Best backdrop?

jung

I am looking at purchasing either paper or Muslin for a home studio backdrop and I wanted to find out what has been everyone's experience with them.

I am going for the smooth surface look and I am not sure if I can get that with the Muslin. I would hate to have the wrinkles show up in my photos or spend a lot of prep time trying to steam them out. Now on the other hand the Paper route seems good because it will give me the smooth surface I am looking for, but the idea of having to spend money on a product that will run out does not sit well.

Is there a specific grade of paper and muslin that I should be looking for?

The other question, what is the trick to keep the backdrop from moving when you have the fan on your subject?

Thanks

Art Scott

jung wrote:

I am looking at purchasing either paper or Muslin for a home studio backdrop and I wanted to find out what has been everyone's experience with them.

I am going for the smooth surface look and I am not sure if I can get that with the Muslin.
Accomplished easily as long as your subject has separation from backdrop...........

I would hate to have the wrinkles show up in my photos or spend a lot of prep time trying to steam them out.

As long as you leave the backdrop hanging you might have to steam it one time when your first hang it.....my self I like the texture added by a crumpled back drop.......if hung with a pipe thru pipe loops you can stretch the wringle out using clamps and weights to pull the back drop taut from the hanging pipe, leaving what is loose on the floor to be normal............



Now on the other hand the Paper route seems good because it will give me the smooth surface I am looking for, but the idea of having to spend money on a product that will run out does not sit well.


i do not like paper, I have nothing but bad experiences with paper.....cannot be cleaned, can tear during a shoot......in the end cost a whole lot more than muslin...........

Dyed muslin's can be washed most of the times.....painted muslins cannot be machine washed but can be gently hand cleaned..........usable for many man years........

My muslins I had been making until this last one and I purchased a semi-light weight 10x 24 weighing around 8 pounds........

If you are industrious and have room (in a garage) to spread a muslin out on a 2x4 stretcher (wall frame lying flat on floor) or have a college near by that puts on operas, musicals and dance performances and better yet teaches theater teching, you might be able to rent their paint frame for a week for very little money or even talk a prof into having the class dye (usually with thinned down Rosco Super Color paint, can be thinned to about 1 cup paint to 1 gallon water and still produce super brilliant colors.) the backdrops for class credit..........




Is there a specific grade of paper and muslin that I should be looking for?

A medium weight dyed muslin should allow light to pass from rear to front for special effects if wanted but still heavy enuff for years of tuff use


The other question, what is the trick to keep the backdrop from moving when you have the fan on your subject?

Weights and not blowing the fan directly on to the backdrop it might move a little but that motion should never be seen in a STILL photo.....

Thanks

Thoughts above in BOLD

jung

Art Scott wrote:

Thoughts above in BOLD

Thank you for that info, I was very curious because Joann's Fabric is having a sale tomorrow and I wanted to try and get some answers so I could buy a muslin or just focus my energy on the paper.

Thanks again for the input,


Jung

Snowgirl

And a solid wall?
Hi. I have been thinking about the same things and decided to paint a wall in my den / studio 18% grey. Has anyone else ever done that? Does it work?

Art Scott

Snowgirl wrote:

Hi. I have been thinking about the same things and decided to paint a wall in my den / studio 18% grey. Has anyone else ever done that? Does it work?

I used an 18% grey paper and did not like the out come.....too light to hold gel colors and too dark for high key...some where between white abd grey...looked kinda dirty......so I went darker (SAVAGE THUNDER GREY) AND THEN WENT BLACK.......and haven't looked back.............darker colors will hold (absorb) gel colors better and not just reflect them back atcha

Snowgirl

Art Scott wrote:

I used an 18% grey paper and did not like the out come.....too light to hold gel colors and too dark for high key...some where between white abd grey...looked kinda dirty......so I went darker (SAVAGE THUNDER GREY) AND THEN WENT BLACK.......and haven't looked back.............darker colors will hold (absorb) gel colors better and not just reflect them back atcha

Thanks. Good to know. Perhaps I'll try that instead.

ChatKat

Snowgirl wrote:

Hi. I have been thinking about the same things and decided to paint a wall in my den / studio 18% grey. Has anyone else ever done that? Does it work?

I painted my stuiod walls 18% grey and it does work

Tim Kamppinen

Art Scott wrote:

darker colors will hold (absorb) gel colors better and not just reflect them back atcha

I understand what you are trying to say but this is not accurate. The only light that you will see in a photo is the light that gets reflected back from your subject or background. Light that is absorbed is not reflected and therefore never enters your lens and never hits the sensor or film in your camera. That's why black objects are black; they absorb all light and none reflects back to your eye or the camera.

Now, in reality, nothing is pure black (except a black hole) which means that if your light is powerful enough you can get a reflection from a black surface. That is advantageous for using gels because you can use your background light cranked up to full power and get a nice saturated hue. On the other hand, the spill from your other lights is usually comparatively weak, meaning that it won't be enough to reflect from the black surface so much that it washes out the color of your gelled background light. This is the only reason that a black or dark grey background is better for using gels. If you had a white seemless background, with a background light, and no other lights on, you could get the same deep saturated color, BUT you would have to turn your light WAY down, to a level that some studio strobes and even some speedlights cannot reach. That's why sometimes stacking gells produces better color; it's not actually "intensifying" the color, it's just reducing the output so that the background light isn't blown out and turning white.

Now, assuming your strobe goes down in power far enough to get a saturated color on a white background, the problems again start coming in when you turn on your other lights for your subject. The smallest amount of fill from your main lights will often be equal in power to the light coming from your background light and will wash out the color because too much white light is being reflected from the background. IF however you could get enough sparation and control the light spill so that NONE of the main or fill light was spilling onto your white background, you wouldn't have a problem. The trick is, you need a lot of space/grids/flags etc. to accomplish this with a white background.

The ratio of background light to spill is what you need to control to get a nice saturated background light. This is usually easier to do with a darker background (however, if you go black you may have a problem getting your background light bright enough, depending on what you're using...). That's why darker backgrounds are beneficial for gelled lights, not because they "hold color" better or anything like that.

Note: I didn't mean for this post to be an attack, just informative. Once I finally figured out how this worked myself (it took a long time) I found I was able to do more and be more versatile, armed with a proper understanding of how the light was working.

Cygnus Studios

For studio work, I prefer paper, as it is easier to to work with. I can use a variety of gels, and never have to worry about wrinkles. I use artic white 99% of the time.
I use 10x10 Muslin for travel shots. Easier to haul it around.