Digital Backdrops

[nycks1]

Do anyone know where to get some digital backdrops?
I don't want to invest a lot of money in buying backdrops.
I read somewhere that you can use a chroma key green backdrop for the subject and you can put them in any backdrop. If you can point me in the right way I would really appreciate it. Thanks inadvance

[Pekka]

See http://www.seanet.com/Users/bradford/bluscrn.html

and here you'll get instructions on building a wall screen: http://www.jushhome.com/Bluescreen/Bluescreen.html

[dohara]

I have purchased and ordered digital backdrops from "Owens Origionals", they are high resolution images of real backdrops that they sell to the industry.

Very pleased, especially with the "Old Masters Ultra High Rez). They are delivered on CD-ROM and fairly reasonably priced.

http://www.owens-originals.com/

Regards,
Dennis

[Tim Hellsten]

I am currently set up with a Chromakey blue screen

6 feet by 15 feet I purchased 2 then purchased a $20 rod and hung that up and clipped the backdrops on to this rod.

I got the backdrops from

www.funkybackdrops.com

the digital backgrounds I use are also from Owens and also have purchased some on Ebay from Mr. Mickee

check ou http://members.tripod.com/~mrmickee/

he has some nice digi drops and FREE shipping

has a package 3 CD's for 35.00 all 6 CD for $60.00

Looks Good

Photoshop is a great thing for us Digi-Heads.

check out Ebay also there are some good deals there on the CD's also

[WalStro]

At the risk of revealing what a rank amatuer I am in the dazzeling new digital world, perhaps somebody could tell me how one uses a "digital backdrop". Is there software available that will allow the "photographer" to place the image of a person, pet, etc. in front of the backdrop?

[ebann]

I have been researching this topic and have some questions:

Can a professional photographer detect if a photograph used a digital background via blue screen or used a normal background?

Are there pixel artifacts that is a dead give away that blue screen was used? I.e. does digital backgrounds yield high quality image?

Or in a practical question: Would you use digital backgrounds on a serious photo shoot, e.g. the President´s Inauguration?

Or are they for cash strapped photographers?

-Ellery

[Longwatcher]

I think I can answer some of the recent questions.

1. In most cases if I have the digital copy of an image an image analyst should be able to determine if a photograph has been manipulated or not, Very experienced photographers should also. Ways of minimizing detection is to make the boundary between what was and what will be very carefully, make sure scale remains correct and lastly save as jpeg at high compression so it distorts the entire image. I am always suspicious when I see a "unique" shot which claims something, but then is sent in high compression Jpeg format (lots of artifacts). It is very difficult to disquise a .tif, .bmp, .pcx shot that has been manipulated.

2. There can be bluescreen artifacts at the boundary zones, but the most common technique is to blend the edges together and then sharpen them back up. A caual glance should no longer reveal the manipulation, providing lighting is balanced between subject and digital background.

3. For official photographs, and images it would be unethical to use a digital background. I don't know about the press, but being an image analyst for the USAF, I was required to sign a statement that as part of my job I would not knowing alter an image to change its information content. (meaning I could crop, change grey-scale and contrast, etc.. to enhance the visual presentation, but not the content). Good thing it only applies to official work or I would never have any fun. We were required to sign this because US Department of Defense does not want any perception that they would manipulate information to present a lie. That is a job for another organization. (note: They recently came awfully close to losing this perception, before congress called them on it, luckily it was only the perception they would have messed up. if you read the details, they were just going to mis-lead with the truth; something CNN and other news organizations do on a daily basis from my experience - luckily the Psyops guys got kicked in the shins)

4. I have seen some very beatiful artistic photographs where the background was changed to something in the fantasy/science fiction realm. Having watched that photographer work, he went to a tremendous effort to have everything just right for the subject shot and then spends quite a bit of time on the background later. It is almost a digital painting. I strongly admire his work and he gets a bundle for the images printed onto large format framed art canvas. So using digital backgrounds is not just for the cash strapped. For myself, I have been taking cloud shots while flying in order to eventually use some for digital backdrops. It would be impossible to create a cloud backdrop with the feel of reality in the real world to shoot against, so the only way is to create it digitally.

5. How you do it (or at least how I do it). First let me use a disclaimer, although I am waiting for Photoshop 7.0 to arrive (hopefully this afternoon) I don't use that, but it better let me do the following:

I currently shoot the model on a solid field backdrop that has a different color then the model and his/her clothes. I typically use a nuetral mid-gray. But sometimes I use a matte black background. Green is handy, if the model is not wearing green, since most people don't (occasional slight problem with green-eyed redheads though).

I then turn the background color into a transparent color (I currently use MS Image Composer for this as it worked the easiest). I then copy the image and overlay it onto the background image (at this point I usually go to an old crippled version of photoshop).
I then flatten the image (put them together, instead of layers). I zoom the view to 200-400% and blend any noticeable defects in the edges (by cloning or smudge) and then I treat it as a normal image (perform contrast, brightning, white balance, sizing, sharpening as needed). Tah Dah! one changed image.

