Our virtual production backplates provide film and TV producers with authentic, high-resolution cityscapes and 360 plates for LED volumes and greenscreen workflows. Each scene is captured photographically (not CG), delivering the realism, depth and lighting detail needed for today’s virtual staging and large-format productions.
What is a virtual production backplate?
Virtual production has changed the way film, television and music video are made. Rather than sending a crew on location or building an expensive physical set, productions increasingly use LED volume stages: large curved screens on which photographic or digital backgrounds are displayed behind the actors.
A backplate is the background image displayed on that screen. When it works well, the audience sees a convincing real-world environment behind the action. When it doesn’t, the background looks flat, pixelated, or unconvincing on camera.
The difference between a backplate that works and one that doesn’t comes down almost entirely to resolution.
Why resolution is everything
A camera pointed at an LED volume screen is effectively photographing a photograph. Any limitation in the quality of the backplate image becomes visible on screen, and modern cinema cameras are unforgiving. If the backplate doesn’t contain enough detail, the background will look soft or artificial the moment the camera moves, reframes, or pushes in.
This is why gigapixel and ultra-high-resolution panoramic photography is particularly well suited to virtual production. A gigapixel cityscape contains far more information than any standard photograph. The production team can reframe extensively, move the virtual camera, or push in on a specific area of the background, and the image holds its quality throughout.
For wide panoramic backgrounds, the field of view also matters. A gigapixel panorama can cover a much wider angle than a standard photograph, giving the director far more flexibility in how the scene is framed and lit.
What makes a good backplate shoot
Shooting backplates for virtual production is a specialist discipline, distinct from conventional location photography. A number of factors determine whether the final image will work on an LED volume stage.
Time of day and light consistency. A backplate stitched from multiple frames needs consistent light across the entire image. This means shooting at times when the light is stable: early morning, dusk, or overcast conditions. Dramatic lighting can work beautifully but requires careful management across the full panoramic sweep.
Resolution and file size. The final file needs to be large enough to fill the screen at full resolution with room to reframe. For large LED volumes this means gigapixel-scale files: images stitched from dozens or hundreds of individual frames.
HDRI data. Many virtual production pipelines also require High Dynamic Range Image data captured at the same location and time as the backplate. This is used to light the virtual environment and the actors consistently with the background. I shoot HDRI data alongside backplates as standard where required.
Minimal movement in the scene. A stitched panorama requires the scene to remain largely static during the shoot. For city locations this means careful timing to minimise traffic, crowds and movement that would create stitching errors in the final image.
Resolution & Capture Approach
I create ultra-high-resolution 360 HDRI backplates for use as environment lighting, reflection maps and background plates. A standard 360 file is 26,000 × 13,000 px. While I often shoot with medium-format systems, the exact setup varies by project. What matters most is precision, calibration and seamless stitching, so that each HDRI environment integrates cleanly into a CGI pipeline. Typically, the primary backplate is captured from the position where the CG element will later be composited.
HDRI Backplates: The Basics
HDRI (High Dynamic Range Image) files combine multiple exposures into a single high-bit-depth image, often covering 14+ stops of dynamic range. A 360 HDRI records the full sphere of light from one camera position, used for lighting, reflections or as a complete HDRI environment.
How are HDRI backplates used?
They serve automotive, aviation, architectural and film VFX projects supplying real photographic backgrounds and lighting data for CGI renders and LED volumes.
Virtual Production & LED Volumes
Using LED volumes, greenscreen or translight workflows has become routine in virtual production. High-resolution HDRI backplates provide flexibility. They allow control of light and environment, let crews extend dawn or dusk for hours, and make inaccessible locations usable.
A recent example: several of my London cityscape backplates were used to create the skyline backdrop for Jax Jones’ ‘Me & My Guitar’ music video, establishing the artists high above the city without leaving the studio.
LED Volumes in Practice
LED volumes allow productions to light scenes naturally and let actors interact with genuine reflections rather than flat greenscreen. Day-to-night variations can be captured in a controlled studio. I m increasingly commissioned to create HDRI backplates tailored specifically for LED volume workflows.
Some of the productions I have shot backplates for
Netflix: The Woman in Cabin 10 I shot the London skyline panorama that appears through the windows of The Guardian’s offices early in the film. The brief required a specific viewpoint, a specific time of day, and a file large enough to fill the production’s LED volume convincingly.
