Why Gray Is the Most Adaptable Background Color for Photography
If you’re an aspiring portrait photographer, you really don’t need to spend your budget on multiple backgrounds for your shots. It’s better to choose a color that is easily adaptable and can change dramatically depending on your lighting conditions, such as gray.
In this video, photographer Joe Edelman explains how medium gray (18 percent) can be used to capture a wide range of colors, from black to white, and with gels, any color of the rainbow. A lighter gray will make it difficult to get a deep color, and a darker gray, as you would expect, will never be perceived as white, no matter how many lights you point at it.
Once you have a backdrop, whether it’s paper, vinyl, or just matte wall paint, you can get to work using light to achieve a different look. You can see Joe adjust the background darkness in a single light setup by changing the position of the subject and light source; closer to the background and will be brighter. Further, the gray background becomes almost black. Adding a background light allows you to create a gradient and can also blow out the background if you want it to be completely white.
Add colored gels to this equation and you can see how the gray background reflects a nice and rich velvety color that doesn’t wash out. As is often the case in portrait photography, most of the work comes down to how you light the scene. This is why you only really want gray if you turn on the lights.
Best Colored Background for Portrait Photography – Gray | Joe Edelman