I preach about knowing, finding and developing your “Style” but never really speak to how to do it. Let’s discuss a simple and perhaps the most important step to developing your own style; backdrop or scene.

I’ve been shooting professionally for some time, shooting even longer. One of the things that I’ve struggled with is NOT using a backdrop. My struggle isn’t for how to light it, but how odd photos not on backdrops look to me. For me when I’m looking at a photo, I want it SIMPLE! I want all my attention on the model and that’s it. My personal feelings are when there are props and other things in the photo, they take my eye away from the model that’s a negative! When I’m shooting, I apply this principal to the shoot so I rarely shoot off a backdrop.

I understand some people detest backdrops and while I’d love to say I detest anything not on a backdrop, I’m not to that extreme on anything. I personally find shooting on a backdrop to be amongst the most difficult things photography related I’ve done. To get a PROPERLY let white backdrop is beyond difficult. To get a black backdrop to show up as pure black with no light spill is difficult. To get separation of model and backdrop of any color takes attention to detail that helps challenge me at any of my sessions. That and it’s super easy for me to look at the person in the photo and nothing else.

Part of my “style” is backdrops and the variety they give me, what’s your thoughts on the set backdrop? Outdoors? Room? Solid color backdrop?