A little muslin help!

tijoseph

Time to add a new purchase to the home studio. I have been using white paper for sometime, but would like to add a black muslin to the collection.

I would like to hang it over the paper stand, so i can easily take it down and put it back up. My concern is getting a muslin that is very thin, and will show the paper thru the front.

Is there a recomended source for "Thick" muslin, or is there even such a thing?

Where are the best values located as well?

DsrtVW

Google back drops and you will get a slew of them you can also go to a fabric store and get some material in various thickness. I have use linens and blankets before too.

LiquidAir

Generally when shooting against black muslin, I use a combination of gobos and distance to keep the light off my backdrop and let the background fall completely black. Lit that way, paper behind the muslin won't be a problem. However, if you can't protect the backdrop from your lights and you want a deep black background, I suggest looking into velvet rather than muslin. Its expensive, but a good black velvet is much darker than any muslin.

Nikolai

LiquidAir wrote:

Generally when shooting against black muslin, use a combination of gobos and distance to keep the light off my backdrop and let the background fall completely black. Lit that way, paper behind the muslin won't be a problem. However, if you can't protect the backdrop from your lights and you want a deep black background, I suggest looking into velvet rather than muslin. Its expensive, but a good black velvet is much darker than any muslin.

Alongside with what Ken said, remember the fact that the light falls off proportionally to the square of distance, and, henceforth, the f/stops values will follow the distance twice as fast. E.g. if the distance between the subject and the background is THREE times as much as the distance between the light source and the subject, you will have SIX stops of difference in luminosity between your subject and your background. Which, for all practical intents and purposes, will effectively render your background pure black (that is unless it has strong reflective properties).

tijoseph

Nikolai wrote:

Alongside with what Ken said, remember the fact that the light falls off proportionally to the square of distance, and, henceforth, the f/stops values will follow the distance twice as fast. E.g. if the distance between the subject and the background is THREE times as much as the distance between the light source and the subject, you will have SIX stops of difference in luminosity between your subject and your background. Which, for all practical intents and purposes, will effectively render your background pure black (that is unless it has strong reflective properties).

Ah HA! I should have thought of this. How about a new question....

How much trouble will I have making the background super black, in a room that is all otherwise white?

Nikolai

tijoseph wrote:

Ah HA! I should have thought of this. How about a new question....

How much trouble will I have making the background super black, in a room that is all otherwise white?

It's a good question, but the answer really depends on the size of the room, in all three dimensions. FWIW, my "studio" has off-white ceiling, off-white walls and off-white carpeting (yeah, I know, sorry), but the 22' ceiling and the religous use of crates helps to keep the light pollution at check.

LiquidAir

It takes a little care and practice, but it certainly can be done. Here's a few tips:

Use directional light and don't shine it on your backdrop.
Keep your light source as close to your subject as possible.
Place your subject as far in front of your back drop as you can.
Take test shots and gobo as needed.
Silver umbrellas are quite directional and work well.
Shoot-though umbrellas scatter light all over your room and will give you lots of trouble; if I have enough separation I'll use a shoot-through for fill a couple stops down but I will never use one as key.
Soft boxes are great because you can bring them in close and not worry too much about scatter.

The background for this shot was a white wall about 6 feet away...

Control your light well enough and it doesn't matter what the background is.

Art Scott

LiquidAir wrote:

It takes a little care and practice, but it certainly can be done. Here's a few tips:

Use directional light and don't shine it on your backdrop.
Keep your light source as close to your subject as possible.
Place your subject as far in front of your back drop as you can.
Take test shots and gobo as needed.
Silver umbrellas are quite directional and work well.
Shoot-though umbrellas scatter light all over your room and will give you lots of trouble; if I have enough separation I'll use a shoot-through for fill a couple stops down but I will never use one as key.
Soft boxes are great because you can bring them in close and not worry too much about scatter.

The background for this shot was a white wall about 6 feet away...

Control your light well enough and it doesn't matter what the background is.

mostly and the points i do not agree on are not truly important ( umbrella - shoot thru...all I use ....I dislike the catch light from soft boxes......but not important for this thread).......

now LiquidAir tell us how you actually lit this....especially the egg:D......to show a sample with out diagram in this type of thread is cheating (tijoseph) to say the least.....

time2smile

ebay- 6x9 blk velvet backdrops

It doesnt get as dusty as you may think, I keep mine rolled up in the closet and hang it on the draps when needed.

with shipping I think it wasnt more than $40

LiquidAir

Art Scott wrote:

mostly and the points i do not agree on are not truly important ( umbrella - shoot thru...all I use ....I dislike the catch light from soft boxes......but not important for this thread).......

now LiquidAir tell us how you actually lit this....especially the egg:D......to show a sample with out diagram in this type of thread is cheating (tijoseph) to say the least.....

Lighting for that shot:

One strobe with a very tight spot grid for the face. The stobe is placed to the left of the egg and behind the subject pointing about 30-40 degrees back toward the camera as a rim light.

Battery powered LED inside the eggshell.


On shoot-through umbrellas: I have several and use them quite a bit, but I find them problematic when I want deep blacks because they are rather indescriminate about where they scatter light.

tijoseph

Art Scott wrote:

to show a sample with out diagram in this type of thread is cheating (tijoseph) to say the least.....

Huh?