Alternative to Colorama

Phil789

Phil789

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Phil
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I am looking for an alternative to the colorama paper rolls (with the massive variety of colours) - perhaps coloured card in a variety of colours, that does not need to be huge, as it would be used mostly or headshots.

I like these style of shots:

https://dirtysugar.smugmug.com/Port...nt-Website-Galleries/Website-Portfolio-Color/

I assume they probably used colorama, or perhaps have a painted studio space (although there is a lot of variety in the colours). I don't have a studio space, or the space/money for a massive selection of colorama rolls.

Does anyone know of an alternative?
 
Look like the standard colourama / creativity background colours to me but for headshots like these you only need the small width rolls about 1.3 meters wide (IIRC) - you can always mount them sideways for a landscape shot and a collection of colours won't take up much space. Or you could just get some foamex and paint it (not sure if you can get it in colours but I suspect you can) but for the aggravation the paper rolls are probably the way to go. Alternatively just replace the background in post.
 
Boich said:
Look like the standard colourama / creativity background colours to me but for headshots like these you only need the small width rolls about 1.3 meters wide (IIRC) - you can always mount them sideways for a landscape shot and a collection of colours won't take up much space. Or you could just get some foamex and paint it (not sure if you can get it in colours but I suspect you can) but for the aggravation the paper rolls are probably the way to go. Alternatively just replace the background in post.
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Thanks for the suggestions. I had tried to replace the background in post, although was struggling to separate the subject from the background (shot against white) - the main issue being I like to shoot portraits with a shallow DoF and was having a halo effect left around the subject as the focus fell away. I suspect if the subject was shot completely in focus it would make separation easier with a hard edge to work with, but then would lose the look I am going for.

I will have a look at the small width rolls and see if that is an option but am very limited on space so I suspect not, unfortunately.
 
Room to store or actually to set up? The small width rolls are tiny? Even if you just got one colour you could then change the colour of it using a hue / sat layer and mask. If you are trying to replace the background in post I find it easier using a grey background - or at least something thats a good contrast with the hair since thats usually the trickier bit.
 
Boich said:
Room to store or actually to set up? The small width rolls are tiny? Even if you just got one colour you could then change the colour of it using a hue / sat layer and mask. If you are trying to replace the background in post I find it easier using a grey background - or at least something thats a good contrast with the hair since thats usually the trickier bit.
Click to expand...

Mainly storage - and that buying a whole load of colours would cost a fair bit with them being ~£40-45 a roll. I will have to try shooting on grey rather than white, but the particular image I was trying to swap the background on was dark hair against a white backdrop and couldn't get rid of the halo effect. It looked "OK" but not to a good enough level that I would be happy with - like I say I suspect the shallow DoF doesn't help matters.

Jayst84 said:
Use gels? Not the same as an actual coloured background obviously, but about as cheap and easy to store as you can get. Easy to alter in post as well (shoot a bright green gel for example, then just replace that colour in post, no masking required).
Click to expand...

I will do a test this weekend with a gel, although due to shooting in a small space I suspect that getting even illumination on the background whilst trying to avoid spill on to the subject will be an issue. Thanks for the suggestion though, will give it a test.
 
Those in the examples are all done with different colour papers.

Calumet have 30% off their own brand kit, including background papers, this week too.
 
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