graph her against a lighter or white background. Because there will be little
contrast between the background and her dress, they will visually blend to-
gether and leave the emphasis where you want it: on her face. However if the
client in a white dress has a perfect figure and wants to show it off, selecting a
contrasting dark background would help you achieve this goal. Against a black
background, for example, her white dress will stand out sharply and reveal the
outline of her body, showing off her shape.
Color.If we only produced black & white images and had complete control
of the client’s clothing, controlling the viewer’s eye would be simple. (In that
simple dream world, my Viper would get good gas mileage, too!) In the real
world, however, clients bring in the wrong clothing—and the idea of creating
just black & white images would mean about 70 percent of our clients would
find another studio to do business with.
When we add color, understanding contrast is still important. However, co-
ordination is not as easy to determine as in black & white. As a result, many
photographers stick to matching; if a young lady comes in wearing a red sweater,
they put a red gel on whatever background they are using. This is a simple way
of handling a complex idea, but not all clients want a red background with their
red sweater.BACKGROUND SELECTION 31Tonal contrast between the clothing and
the background outlines the subject’s fig-
ure, emphasizing it. Tonal blending be-
tween the clothing and the background
subdues the subject’s figure, keeping the
emphasis more on the face.