blue gray paper textured photography backdrop

In the following example, I wanted to add some painterly feel to an already dramatic portrait of one of my high school senior clients. If you don’t want to create your own, you can buy textures for Photoshop ( Etsy is an excellent resource for paid textures), or find free textures to download on sites like Deviantart or Brusheezy. I’ve also created textures by photographing fabrics such as linen, burlap, or canvas. I like to seek out things such as an interesting stonework, a grungy wall, a city sidewalk, chipping paint, or rusty metal. You can use your own photos of anything you see with interesting texture.

Texture overlays are super easy to create yourself. Throw in dramatic lighting and a timeless subject, and you can achieve an old-masters portrait feel without breaking the bank on a custom backdrop. Add one to an otherwise plain seamless backdrop, and you dramatically change the look and feel of your portrait. And while they can look great on their own, especially for a high-fashion look, sometimes they need a little added drama when they are being used for fine-art portraiture. My go-to seamless brand, Savage Universal, even offers them in multiple widths of 107, 86, 53 or 26 inches. Seamless paper backdrops are super easy to get, economical, and they come in every color under the sun. Alas, I have none of these luxuries, but what I do have is seamless paper, and Photoshop skills. If I were flush with the luxury of time and painterly talent, I might try to paint my own. If I were super rich, I would ask Sarah to paint me one of each color. I love to use a red backdrop, as well as teal or deep blue. However, there are many times when I want to shake things up by adding a little color to my portrait work, especially in senior portraits or commercial work. Having it set up permanently in my studio has reduced my workload both physically and in post-production. It has totally taken the place of that plain gray seamless paper in my studio work.

The backdrop I commissioned from her is a gorgeous, double-sided, two-tone gray masterpiece, and I am super happy I took the plunge and bought it. Her backdrops have been featured in magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair, and in the works of such world-famous photographers as Annie Leibovitz and Mark Seliger. When I opened my photography studio after many years of borrowing space and shooting on-location, I celebrated having my very own spread by splurging on a high-end backdrop, hand-painted by one of the most talented backdrop painters in the business, the one-and-only Sarah Oliphant. A business portrait shot on gray seamless paper, with texture added in Photoshop.

Blue gray paper textured photography backdrop