Cyclorama: Portrait Paper Backdrops

MW_HNL

Always looking for simple backdrops I grabbed this one.  Used to be lots of folks included Templates.  That unfortunately seems to have become out of fashion. But I output it as an OBJ and put it into Hexagon 2.5 and was able to extract a template and then figure out the aspect ratio stuff and squish it in Photoshop for both the cyc itslef and the three hidden panels. I wanted to 1. Make the backdrop full length.  Real backdrop paper is never long enough it seems and models walk on it.  Not a problem here.  And then one can go crazy making all sorts of textures and so forth. And 2. For the panels I made opacity masks and gradients.  Those I fiddled with.  Sure enough you can turn those on and use them to do things like add color blooms to the backdrop without any additional lights.  Here only a main shadow casting light is used and a non shadow casting fill light. Victoria 4 as I do not like to wait all day to see how I messed up yet another attempt at a render.

A few tricks.  The panels should be tilted and shoved so the inside edge pierces the backdrop.  Otherwise you will get mysterious yellow lines if the panel is yellow where the edge reflects back somehow. But if you tilt the panels and shove them just right they can make all sorts of blooms and shades that can be positioned and adjusted around the model.  For the center panel I am experimenting with a back cutter light effect that can be positioned.

So far I am just pleased my fumbling around managed to turn on the panels, make an opacity mask that WORKS! and get the entire idea to happen.  Not perfect but the panels do move around so the various artifacts caused by things intersecting can often be moved out of the frame.  Seemed a shame not to try to use the panels since they were still there.

With the template sorted out all sorts of things become possible like antique backdrops with painted silly pictures AKA 1880s which should appeal to SteamPunk lovers. That used to be common in portrait studios of the time. Some kind of column to lean on and steady yourself and a silly oil painted backdrop of some kind.  Some even had strange ideas like an actual boat on the floor for you to sit in against a painting of a lake behind. Could get very Victorian done right.

I also experimented with using two backdrops nested so one could be made transparent in an attempt to do a "16 Miles of String" idea. But that is a work in progress. First try was promising but clumsy garbage. However it was cool how the lines on the front one cast shadows on the back one making additional complexity.

MW_HNL

An even stranger apparent affect is that a panel will catch a shadow even if it is virtually transparent (opacity set very low).  This means a plane can apparently be adjusted independent of the backdrop to place a shadow in a range of places and angles relative to the model without moving the model, shadow casting lights or the backdrop.  Discovered by accident. Never would have thought of this.  A shadow plane that is adjustable. Since panels can be sized x and y a center panel with a round color bloom on it can be made elliptical etc. Below the shadow turns out to be on the nearly invisible center panel not on the backdrop.