Over the past few years, home studios for photography have become a more popular option. You could partially attribute this to the pandemic, but you can’t argue with the benefit of being able to utilize a space that you’re more comfortable in and doesn’t cost you anything extra to use. On top of that, no longer having to travel to do a photoshoot is always an excellent plus.
However, this change usually comes with a downgrade of equipment, especially when it comes to the background you use. Even if you have a perfectly white wall in your house, it doesn’t hold up when compared to a cyclorama one. That’s why we’re here to go over the top reasons why you need a cyc wall in your home studio, as well as give you some advice on some other pieces of equipment that you should buy afterward.
The Emptiness Illusion
The main reason cyc walls are so popular is due to the illusion they give that you took your photos in a white void. When you want to put all the focus on your subject, whether it’s a person, animal, or object, you need the background to practically disappear, which you can easily achieve through a plain white backdrop.
As we mentioned earlier, some people just find a white wall in their home and use that, but that’s extremely limiting. You can only make a flat wall look infinite from a handful of angles. If you want to have that illusion from any direction you point your camera, you need a cyc wall. Between the use of vertical and horizontal curves and the perfect lighting angle, it will appear as if you took your photos in a vast world of nothingness.
They’re Quite Versatile
Even though colored cyc walls do exist, white ones are the way to go if you have limited space or budget because they are, by far, the most versatile. With a white cyc wall and some filtered lights, you can achieve whichever colored walls you desire. Granted, you’ll also have to cast your subject in these filtered lights, but with some maneuvering and trickery, you can make the colored light more focused on the background and leave the foreground more neutral.
Although, if the color doesn’t matter for your next shoot, white is still the best choice for achieving that “infinite void” look that we were just talking about. That’s due to the fact that you can almost completely remove shadows on a white cyclorama. With proper lighting, you can evenly spread them across the background. But on top of that, the white wall will reflect the light enough to reduce the shadows’ visibility on its own. The backdrop can even act as a minor backing light source if the lights are bright enough.
On top of that, you can use cyc walls for more than just photos. Short videos such as commercials and music videos commonly use these types of backgrounds. That means you can either expand your business or rent it out to others who need an empty void for their video needs.
They Come in Multiple Sizes
One thing that typically holds people back from investing in a proper cyc wall is that they think that getting one would take up too much space. While the bigger ones might, most companies sell cyc walls in all shapes and sizes.
If you take a look at our selection of cyclorama walls, you’ll see that you can even customize and later modify yours to better fit whatever photoshoot needs you have at the time. Whether you need a smaller one to take pictures of pets and other animals or a large one that can fit the whole family, we’ve got you covered. Also, you can use these for taking pictures of products for someone’s website. The options of what to do with a cyc wall are nearly endless, so be sure to find creative ways to use it to expand your business.
Simpler Photo Editing Afterward
Unfortunately, not every photo will come out perfectly, so if you need to do some editing afterward, it’s easiest to do when the backdrop is perfectly white. Of course, any kind of editing will be easier on an infinite background, even if it’s not to fix any errors. Regardless of the type of postproduction you typically do for your pictures, a white cyc will streamline the process quite a bit.
However, the benefits don’t end there. While it’s not ideal, you can also use white cyc walls as a replacement for green screens. Although it will be harder to deal with since white is a common color and everyone has white in their eyes, it is theoretically possible.
If the standard chroma value you’re using to remove the white background isn’t working for you, though, you can try to use luma value instead. This value bases the removal of elements on how bright they are instead of the color they produce. Since the white cycloramas are typically much brighter than the subject, this option just might be what you need to work in another background for your photos.
Other Gear That Goes With Cyc Walls
If our list of reasons why you need a cyc wall in your home studio was enough to convince you, then there are other pieces of equipment that you should consider buying to improve your experience with your new background.
Lighting
If it wasn’t evident from how many times we referenced it in this post, proper lighting is essential to fully utilize a cyc wall’s benefits. The more lighting you have, the better your “infinite” look will be. We’re sure you already have some from your previous work, but it might be time for an upgrade, so getting a few more couldn’t hurt.
Cleaning Supplies
The unfortunate nature of the color white is that it can become dirty quite easily. As time goes by, you’ll learn tricks for keeping it clean for a longer period of time, but regardless of how long it remains perfectly white, you will need proper cleaning supplies to freshen it up every so often.
White Paint
Despite all your hard work of cleaning the cyclorama, the day may come in which you can no longer effectively clean the wall. Fortunately, with some white primer, you can make your background look just as good as the day you brought it home. Depending on the size, it might take some time to paint the entire thing, but the results will surely speak for themselves.