Sky News Westminster Studio The Sky News channel relocated to Westminster and required a permanent backplate for the LED volume behind the newsreaders. The brief was a wide panoramic view of the London skyline from a Westminster viewpoint, shot to match the studio’s specific screen dimensions and aspect ratio. The backplate now appears on screen daily.
Both projects required bespoke shoots rather than licensed existing images, though my archive of existing gigapixel panoramas is also available for productions where an existing image fits the brief.
Who we are
I am a dedicated 360 and panoramic photographer, and have been specialising in large-scale images for over 2 decades. Camera technology has evolved but the main principles of shooting and stitching 360 images remains the same. Only relatively recently has more powerful computing democratised virtual production, thus allowing all studios, whatever their size, cost-effective access to advanced virtual production.
My team includes a dedicated producer, plus a skilled team we bring in as and when needed depending on the project brief. Working with my company Eye Revolution, we can access more photographers and studio operators for larger productions. Clients include Apple, Land Rover, the BBC, Rolls Royce, and many more. Our virtual production backplates have been used in a huge range of environments, from large format digital to green screen, from translights to car interiors, kiosks to wallpapers, and increasingly in LED volumes.
Services
Every project is different. My team and I have long experience in tailoring images for a wide variety of platforms. This helps our clients ensure they have the best possible capture to suit their brief. This might be high dynamic range, high resolution 360 or panoramic footage, or pixel-registered day-night transitions. For backgrounds with movement, we can utilise the best available equipment to create 360 video for backgrounds.
Often, clients come to me to access the library of hi-res images I’ve built up over the years, whether that’s gigapixel images, 360 content or car interiors. I’ve shot from a huge variety of locations from London cityscapes from cranes atop tall buildings, to offshore oil rigs, to desert 360s. Other clients require content commissioned to order. Whatever you need and however tricky the location, we’d love to hear about it.
Planning a Backplate Project
Although existing HDRI backplates can be licensed, optimum results often come from shooting to order. Planning defines capture height, viewpoint and lighting variation. I usually supply multiple options to give post-production flexibility. One core use is for the exterior view from a studio-shot car interior the surrounding 360 environment becomes the 360 backplate, matching reflections and lighting perfectly.
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Licencing 360 backplates or shooting to order?
This depends on your requirements. I may already have the right image for your project, particularly if you like a location you’ve seen in the portfolio but at a different time of day. For example, you like a Californian desert landscape but want the same view at dusk, please let me know as I may have shot this, but it doesn’t appear in the gallery. In contrast, clients can opt to have 360 backplates shot to order, at the correct height for the final project. For example, the view from a sports car will be lower than the view from an SUV. Or the driver’s position on the road may vary depending on the market. These seem like small changes, but can make all the difference to the authenticity of the final image, in whatever format it appears.
London and international locations
My core archive of backplates covers London extensively, with panoramic cityscapes shot from numerous vantage points across the city at different times of day and in different conditions. Many of these locations are not publicly accessible and cannot be replicated.
I also shoot internationally and have an archive of images from cities including Shanghai, Dubai, San Francisco, Chicago and Abu Dhabi, as well as landscapes across the USA and Europe.
For productions requiring a specific location not covered by the existing archive, I am available for bespoke commissions worldwide.
Project Specs
- Clients: Film & TV production companies, CGI & VFX studios, automotive visualisation teams
- Medium: 360 HDRI backplates & high-resolution environment maps
- Use cases: LED volumes, greenscreen, translights, CGI renders, 3D visualisation
- Strengths: Photographic realism vs CGI, accurate lighting, high dynamic range, integration into VFX pipelines
Working with productions
I work directly with production companies, VFX supervisors, set designers and directors of photography. For backplate commissions I am happy to work from a technical brief specifying screen dimensions, aspect ratio, field of view, and lighting requirements.
Existing images from the archive are available for licensing on a Rights Managed basis. Bespoke shoots are quoted on a project basis.
If you have a production requiring backplates, please get in touch with details of your brief.
FAQs
They’re used by CGI artists, VFX supervisors and virtual production teams who need accurate lighting and backgrounds for film, TV and advertising projects.
All plates are captured photographically and stitched with precision, providing realistic lighting and reflection data that drops seamlessly into 3D pipelines.
Yes, I capture bespoke backplates worldwide, tailored to each project’s height, viewpoint and lighting requirements.
Get in touch
If you’d like to learn more about the way we can help you, how I shoot, or just fancy a chat about a potential virtual production backplate, it’d be great to make contact. Please feel free to call me on 020 360 30147, email me at [email protected], or if you prefer you can use the contact form.
Page last updated: August 2026