Holi Digital Backdrops

What is in this collection

The colour scenes include a whitewashed courtyard wall splashed with magenta, yellow, green, blue and orange gulal around an arched niche, with a wooden bench and brass plates of powder; a frozen cloud of magenta, saffron, turquoise and lime powder bursting across a charcoal studio; and a white party panel splashed with colour inside a rainbow balloon garland. For a softer look there is a flower Holi set of scalloped sandstone arches with faded frescoes, with rose, marigold and jasmine petals drifting through the air. Outdoors, a blue-washed lane with stone steps and a carved door, in the style of Jodhpur's blue city, sits in a pink and yellow colour haze, and a white garden pavilion draped in tie-dyed cotton has marigold strings, floor cushions and buckets of colour and pichkaris.

Holi photo booth and photography backgrounds

Holi, the Hindu festival of colours, welcomes spring on the full moon of the month of Phalguna, usually in March, and celebrates the victory of good over evil. People throw gulal and spray coloured water from pichkaris, and in the Braj region around Mathura and Vrindavan, flower Holi uses petals instead of powder. For a booth at a community or office Holi event, use the splash wall with rainbow balloons: it has front light and a clean floor, and guests get the colour without powder on the carpet. The garden pavilion suits big groups of friends. Photographers looking for Holi photography backgrounds can use the powder burst studio for dramatic portraits and the haveli petal shower for gentler couple and family photos. For more festival scenes, see Diwali and spring.

Tips for using these scenes

• Add colour to your subjects. In real Holi photos people carry powder on their faces and clothes. If yours are clean, paint a few soft streaks in the scene's own colours, or photograph them after they have played, so they belong in the scene.
• Seat big groups in the pavilion. The garden pavilion takes seven or more, with floor cushions for seated groups. The courtyard wall, haveli arches, blue lane and splash wall fit four to six, and the studio powder burst is for one to three, made for dance and action shots.
• Place faces in clear air. In the powder burst and the blue lane the colour cloud covers part of the frame. Put faces where the air is clearer so expressions stay readable, and let the powder frame them.

Holi colour is bright and saturated, so read how to use digital backdrops on choosing a scene that will look real before you shoot.