Trading Card Digital Backdrops

What is in this collection

Fantasy and hero sets: the raked sand floor of an ancient stone arena with empty tiers and crimson awnings, a stone castle gateway on a mountain pass under purple storm clouds with shafts of gold light, an enchanted twilight forest with a ring of mossy standing stones and glowing teal mushrooms, and a dark sci-fi hangar with a glowing cyan hexagonal portal. Sports sets: a gymnastics hall with a balance beam and uneven bars under spotlights, and a concrete skate park bowl with steel coping against a sunset sky.

Making a card from a scene

Start from the portrait file, which is close to card shape: crop a little from the top or bottom for a standard 2.5 x 3.5 inch card. At that size the 4K portrait file has far more pixels than a 300 ppi print needs, so you can crop in hard on the subject; see resolution and print sizes. Put the photo of the player or character on a layer above the scene, then your card frame, name and stats on top. No scene includes a frame, a stat box or a logo. At events these work as a trading card photo booth: kids' parties, cosplay meet-ups and end-of-season team nights, where the booth prints each guest as their own card. For team cards, the sports collection adds a hockey rink, a locker room, tennis courts and a boxing ring; see photo booth backgrounds for print layouts.

Tips for using these scenes

• Add a matching rim light. The castle gate has dramatic light from the right, the arena hard sun from the left and the portal cyan glow from the front. A thin edge light in the same colour on your subject sells the composite.
• Pose full length and dynamic. Each scene is sized for one to three people standing in the centre. Action poses, a raised sword or a skateboard held out read better on a small card than a still pose.
• Keep the subject inside the safe area. Card frames and stats bars cover the edges and the bottom, so keep the head and hands in the middle of the frame and let the overlay sit over the floor.

How to use digital backdrops takes you through cutting out a player and placing them in a scene.