Professional style backgrounds

[rosede]

Is there a place where I can get backgrounds that look like something a person would find at a professional studio? I don't know how to describe what I'm looking for. But basically, professional studio's have standard backgrounds, either a grey tone, or a multi-color bluish tone. I have several pictures that I would like to crop the person out of and put into that type of background. If there is a place that I can purchase such backgrounds, that would be great.

Thanks

Daryl

[bruce1951]

If you do a Google search of 'free backgrounds and textures' you should find what you are looking for.

Bruce

[hartpaul]

You can make your own backgrounds. Try this:
1. Open your version of PSP.
2. Click New icon (below File) and choose the dimensions of your background. eg 3000 x 2000 pixels.
3. Right click a color in your Materials palette over on the right and select a color, then choose the Flood Fill tool - like a spilling paint bucket and click inside your background document to fill it with the chosen plain color. You have over 10 million plain colors you can choose from.
If you want a pattern then double click the top Fore ground and Stroke Properties color box and choose the Pattern tab and you should have a number of patterns you can use with different scaling options.(I have 134 different patterns)
If you want you can also use a gradient to fill the background or combine a color with a texture. (I have 64 different patterns which can be combined with those over 10 million colors to give an even larger range of backgrounds).
You can also make other pictures your background and is this what you mean, like taking a picture of some people in a lounge room and making it look like they were in front of the Eiffel Tower?
In this case you can approach micro stock libraries and for a small fee purchase images or you can do google search for Public Domain images of eg Eiffel tower.
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en ... ffel-tower

[Jean-Luc]

You may also create your own backgrounds like this :
- select an image (here some flowers)
- blur it as you like
- apply a Brush stroke effect (adding a texture but not necessary)
- place your portrait above

[rosede]

Doesn't Corel have a store that sells frames, backgrounds etc....? I've bought some frames before and I assumed that I could find some backgrounds, but I can no longer find where to purchase them.

Thanks

Daryl

[Kathy_9]

Here's a link to Corel's store.

https://shop.learn.corel.com/

[Radim]

What you request does not have "anything" with PSP or Corel.

You have to look to any stock e-shop. And there are many.

[flagpole]

Has anyone considered doing an image search for maybe 'professional backgrounds' of even wallpapers.

[bruce1951]

I mentioned using Google in the first reply! Seems folk here just like to do things the hard way.
Besides. Define 'professional' for me.

Bruce

[JoeB]

I mentioned using Google in the first reply! Seems folk here just like to do things the hard way.
Besides. Define 'professional' for me.

I think the correct term is studio backgrounds and/or backdrops. Typing the words free studio backgrounds into Google will bring up a whole bunch of links. You don't have to preface it with free if you don't want to but using free will give the most links including sites with paid backgrounds. And if you're looking for more than the basic textured white, grey or blue backdrops then there are likely lots of computer monitor wallpapers that could work just as well.

[hartpaul]

Is there a place where I can get backgrounds that look like something a person would find at a professional studio? I don't know how to describe what I'm looking for. But basically, professional studio's have standard backgrounds, either a grey tone, or a multi-color bluish tone. I have several pictures that I would like to crop the person out of and put into that type of background. If there is a place that I can purchase such backgrounds, that would be great.

Thanks

Daryl

When you mention studio backgrounds or backdrops those are what are used for a background for photographers in a photographic studio. Some examples are:
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Ele ... cs/3443951

https://pngtree.com/free-backgrounds-photos/studio

From what the OP is asking , it seems they are after background wallpapers such that they can digitally extract a person or object from one picture and place them against a separate background . I and others have suggested ways that the OP can use to create their own plain or abstract backgrounds. But you can also purchase images from stock photo libraries or specialist background image sales sites. You can also get the background spotlight images that Windows 10 uses on the lock screen although those may not be available for commercial use. One site that sells background images is :

https://www.pexels.com/search/nature%20wallpaper/

A google search for background wallpapers gives many more sites:
https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... pOkvmu2xYo

[JoeB]

I AM LEAVING THIS POST INTACT, BUT HAVE ADDED AN EDIT POST BELOW THIS ONE. IT EXPLAINS THAT BACKDROP DESIGNER DOES WORK WITH PSP, BUT ONLY ON BACKGROUND LAYERS! SO YOU DON'T NEED ADOBE PRODUCTS TO BE ABLE TO USE IT.

