Some cool photo backdrop images:
The Portraiture Chair
Image by RuffLife
It's been a couple of weeks since I uploaded to flickr, but for good reason. It's a chair. I created a little project for myself yet again which was to find a chair that I could use as a portraiture chair, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money. I checked at Goodwill, eBay, Craigslist, even local garage sales but didn't have any luck. Sure there were several unique and fantastic-looking chairs, but all were labeled 'antiques' which only means $ $ $ . My wife and I visited Joe's Collectibles in Omaha and found an interesting wooded dining room chair; a 'cross' cut into the top rail and wicker back. It was dusty, slightly broken, the cushion was worn and needed to be replaced but at …the price was perfect!
It took me a couple of weeks of sanding through the layers of polyurethane and stain before I added by own oak stain and polyurethane :) I also disassembled the cushion, washed the funk out of it, then glued the foam onto the wooden seat when it dried. We decided to go with red as our primary color and I let my wife pick out the material pattern at Walmat. After reviewing 'How to Upholster a Seat Chair' on YouTube, I grabbed my scissors and staple gun and went to work. When all was said and done, it was time to set up the shot and shoot.
I used my Nikon D300S with the 85mm f/1.4D on a tripod, SB-900 (triggered by CLS) on a stand shooting through an umbrella (left), octagonal softbox (right), DIY blue backdrop. Now it was time to center the chair and add the pedestal & faux plant. I took a few shots but chose this one; ISO was set to 200, exposure at 1/60th of a second at f/6.7 in aperture priority mode. I used Lightroom 3 for post processing to tweak the clarity, luminance, and sharpness. So there you have it.
Setting up the backdrop
Image by Alana Holmberg
Allison sets up a backdrop for a group photo shoot.
Potemkin village
Image by wili_hybrid
Construction work in St. Petersburg is often covered by massive backdrops. October 2006.
