Photoshop Background Studio
Lola Bergo
Transform your studio setups with just a few clicks using the power of AI in Photoshop! This step-by-step tutorial will teach you how to seamlessly remove imperfections, wrinkles, and distracting objects from your photos, resulting in flawless and captivating images.
If you want to extend a background, you can use the Generative Expand tool. Generative Expand is another new feature in Photoshop that uses AI to expand images. To use Generative Expand, you will simply need to click on the sides of your image and drag them out.
I've done a lot of this work in the past and tried enough different methods to be sure that there is no quick way to do it that gives good results. You can have either quick or good, but not both together. I'd love to be proven wrong on this as I imagine I'll have to do a lot more of this work in future.
Manually cut out the subject (with the pen tool, lasso etc.), fill the outside area with white. This is the most time consuming but provides the best results. Works best with head/torso shots as if you're working on a full length shot this method removes shadows which prevent the subject being grounded (they look like they're floating in the air). Hair is very problematic so I often rely on the below method for the hair.
Blowing out the background, i.e increasing brightness contrast until the background goes pure white. This can be done globally if you're lucky, but most of the time the background brightness will shift across your image (due to shadows / light falloff), so the amount of brightening to blow it out will vary. I work around the subject with a selection along the edge of the subject, fading out gently into the subject, and adjust the curves until the background goes white locally, then move the selection on to the next part of the edge. Downsides of this method are that it is still time consuming, can produce artifacts / colour shifts in the edges of the subject, and it only works if the background is fairly bright / even to begin with. Also it can't handle shadows.
Blurring the background. Blurring evens out creases well, and copes with shadows and changes in background brightness. The problem with this method is you can't get too close to your subject(s) without blurring them, so you can blur the large areas but then you often need to do some manual fixing around the edges of the subjects using the above methods.
I know your question specifies "in photoshop", but it really does bear repeating that if you can get this right in-camera you can save a load of work in post. (Obviously, you know this!) I have found this out the hard way :(
I realise that this might not answer your question, nor solve your immediate problem, but it does help to make the site more complete for people researching the problem of getting the background right.
For dirt and smudges, if your background is untextured you can use Filter > Noise > Dust and Scratches. This will remove any defects, of any size you choose, in one go. I would make a rough selection of the background, put into a new layer, run the dust and scratches filter. Then you have the ability to use a mask if you want to be more selective about where you apply, and don't apply, the effect. If you make the layer a smart object you can revise the filter settings if you have over- or under-done the filtering.
For larger patches, use the healing tools (particularly the patch tool). Select an area with a defect, then drag that to a good area. Photoshop will fill the defective area with something that has nice texture and color.
An alternative is to select an area that is good (no defects) and duplicate that into a new layer. Move that over the area that has problems. Cover the new layer with a black mask, then paint in with white, at low opacity, where you want to cover up the defects. This means you end up with all texture and light variations, rather than painting a solid color that will look artificial. You'll need to use an area that closely matches the color and brightness (or apply a levels/curves adjustment to make it match)
Another simple method is to select an area, then Edit > Fill and select Content-Aware. This will remove the defect and attempt to match color, brightness and texture from surrounding areas. This works well in the interior, but may have problems near edges.
If you have wrinkles or folds that are not close to the subject, you can use content-aware scaling to stretch the background (leaving the subject unaltered) so that the areas containing the defects are dragged out of frame.
If you are shooting from the same perspective a lot, so that the defects are in the same position, you can create a mask in photoshop to cover them up, then for future shots, you can create a new layer and reuse this mask, adjusting the new masked layer each time without having to find the defects and figure out a way to cover them over and over again.
As mentioned above. The best thing is to use a clean backdrop. Sometimes I don't have control over the backdrop at all. I use a mix of content-aware, patch tool and spot healing brush tool to clear any marks on the backdrops.
Probably the hardest of the studio photography setups to nail, photographing black backgrounds well and specifically black dogs on a black background, is the most frequently asked studio question I get. So today, we cover that!
At 25:20, curious why you removed the grid from Main light # 1 to shoot the second 1-light shot, making it into more of a flood light. I doubt it had anything to do with the backdrop since the light was turned further away from that angle, except that being uncontrolled, some of the light might have spilled over. It is probably simple, I just know nothing about studio lights.
I managed to stop the vid at 25:27+, not quite 25:28, to freeze the video frame as Main light #1 triggered. Bram was bathed in way more light on that side than I expected to see. I was surprised then to see the resulting image which was subdued light. Did the camera ignore all of that light flash or did you need to re-darken it in post-edit?
For a full length portrait of one or two people, this is the basic lighting setup. As you can see we have separate lighting for the subject and the background so that we can control the background exposure separately. I like to have at least three or four flashes on hand for this, but it could be done with fewer lights as well. It will be quicker and easier with a handheld light meter. I use my light meter to measure the subject at f/8 for example, and my backdrop at about f/11 or f/13. A few important points:
I like to light the subject first until I am satisfied with the light distribution/modeling on them, and then turn on the background lights later. Using softboxes rather than other modifiers on your subject will prevent spill and make the setup easier to understand as you build it up. A telephoto lens (about 85mm or longer) will help narrow your field of vision and keep distracting elements (like the sides of the backdrop) out of your photo. The above was shot at 85mm. Prime lenses tend to work better for this, as there will always be some light bouncing off of the backdrop and coming toward the camera.
Thanks for reading and check out my subject above on Dr. Oz! We had a lot of fun shooting her at the studio here in San Diego and this is one of the outtakes from the session. Makeup and hair are by Stephanie Costa.
Today you are going to come ride along with me as I shoot head shots for a client in San Diego, California. I was hired by a company to create simple head shots of their instructors in the San Diego area.
To make this easier to set up by yourself just lay the roll of paper on the ground and position the light stands on either side of the end of the roll of paper at their lowest height. Make sure the paper is set to unroll from underneath the back of the roll ,and not over the top and front of the roll.
Now that the backdrop is set up properly we want to light it so that it appears solid white. I placed an Alien Bees 1600 studio strobe 3 feet away from the backdrop on the left side and angled it to shoot across the backdrop. The light had a reflector on it to contain the direction of the light. This will make the light rake across the middle of the backdrop to light it up white.
The backdrop still looks good, but I (the subject) am overexposed. This means the umbrella light is too strong. I reduce the power from 1/4 power to 1/8th power, have the CEO grab two nearby Nerf guns, step back in for a test, and get this:
The light hitting the white background is bouncing onto the back of the subject and wrapping around his body too much. To correct this I need to move the subject a few feet toward the camera so the light bouncing off the background falls off before it reaches him. When I do this I also need to move the umbrella light the same distance toward the camera to keep the same exposure.
This looks great to me. The background layer is blown out white, the subject layer is properly exposed, and as a bonus just enough light is bouncing off the backdrop to give some backlighting to the subject. Here is a closer crop to see what we are working with:
Overall it was a very quick setup, shoot, and breakdown. We shot 45 different instructors in about 45 minutes! Once everything was dialled in we just photographed one instructor after the next. The shoot was fun, the client was happy, and the instructors loved their head shots!
Sure you can achieve this in photoshop but if you can get it right straight out of camera, why not do it? Not only will it save you time later but with this knowledge, you can then decide to make your backdrop different shades of gray too!
If necessary, block the light from hitting your subject. While you can buy flags designed specifically for this purpose, you can also use something as simple as a piece of cardboard. This helps to direct and control the light. Using a metal reflector (most strobes come with one) will help as well.
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