Vintage Digital Backgrounds and Backdrops

What is in this collection

Period portrait rooms lead the vintage collection: a Victorian portrait studio with a carved walnut armchair and a hand-painted canvas, a teal old-master interior with a mustard curtain, dark floral wallpaper with a mustard wingback, a green club chair under film-noir blind shadows, a distressed plaster wall with an antique bench and a plum velvet parlour. Cottage scenes include a brass bed with a rose patchwork quilt, antique window frames with lace on white brick and a vintage bicycle with a flower basket by a stone cottage. For travel and outings there is a 1930s railway lounge car, a railway platform with steamer trunks, an ocean liner promenade deck, a Victorian park bandstand with bunting, an art deco picture palace, a casino cashier cage, an Irish pub snug and a vintage circus tent. A fifties diner booth and a seventies sofa lounge are shared with retro.

Vintage backgrounds for portraits and parties

As vintage digital backgrounds for portraits, the studio rooms are built around one seat and one light. The Victorian studio suits old-time and heritage family photos, the old-master interior and floral wallpaper suit fine-art portraits, and the blind shadows give a film-noir look for editorial work. The cottage bedroom, lace window frames and bicycle suit softer maternity and Mother's Day sessions.

For parties, the vintage digital backdrops with places work best: the railway platform and lounge car for a 1940s or travel theme, the bandstand for a summer fete or family reunion, and the picture palace for an Old Hollywood movie night. For 1920s glamour see art deco, and for 1950s to 1980s pop styles see retro.

Tips for using these scenes

• Follow the window light. The old-master interior, the plaster wall, the club chair and the Victorian studio are lit from the left, and the floral wallpaper from the right. Light your subject from the same side for a convincing portrait.
• Grade the subject to the scene. These scenes have warm, aged colour. Lower your subject's saturation a touch and warm the highlights, or finish the whole image in sepia or black and white.
• Use the bandstand and cinema for big groups. The bandstand and the picture palace hold seven or more. The railway platform, ocean liner deck, pub snug, diner and seventies lounge fit four to six. The portrait rooms suit one to three.

For period portraits, digital backgrounds for photography covers choosing scenes by light, pose and camera height.