From the course: Video Gear

Using a portable backdrop system

From the course: Video Gear

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Using a portable backdrop system

- Right, so Kevin we have talked about using just kind of some black fabrics, some Duvetyne or some felt or something like that as a background. Now, it's dawned on me that kind of the next step up or kind of, little bit of sophistication, is that maybe I'm somewhere and I don't have some Duvetyne or I don't have any fabric that I use or maybe I'm in a huge space and so I couldn't-- you know, I want a nice, wide shot, I can't do that. And it dawns on me that I might already have the tools to do this. What am I talking about? - Well, when you turn off the lights, they're TAF lights, the room's dark. - (laughing) Exactly. - Okay, so you might want to control that light so using all those flags and scrims and nets and Duvetyne, that will control the light. So if you're lighting something pretty simple such as a headshot, like this, right? What you might wanna do is you might wanna just flag off some of that light and have a room that's dark enough, big enough and the light will fall off naturally into dark, it doesn't matter. - I think that's a great kind of distinction. When I think of the true black background, with a piece of Duvetyne or fabric or as we'll talk about later with a portable system, I think about solid black, you know, it's night black, solid, perfect. But I also like that look of, as you describe, of fall-off. Right? We're using the natural fall-off in the room and if it's done correctly with various lighting techniques, it seems natural. Sometimes I think that putting a black background, kind of just all of a sudden we have that floating head, sometimes it happens when we have dark shirts on like you have or a person's wearing a dark color. They're sitting in front of that background and they just kind of disappear. But, in the natural set-up of turning the lights off and then shaping the light around them, you tend not to have those problems as much. - Yeah, a lot of times when I go and do a shoot that requires a black background I'll just go ahead and not bring a black background. If I know that the room's going to be long enough, big enough, deep enough, I'm just gonna go naturale and then control my light source, control my key light. - Yeah, and the thing about this is that, I said it was a little bit more of a sophisticated approach because it does require quite a bit of work to shape the light, with gaffing techniques and things of that nature. So it's going to take a little bit of time, but it's another kind of technique to have in your quiver of trying to create that black background. So, up next we're gonna take a look at more of a commercial, portable system for black backgrounds that you can pop up whenever you need them.

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