back drops

[usnrs]

ok, what's your best bang for the buck indoor backdrop?

paper is easy to tear the dirty away, but rips easy.

canvas is sturdy, but needs to be washed/cleaned.

what do you guys use and / or reccomend for backdrops in a (portable) studio setting?

[JDArt]

My favorite backdrops are the small painted canvas backgrounds from Amvona. Buy on eBay for good prices. I assume these folks are still in business. Canvas is nice and smooth, and it rolls up easy.

For many situations I also just use a pure black muslin backdrop.

[brice]

Black velvet $4 / yd 108 inches wide. I bought 4 yards.

[usnrs]

where can i find it at that price? it's 30+ a yard up here in anchorage.

[brice]

Originally Posted by usnrs

where can i find it at that price? it's 30+ a yard up here in anchorage.

On sale at Joann's Fabrics... I happened in to the store, looking for muslin or canvas. Found nothing that appealed to me so I went to the sale rack way in the back of the store. A skeen of black velvet sat there nice and lonely waiting for my wallet to liberate most of what was left.

[Brooks]

Real velvet is at least $40 per yard. Velveteen can be had for much less.

[usnrs]

ok, that's what i thought. i guess i'll have to surrender my man card and start hanging out at the sale rack at joe-ann's. thanks for the tip.

[brice]

Originally Posted by Brooks

Real velvet is at least $40 per yard. Velveteen can be had for much less.

Unless you find the clearance sale... This was Velvet. And it was usually $12/yard at this store. Now if Joann's was advertising velvet and selling Velveteen, I could care less. It looks great and makes a great backdrop.

Here's a link to the web site for the same stuff.

Again, find a clearance rack and you can get it dirt cheap. Usually a partial skeen ( think that's what they call the bundle).

[Ed Shapiro]

I seldom use or advise the use of totally black backgrounds for low key portraiture. I prefer a painted canvas backgrounds (sometimes multicolored) with good contrast and texture. Darker tones do work well for low key portraits. You can go from nearly jet black to middle tone depending on how you light your background.

The reason for my not advising the use of jet black backgrounds is that a small degree of texture and/or color in the background adds color or tonal mass to the background and this makes for more dimensionality. Total blackness sometimes looks like a cut and paste job in that it lacks depth- you want the give the viewer the illusion that he or she can jump into the picture and walk around the subject. Also cold colors such as blue and green tend to recede (to the eye) and therefore impart more depth. In color photography certain colors and shades can also add mood and style to your portraits. A pastel background can be reminiscent of a Degas painting, a warm or earth-tone backgrounds tend to project forward and add less depth but give you a nostalgic monochromatic effect as it were sepia or brown toned.

A good supplier is Denny Manufacturing - check them out on the net. One called Monte-green is a good starter because it has good contrast and texture and works well in both color and black and white.

By varying the subject to background distance and the depth of field as well as the lighting, many variations can be obtained. The use of colored gels over the background light offers more. variations.

Heres the bad news about price. The backgrounds i have suggested are not particularly cheap although the are reasonably priced. You can improvise or make do with less expensive backgrounds but remember this; of all the equipment you purchase the only thing that ends up IN you photographs are your backgrounds. If they are gaudy, poorly color harmonized and or lacking in contrast or photographs. Cheap backgrounds oftentimes are painted on materials which actually glare because the are somewhat reflective . Some are worse in that the are painted with paints containing ultra violet brighteners which fluoresces es when used with electronic flash lighting. Spray painted backgrounds are usually too flat and offer very little contrast.

Another important and basic usage of a portrait background is to isolate the subject and to avoid clutter or distraction which can ruin a perfectly well posed and lighted image. You also want to make sure the subjects clothing and air do not merge or totally blend into the background- good shadow detail in the subject is essential for this to happen. Careful usage of lighting, kicker, rim and back lighting can assist in good separation but if the shadow detail is insufficient, the additional lights won't do the job all by themselves- light traps or spotty lighting will result.

Once you have one or two great and effective backgrounds in you equipment arsenal, you can experiment with all kinds of improvised materials. Some of my favorites are old beaten up or new imitation oriental carpets with either cool or war colors, printed fabric remnants from fabric shops, office-like wood paneling, barn-wood, and Xmas decoration tinsel for theatrical shots- put some of that way out of focus for a glitzy glamor effect.

If you do want super black, however, black velvet and velveteen eat light more than any other fabric I know of. For high key portraiture your best bet is white seamless paper because it need no maintenance and is disposable. White plastic and canvas will yellow in time and can not really be washed effectively. A roll of white paper can be easily be made into a cove or cyclorama background where you can float subjects on a field of pure white. I use 2 lights placed at at 45 degrees each aimed at the background just to light the it evenly. With digital cameras a 1/2 f/stop over the subject will usually give you a pure white effect- you need to make tests. The subject is light with you favorite portrait lighting set up.

For commercial work seamless paper of all colors are good for catalog work but for more sophisticated illustrations, your background usage is only limited by your imagination, I have used things like rusty iron plates, Plexiglas, grids, barn wood, table cloths, straw mats, hay, polished wood, music sheets, posters, wallpaper, adhesive vinyl, water puddles, textured materials of every description and much more.

I hope this helps. Ed