[Renee S.]

Here is another option:

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=blueyesnsparkles&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=25

[hodgy]

why not just make your own in PS?? You can basically make any backdrop you wish.

[photophotos]

Tim Hellston was right about www.mrmickeesdeals.com
we paid just $9.99 for quality professional digital backdrops.

I do not think we could have found it cheaper with such good quality.

and Mr Mickee has great help and how to files on the CD.

we recommend with an A+

also I bought digital from another company and it was expensive like $35.00 a CD.

[raymond_anthony]

DO NOT ORDER FROM FUNKY BACKDROPS. They charged me credit card over a month ago and still have not received my items. Stay far far away.

[misskitty]

I am also wondering how to use the digital backdrops & need some basic (easy to understand) advice. Can anyone help me please?

[louemy]

Thanks for advising us im new in digital and really apreciate

[msvirick]

This is the most that will be asked of you from friends and neighbors, from their pictures, and prehaps the most difficult part of digital photo processing. I find hair are the most difficult areas to cut and paste.
Recently I learnt the Extract command, and this is the easiest method for me to extract a image to to a digital backdrop. Try it and you will like it.

[louemy]

Were is the extract command

[ggustafs]

Adobe Photoshop 7

"Filters...Extract"

[tomtimmy]

I also just purchased Digital backdrops from
http://www.mrmickeesdeals.com

about two weeks ago and wow what a deal.
the name of the site capture it "deals"

the help files were great and I will be back to get more.

Also go to Abouts help file for more help on hair i noticed someone posted they had a hard time.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/library/weekly/aa000607b.htm

[dgoodfellow]

I had great dealings with Funkybackdrops.com. My order showed up in less than a week. But it didn't need to travel across the U.S. border as I live in Canada and Funkybackdrops is a canadian company too.

I don't have their chroma key backdrop, but rather some of their canvas and fantasia backdrops.

[Malaxos1]

I have an excellent CD of backdrops that I bought on ebay for $15. It has 30 backdrops on it. I have found that these 30 can easily become 300 by adjusting levels and color. Anyway I used a chromakey back drop and had pretty good results. The problem with the chromakey backdrop is that the green bleeds onto the skin and hair. It is very hard to clean up. That is because the subject must be very far away from the backdrop. I had problems everytime the subject was within 10' of the backdrop. I have since sold the chromakey backdrop. I still do use the CD but is doesn't matter to me what the original backdrop was. I can send a sample photo that I did if anyone is interested. Just post your email address...Dean

[robertwgross]

Malaxos1 wrote:
I can send a sample photo that I did if anyone is interested. Just post your email address...Dean

Dean, I think that if you click on anybody's screen name here, it will take you to a page of information on that individual, and there is a Send To box. The individual's actual email address is hidden, but it will function to send to that individual.

So, participants here do not need to divulge their true address in public.

---Bob Gross---

[kresner]

msvirick wrote:
This is the most that will be asked of you from friends and neighbors, from their pictures, and prehaps the most difficult part of digital photo processing. I find hair are the most difficult areas to cut and paste.
Recently I learnt the Extract command, and this is the easiest method for me to extract a image to to a digital backdrop. Try it and you will like it.


Holy Digital Trickery Batman!

That Extract filter works, what a timesaver. Thanks for the post.

It's nice to actually learn something new/useful in these forums vs. slogging through all the "my camera doesn't focus" ... "my camera sucks" ... "Canon is screwing all customers" ... "blah, blah, blah" posts.

[Malaxos1]

robertwgross wrote:
Malaxos1 wrote:
I can send a sample photo that I did if anyone is interested. Just post your email address...Dean

Dean, I think that if you click on anybody's screen name here, it will take you to a page of information on that individual, and there is a Send To box. The individual's actual email address is hidden, but it will function to send to that individual.

So, participants here do not need to divulge their true address in public.

---Bob Gross---

How do I send an attachment?

[Malaxos1]

robertwgross wrote:
Malaxos1 wrote:
I can send a sample photo that I did if anyone is interested. Just post your email address...Dean

Dean, I think that if you click on anybody's screen name here, it will take you to a page of information on that individual, and there is a Send To box. The individual's actual email address is hidden, but it will function to send to that individual.

So, participants here do not need to divulge their true address in public.

---Bob Gross---

How do I send an attachment?

[fotopro]

The Best Digital Backdrops I've seen are on www.ProBackdrops.com. I've purchase numerous backdrops from them and have had great results. They have a huge selection of digital backdrops at the best prices on the net.

[paynesphoto]

you can get some really good priced ones off ebay. just type in digital backgrounds for photography and it will bring up a big list.

while im on here, how do you mask and cut the right images?

[PAS Photography]

Can anyone post some links to their photos using chromakey backdrops? Im curious how they look.
Id be interested in gettin a blue or green if its easier than shooting on white or black as I do now currently.