I'll be the first to admit that I actually get tired of shooting in the same location time and time again. No matter what studio I'm in, including my new one which I LOVE, there are only so many backdrops to shoot against. This is one advantage to landscape photography as you can always go somewhere you haven't gone before. While I'd love to build sets (and I will), I just don't have the time to build new sets on a regular basis and they can be expensive to buy or have built. It's also funny when I can look at a photo and tell who shot it not, because of their photographic style, but because I recognize a piece of furniture that they always use 🙂
I remember seeing some cool scenes in the Westcott Live Shooting Bays at the last Photoshop World and I thought "Wow, Cool! But, I would get tired of that scene eventually." Little did I know at the time that Westcott actually will "rent" those scenic backgrounds. That changes everything. You can have a change of scenery, shoot it a few times and send it back without getting bored with it. I decided to check out a few of them and I used a couple of them in a shoot yesterday.
The backgrounds ship folded and as you can see you will have to either steam them or Photoshop out the wrinkles in post.
The tricky part is getting the perspective/distance/lighting right depending on the scene. Also depending on the color of the background you will either need to gel your lights or match the color in Photoshop afterwards.
Lastly the backdrops aren't as long as you may need for a full body shot. They come in either 5'x6' or 6'x8' However, you can get away with a seamless effect if the subject is sitting/kneeling or laying down.
If you're looking for a change of scenery but don't want to commit to one particular scene forever, check out the Westcott Scenic Background Rentals here.
I wanted to comment on your GPS review, or really just ask a question, but there wasn’t a reply option. I couldn’t find an email link for you either. Several of the products say that they don’t record to Nikon RAW files. I looked at my D3 manual and the Nikon website and it appears that GPS data should be recorded to all file types (but doesn’t explicitly say that). I can’t find any mention of it in other reviews either. Can you answer for me?
John, just do a search here on my blog for Nikon GPS and any of the ones that I’ve reviewed here ALL write to the Nikon RAW files. I wouldn’t use one that didn’t!
What is wrong with green screen?