Also (in theatre lighting terminology) a large flat (or gently rounded) surface onto which lights may be shone to generate effects of skies or other backgrounds (using a gobo). The key point is that the ``cyc'' should have no visible features itself, and must be light enough to reflect all different colours of light.

Used in photography to give an illusion of infinite space behind the subject. You need a really big one, and really good lighting, to take those tipical car pictures that end up in ads. There are mini-cycloramas (you can improvise on with cardoboard) for small object photography.

As all backgrounds in studio photography, they smudge and get soiled and are a general pain in the ass. Repainting the cyclorama in flat white is quite frequent.

Cy`clo*ra"ma (s?`kl?-r?"m? ∨ -r?"m?), n. [Cyclo- + Gr. sight, spectacle.]

A pictorial view which is extended circularly, so that the spectator is surrounded by the objects represented as by things in nature. The realistic effect is increased by putting, in the space between the spectator and the picture, things adapted to the scene represented, and in some places only parts of these objects, the completion of them being carried out pictorially.

 

© Webster 1913.