Hand Painted Backdrops

Brown on brown on brown, and it works. A chocolate painted canvas behind, a caramel one hanging to the right and rolling onto the floor with its cream back showing, a paint-splashed stepladder on the left, and a man in a brown check three-piece with a waxed moustache and a cane.

The only cool colours are the navy tie, the navy pocket square and a pale blue shirt. In a frame this warm they do all the work. The light reads like one soft source from front left, and the shadows stay low in contrast so the browns stay rich.

We like that the second canvas is shown rolled. It says backdrop, on purpose, and it turns the set into a workroom rather than a studio.

Would you dress a set like this, or keep it plain?

Photo by

Pebble Grey is the neutral one. Light grey, no warm or cool lean to speak of, very even, with just a hint of cloudiness when you get close. It's the grey you hang when you want nobody to notice the backdrop at all.

The second photo is the back of the same canvas: cream and light beige with grey and blue-grey blotches, mostly across the top half. The cream skirt on the dress form almost melts into it, which tells you something about how the back behaves with pale clothing.

122 by 180 cm, so one pole and a stand. If you shoot headshots and product and want one grey that does both, this is the sort.

Do you gel your greys, or keep them grey?

Dark curls, a white ribbed top and a cream painted canvas so bright and pale you can hardly see its texture. She sits in the left half of the frame, partly cut off by the edge, eyes closed, chin on the back of her hand. The right half is just backdrop.

It reads like a high-key, slightly faded edit with warm lifted tones and soft front light, maybe a window. With only three tones in the frame, her hair does all the contrast work, and the empty canvas gives the pose room to breathe.

A plain pale backdrop is the easiest one to make dull and the hardest one to make this calm.

Would you leave this much empty space, or crop tight?

Photo by

Quiet Stone. A light grey with a faint warm lean, low texture, lightest in the middle and a touch darker towards the corners. The first photo is the painted side with the dress form in front for scale; the canvas is 122 by 180 cm, so it hangs from one pole on a stand.

The second photo is the back. We didn't paint that side. The grey soaks through the cotton while it dries and leaves a cream canvas with speckled grey patches, heaviest around the edges and palest in the middle. It's a second backdrop for nothing, and the pattern only exists on this one piece.

Third photo is up close. The weave of the canvas shows through the grey, which is the difference between a painted surface and a printed one when the light skims it.

Front or back for a headshot?

Count the backdrops. Orange in the middle, a tilted mustard-gold one behind the crates, deep red at the far left and a cloudy teal on the right, with a rough torn-looking join where orange meets teal. Then a rug in six colours and a glossy red chair on top of it all.

It works because the painted canvases are soft and mottled, so the flat, shiny things in front of them stay sharp and the eye has somewhere to land. From where we sit, the hand on the forehead is what pulls the whole frame together. A playful tired pose in the middle of all that colour tells you exactly where to look.

The lighting reads like soft, even studio light from the front, which keeps every colour at full strength. We'd guess the colours were pushed a little in the edit too, and it suits the retro pin-up styling.

Would you shoot a set this busy, or keep it to one canvas?

Photo by

Spot the difference. Two light grey canvases, same dress form in front of each, and we had to double-check we hadn't photographed one of them twice. The first is Quiet Stone, which has a slight warm lean and a soft cloudy mottle. The second is Pebble Grey, neutral to slightly cool and very even.

In a small photo they're twins. In the studio the warm one keeps cream and blush gentle, and the cool one looks cleaner and pushes warm clothing warmer by contrast. That's the whole reason photographers end up owning four greys and calling it a system.

Both are 122 by 180 cm, and both have a cream and grey back where the paint soaked through.

Warm grey or cool grey?

This is a headshot with nowhere to hide. Shaved head, a ginger beard going grey at the chin, pale blue eyes straight at the camera, and a dark grey-green painted canvas so far out of focus it's just soft blotches of light and dark.

The colours are the clever part. Warm skin and a beige ribbed knit sit against a cool slate-green, which to our eye makes the face look warmer and healthier than a neutral grey would. The backdrop is slightly lighter right around his head, so he separates from it without a hair light.

The light reads like a big soft source from the front, with gentle shadow under the brows and jaw. Whether that's a window or a studio modifier we can't tell from here.

Would you light a headshot this flat, or add some shadow?

Photo by

Black hair, a white top and a warm mocha canvas behind. It's about as much contrast as you can put on a person, and the brown keeps it soft.

Mocha sits in the same family as warm skin and brown eyes, so the face looks healthy rather than washed out. The canvas is thrown well out of focus here, so it becomes a smooth wash that's a little lighter at the top and richer at the bottom.

Landscape or portrait crop for headshots?

Photo by

Two teals, side by side. The first photo is Petrol Sage, deep and dark, with the corners falling off to nearly black. The second is Lagoon Sage, lighter and more open, with soft pale clouds in the paint.

If you shoot moody portraits and headshots, the deep one does most of the work with a single soft light. If you shoot families and small children, the light one is easier, because it shows as colour without you having to light it separately.

Both are 122 by 180 cm and both are reversible, with a cream back where the teal soaked through: heavy on the deep one, faint on the light one.

Deep or light, which teal would you pick?

A dusty rose with a bit of brick in it. Dusty Rosewood is a muted red-pink with a fine, speckled texture, lighter in the middle and deeper towards the edges.

At 100x135cm it's our smallest size. It hangs from a single wooden pole on a stand, which makes it handy for headshots, children, pets and still life, and easy to pack for location work.

The back is soft cream with a faint pink blush, so there's a very light option on the other side.

Rose or cream?