Background for Callbacks / Interviews? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I have a few callbacks coming up and I'm trying to decide whether to do them in front of a set of dark
blue curtains versus in front of a plain white wall. I'd be more physically comfortable in the location with the curtains than the place with the white wall but I don't want to be committing a faux pas by having an abnormal background behind me. Any insight on this? Is it safest to just stick with the white wall background?

[Anonymous User]

Plain white wall is probably safer. Implicit bias is unfortunately real, and I wouldn't trust interviewers to not hold things against you if they think you have a janky background. Also, dark blue curtains evoke "college boy with navy blue sheets that get washed once a semester" so they might not make the best impression. Ultimately, having a blue curtain background may hurt you, while having a white wall background will not.

[legallyadog]

Go plain white wall. Any light shining in behind the curtains can lead to being backlit. You should definitely test your lighting before and maybe look into a ring light if you have bad lighting. People don’t realize that your lighting can be just as distracting as your background.

[Anonymous User]

Thank you both! I will go with the white wall.