Adding Depth to Portraits Using Fabric Walls

Photography Tips  •  Portrait Photography

Your backgrounds play an important role in adding depth to your portraits. But, when you work in a small home studio, you may not have the flexibility of working with different backgrounds. That does not mean that you’re stuck with whatever you’ve got. Photographer Gavin Hoey from Adorama shows you how you can use fake walls made of fabric to add depth in your photos:

Like Hoey, you can have a long piece of fabric clipped on to light stands to mimic a wall. The actual trick in adding depth to the image lies in how you place the lights. If the light that illuminates the subject spills over to the background, the image will appear flat. So, try and have the lights set up in a way that there’s quite a good amount of difference in luminosity on the subject compared to the background. Doing so will ensure that the subject is well lit, and that the walls of fabric fall from the good light to darkness.

If you too work in a small home studio, definitely give this trick a try. In case you’re bored with having the same background in all of your images, this will add a sense of freshness for sure.