Digital backdrops for
photographers

What photographers use them for

These are digital backdrops: AI-generated, empty scenes with no people, text or logos, made to sit behind a subject you photographed yourself. They are not photographs of real places. You shoot the client against a plain wall or a green screen, cut them out and place them in front of the scene, then match the light. If you are new to that, how to use digital backdrops covers the steps.

This page is about running them as part of a photography business. If you want help choosing a scene by light direction, pose and group size, read digital backgrounds for photography.

Sell a backdrop menu, not a single set

A physical backdrop costs money, floor space and time to change. A digital library turns the choice into a menu: send a client three or four scene links before the session, let them choose, and shoot everything against the same plain wall. A few ways photographers build the menu:

• Seasonal and mini sessions. Christmas, winter and Valentine's scenes can be on offer within minutes of you deciding to run the session. See Christmas, Winter Wonderland and Valentine's.
• Children's milestones. First birthday and balloon sets for cake smash and birthday portraits.
• Portraits and families. Quiet painted and studio walls in Portrait and Fine Art, plus 37 scenes with room for four or more people.
• Weddings and events. Wedding and Corporate scenes for engagement sessions and event stations.

The whole library is browsable by occasion, light and pose on the browse page, and every scene has its own page showing all three crops.

A simple workflow for client sessions

1. Before the session. Send the client three or four scene links and ask them to choose. Note each scene's light direction on its page.
2. At the session. Shoot against your usual plain wall or a green screen, lit from the side the chosen scene is lit from. Keep the camera at the subject's eye level.
3. In the edit. Cut the subject out, place them in the scene, soften the background slightly and paint a contact shadow. Batch the steps with a Photoshop action when many clients choose the same scene.
4. Delivery. Deliver the finished photos and prints. Keep the empty scene files to yourself, as the licence asks.

Because the backdrop is a still image, you can also offer a second scene after the session, as an upsell, without a reshoot. Shoot a few extra frames with your subject in a pose that fits several scenes, such as a standing pose with space on both sides.

Licence for paid client work

The licence covers paid client work: portraits, family and event photography, prints, albums and the digital files you deliver. There is no limit on sessions or prints, and clients can share their finished images. What you cannot do is hand the empty backdrop files to a client, or resell them. Scenes are non-exclusive, so another photographer may use the same one.

Files and print sizes

Every scene comes as landscape 2880 x 1920, portrait 1920 x 2880 and square 2880 x 2880 pixels, cut from one native 2880px master. The free download is 1280px on the long edge with a small corner watermark; use it to test a scene in your layout or show it to a client. The clean full-size files come with lifetime access, a single $27 payment. See resolution and print sizes for what the sizes mean in prints.

Backgrounds are usually a little soft behind a sharp subject, so the files hold up in prints and albums. For a very large canvas, check the resolution guide first.

Where to go next

Start with the free downloads, then see Photoshop backgrounds for the editing workflow, or event photographer backdrops if you shoot parties and corporate nights.