated that you included how you actually utilize the background photos. Thanks.
Mike, I’m interested in creating a custom made background similar to what you talked about in this blog post, but printed on a collapsible reflector disc. It would be compact, easy to carry and could be used in the field just not sure how to it could be done.