Beginner When I had photo taken professionally, background colour options- how?

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133
Name
Conan
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi everyone, around about a year ago I had some portrait shots of myself done, and remember being asked what colour background I would like. He gave me a few options, but said he couldn't do one as "it wasn't set up for that colour at the moment".

He didn't need to change the actual background behind me, which was a darkish grey. I went for a blue background as I thought it looked the nicest when he showed me on his camera display.

I just wondered how he could change the colour of the background on the fly, without physically changing the background.
 
He was probably using a digital camera. In Photoshop (or similar), he would select the background and then fill with the required colour.
 
He was probably using a digital camera. In Photoshop (or similar), he would select the background and then fill with the required colour.

He was using a DSLR. I did think it was along those lines, but was unsure if it was common practice for professionals to simply edit in a background, instead of using a coloured background.

I am interested in learning studio style photography, such as portraits, family portraits, and 'make over' style shots where people come to look their best on the day, so knowing how this was achieved and learning how to do it would be good.
 
He was using a DSLR. I did think it was along those lines, but was unsure if it was common practice for professionals to simply edit in a background, instead of using a coloured background.

I am interested in learning studio style photography, such as portraits, family portraits, and 'make over' style shots where people come to look their best on the day, so knowing how this was achieved and learning how to do it would be good.
Could also change background colour using gels on the lighting.
 
There’s various ways to change a background colour, the bg itself, gels on lights, or in post, would’ve the obvious ones.

It sounds like the guy was doing it in post, but as I wasn’t there it’s just a guess.

As a sometimes studio photographer I’d say it’s not the best approach, particularly from a technical learning perspective.

If I was teaching someone how to shoot portraits I’d say swapping backgrounds is about lesson number 400. After about 50 people lessons,50 ‘photograhy’ lessons, 100 lighting lessons, 50 posing lessons etc.
 
It sounds like the guy was doing it in post, but as I wasn’t there it’s just a guess.


That would be my guess as well; had he been using gelled lights, he could have shown you the background effect in real time. However, doing it in post would allow him to drop in any colour, wouldn't it (asking the experts!)?
 
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