If you (or anyone else who is interested) have a copy of Photoshop - CS2 or higher needed I believe - then Digital Anarchy has a free plugin called Backdrop Designer that you can use to design any number of backdrops (supposed to have 900 presets with multitudes of variations) with different colored/types of textures and different types of shadows/folds/draping on the textures (which can be fine tuned). You could then, for example, use PS and the plugin to create various backdrops that you like, save them as PNG images, and use them in PSP as backdrops for portraits where you cut out the person in the portrait - of course adding necessary shadows and feathering to your cutout so it will merge nicely with your backdrop. I have CS6, which I don't use for editing, but it's useful to keep around for things like this.

FYI for those who can use it: Background designer is quite easy to use if you first just read the quick start guide available on the site. The Digital Anarchy site also has a regular user manual for it plus some downloadable video tutorials if you want to be more creative. They don't support the plugin anymore (hence free) but with all of the help file available you shouldn't need support. And the plugin can create some really nice, professional quality, very high resolution backdrops of any size that your graphic program - and computer - can handle.

And, just so you know, the plugin will actually show up in PSP if you point PSP to the Adobe plugin folder in which it is installed, but it doesn't render the backdrops properly in PSP so can't actually be used. At least I haven't been able to get it to render properly in PSP but perhaps that's just my lack of knowledge. However, one website hints that it should work with any graphic software that supports masking so perhaps it might work with GIMP or Photoline if you don't have PS. Others will have to experiment with that if interested.

[JoeB]

EDIT TO MY PREVIOUS POST RE: BACKGROUND DESIGNER WORKING WITH PSP!

I have just discovered that you CAN use the free Backdrop Designer as a plugin with Paintshop Pro, at least with 2018 and maybe previous versions. However, it will only render the backdrop you create with the plugin on a BACKGROUND layer.

That means that you either have to have an actual Background layer at the bottom of your stack (and have that layer selected in the Layers palette) and run the plugin on that layer or, if you want to create a backdrop to use in an image that has layers but not background then you have to create a new image without transparency - any color will do - so that it will be a Background layer, and the same pixel size and resolution of your layered image, create your backdrop with the plugin on that new image, and then drag that backdrop into position on your layered image,

So you don't need Photoshop or Elements to be able to use Backdrop Designer. You can create your backdrops in PSP as long as you remember to create them on an actual Background layer. And in experimenting I find you can create thousands of different backdrops quite quickly. Reading the actual User Manual really goes into depth about how the plugin works. And if you're going to try it out, change the Render settings from Normal (or High if it's set there) to Fast. You won't notice any real difference in the quality of the output but it makes a big difference to the speed of the render.

And no, I'm not associated with them in any way, but having read this thread I'm glad I discovered the plugin and how to use it with PSP. It sure beats searching the internet for exactly what I might want, and the quality is much better - the plugin uses Fractals, not pixels, to generate the backdrop until you hit Apply to render your pixel based backdrop. So you get high quality backdrops for everything from small images to billboard size images if you want.

For those who like to create their own custom textures in PSP, I'd say that Backdrop Designer would be a much better tool to use to create them by far, and then save your creations as PSP textures. Just a thought.

Now I would REALLY appreciate if anyone can tell me why the plugin will not work on layers of any kind in PSP, only Background! On anything except a Background layer it does render something but it's more just greyscale dots and lines that are kind of scattered over the underlying image. Weird.

[JoeB]

So - given my last two posts were, as usual, quite wordy - to be clear they were meant to provide an easy solution to @rosede's original post - i.e., where to get professional photo shoot backdrops. And, IMHO, if you want to be able to have high quality backdrops that you can customize to suit any subject on which you wish to add the photo subject, then the easiest way to do so is with the free Background Designer plugin as described in my previous posts. Certainly beats searching for free or paid - and not necessarily exactly what you want - stuff through Google, and a lot faster also. Just sayin' to clarify in case the OP is still looking for solutions. And we don't know that because the OP hasn't had the courtesy of replying to anyone who has offered suggestions since his/her first post a couple of weeks ago.

[Vishalsaini]

you can also visit the following website to get professional nature backgrounds and many other topic related backgrounds and photos.
https://getfreepictures.blogspot.com/20 ... apers.html