I have a big portrait shoot in a couple of weeks and it has given me a case of the jitters.

I intend to use my grey/black 1.8x2.1 Lastolite with the new magnetic bracket. This is big enought for pairs and even small groups, full length and wide shots.

What it lacks though is texture.

The Pewter and Walnut Lastolite is the one on my radar and it is available reasonably cheaply at the moment. It may even make it in time.

Added to cart, bought……….then cancelled.

It is still over $300au, which is a substantial amount for something that is only one of many ways of doing something that can be done by, well, nothing actually.

I have texture options with my four soft “pleather” 1.5m hanging rolls and a Kate 5x7, but the lastolite system is so very easy to work with. The question is (here we go again asking what “the question” actually is), do I have a need for another grey and a texture. The grey is different to my solid, as texture is the hardest thing to add without replacement, and the walnut is as good as a one use texture, because again, texture is the hardest thing to fix without replacement.

After ordering it, I went for a long walk and with buyers regret/hind sight at work, I googled “corportate portraits agin, for the hndredth time this month. Looking at a lot of images, it soon became clear that for corporates in particular, solid colour is the norm and to my eye, dark grey to light black is the strongest.

Light black you say? Black with a little light on it, tends to go dark grey.

My grey backdrop is fine. Perfect actually, I just needed to realise that….again. All I need to do is work out lighting and I am sorted. The Pewter is graded, slightly “shimmery” and very mildly textured. As I found previously, this is not that hare to do. My cheap vinyl furniture fabric is close enough, so before I go and spend enough money to buy a more needed lens, maybe I should sit back and relax.

Colour, which tends to run second to texture, is actually I think, more important. Even the choice of warm or cool grey can effect the skin tones of a subject, but colour is an easy fix. A simple masked brush-over for the background and it can be warmed up or cooled down, colour shifted or more or less saturated with little effort. Add some vignetting and I have a graduated grey-black with warm or cool tones. I have noticed that Rory Lewis, when using black or grey changes the colour to warmer or cooler tones regulalry.

Anyway, after going around in the same circles as before, I am back to where I started. The big grey/black, a smaller black/white and four texured rolls. The reality is, lighting and subject make the shot, the background is only “an opinion” added to it. I shy away from overly opinionated backdrops, preferring mild, nearly imperceptible textures and subtle colours.

A win is the Lastolite bracket which is great and even helps me hang metal bars for the rolls. It is very strong, rated at 5kg, but I think 10kg is possible. The fake leather rolls hung 2m from floor up to the bar are fine.

So, close call, but no harm done.