Type of Gradient when replacing the background

[OlgaR]

Damien, I noticed, in the PSD you created to smooth out the grey backdrop, you used the Transparent Gradient to begin with instead of the Solid one (I may not be using the right terms, but hopefully it makes sense).  In the tutorial on how to avoid banding in the backdrop, the initial gradients were Solid.  Since I am having to replace backgrounds quite a bit, I was curious if there is a reason you used the Transparent gradient on that grey backdrop.  Does it make masking easier, does it help match the colors to the original better?  Thank you so much!!

 

[Damien Symonds]

Well, it was because I wanted to preserve the flooring, you know?

In the ones in the tutorial, there tended to be only backdrop visible.  So I was able to use a plain 100% opacity gradient.

But when flooring is present, we generally need the backdrop to fade as naturally as possible into the floor.

Am I making sense?

[OlgaR]

Thanks, Damien!  Yes, you are making perfect sense!  Otherwise, you lose the natural shadow at the backdrop crease which results in the appearance of the subject "floating".  I'll have to play around with this and see if I can get away with not using 100% opacity gradient.  Problem is, oftentimes, the piece on the floor needs to be extended/changed also, but this gives me some ideas.  Thank you so much for answering my question -- very glad I asked!

Edited February 3, 2016 by OlgaR

[Damien Symonds]

Needless to say, feel free to post a photo any time you need assistance.

[OlgaR]

Thank you so much!  You know I will.   I have some maternity photos that were "edited" (note the quotation marks!) before your classes.  I am going to go back and re-edit some of them and the backdrop was a disaster -- this should be interesting.   Thanks again!