Shooting with Painted Backdrops

If you really want that “old masters” look for your portraits, you might want to consider shooting with a painted backdrop behind your subject. Like Rembrandt-style lighting, using painted backdrops is also still very popular and, in fact, it’s kind of a “thing” right now (the ones I use are from GravityBackDrops.com, and I love them like you can’t believe, mostly because I can buy a backdrop from them at a price I would have to pay someplace else to rent a high-end painted backdrop for a weekend. Can’t say enough about them). Anyway, the idea is you let the window light that’s lighting your subject also spill onto and light your background, and it creates a very dynamic-looking portrait. You can pick up a background stand set and the pole that goes between them (the one that holds up your backdrop roll) for around $110 at B&H Photo. The two clamps holding up our background are steel spring clamps from Home Depot (about $5 each).