Black or white... ?

[fogie]

There is much in life that confounds me these days .... politicians, smart phones. dumb
phones, figures like Zog the death dealer (or whatever), so forth. But what I find more
difficult to understand than anything else is why do we take photographs of our painted
figures against solid black backgrounds ? To me all it does is over illuminate the figure
and increase the colour saturation, so we end up with an entirely unrealistic rendition of
our paintwork. This example of what I mean is a bit lame but might illustrate my point.

 

[Wayneb]

I don't even own a camera besides my phone and was thinking that same thing just yesterday...……..

Wayne

 

[fogie]

Time then to start a two-man revolution... eh ?

Mike

 

[billyturnip]

It's perhaps no coincidence that professional photographers generally use a white background when taking portrait photo's in their studios. However a darker background can add a bit of atmosphere to a particular scene.
Interesting subject, I usually take my photo's against a light and a dark background and choose the best ones to post on the internet. I seem to remember there was a bit of a furore a while back about a company selling printed background to photo models against, I can't remember the exact details but it looked a good idea to me.
Roger.

 

[peedee]

Give me the black background every time.

 

[megroot]

Black or blue for me. In front of a white the colors seems washed out.

Marc

 

[fogie]

Black or blue for me. In front of a white the colors seems washed out...

The 'washed out' look is what I try to do. You see, I think we make our colours to bright so prefer to desaturate mine a bit. It's
just a point of view of course and we all have different ideas, don't we ? The other thing is that the figure shown is very old - it
was painted 46 years ago... perhaps I should have dug up something more recent.

Mike

 

[harrytheheid]

It's perhaps no coincidence that professional photographers generally use a white background when taking portrait photo's in their studios. However a darker background can add a bit of atmosphere to a particular scene.
Interesting subject, I usually take my photo's against a light and a dark background and choose the best ones to post on the internet. I seem to remember there was a bit of a furore a while back about a company selling printed background to photo models against, I can't remember the exact details but it looked a good idea to me.
Roger.

Might it have been Hanger18 ? I have a few of their backdrops and they're pretty good.
http://www.hangar18miniatures.com/photo-backdrops/

 

[Mirofsoft]

 

[Nap]

Black background generally

Isn't that figure the Hinchcliffe one Fogie ?

Nap

 

[billyturnip]

Might it have been Hanger18 ? I have a few of their backdrops and they're pretty good.
http://www.hangar18miniatures.com/photo-backdrops/

Yes, that's them. I need to have a search now to remind myself what all the fuss was about. They look pretty good to me.
Roger.

 

[fogie]

Isn't that figure the Hinchcliffe one Fogie ?...

Yes that's righr - sculpted by Ray Lamb and produced by Frank Hinchliffe in 1973. Forty-odd of them in all and I've got
the lot ( although several of them are essentially just doubles with different hats and backpacks ). Old times eh ?

Mike

 

[blaster]

Great painting on this oldie! BTW, my 2 cts worth. either black or white backgrounds are too stark. Artists painting portraits and other subjects usually paint on muted backgrounds to test for tonality.
I remember a book "How to photograph scale models" by Shep Paine and Lane Stewart. Various backgrounds are recommended including backlighting to delineate the outlines.

Rgds Victor

 

[fogie]

Shep Paine - now there's a man who knew a thing or two about model figures,..eh? I chose the 'oldie' purely
at random from my display cabinet to help illustrate my view about backgrounds, but thanks for the kind
comment about my painting. Goodness me, it was a long, long time ago now when I was still soft around
the edges.

 

[Wayneb]

From a personal standpoint, I usually take what I am painting outside in natural light to check where I'm at as far as color, shadow and highlights. I don't really trust indoor light and lamps. I don't photograph my work as I only paint for personal satisfaction, but that still involves getting things right the best I can for what I know. One of my favorite sayings is....."I think it looks great"...…………….."From far away"........

Wayne

 

[fogie]

I don't photograph my work as I only paint for personal satisfaction....

I'm with you... it's the best way to paint.

Mike