Setting up a white background

Message 703 of 986

With the weather getting cold, here's a good how-to article for anyone who may be interested in indoor, studio, or product photography (yes, that would be you, madcoder42, lol!!!) - Digital Photography School - White Seamless

While the article is how to set up a white seamless background for studio children's portraits, the general information is good & it's a short read.

Who knows -- you might get some ideas about improving your indoor shooting skills

posted by Sylk

I'm amused.

I haven't checked the link yet, but just the title got me to take a look. Lately I've been deferring immediate gratification because I'm just too busy, but this one drew me in - and then I see that I get a special mention as well!

:)

posted by madcoder42
over 2 years ago

This is an interesting article. I especially liked the idea of using bi-fold doors from Home-Depot as a light baffle in the home studio. I’m looking into stuff like this for myself, but I’m afraid that a large sheet of vinyl, as they suggest, might be too heavy for the stands. The standard for this kind of thing is either muslin fabric or 9ft wide rolls of paper. Both are designed and sold, along with the stands, for exactly this kind of photographic application. I have also considered that a large painter’s drop-cloth of canvas might also do this job inexpensively too, and it could be dyed to any

posted by John1Pa
over 2 years ago

I also thought that vinyl would be awfully heavy, but it's definitely sturdy. The author must have a semi-permanent studio set-up & using vinyl was a good choice for him (especially for working with children).

The standard muslin, or even a bedsheet, would work fine for most everybody, & would probably be cheaper than a drop-cloth.. And I wish I could sell you the extra set of brand-new bifold doors (still in the box!) I have that were never used - half-price, lol!!!!!

posted by Sylk
over 2 years ago

Bedsheets show up the small irregular wrinkles that they all have, and make for bad backgrounds in my opinion. I have used canvas and seamless exclusively, and the one time I tried a sheet, it was a disaster esthetically. The farther the subject is from the background, the fewer are the weird shadows you pick up, so wide and high is good...

posted by TJfromAZ
over 2 years ago

What I've used them for have been smaller tabletop tableaux with short distances. If I were doing product photography, I totally agree with you that the heavier canvas would be a much better choice :-)

posted by Sylk
over 2 years ago

I made a small tent from PVC pipe and white cloth similar to that used in diffusers and softboxes that I used for tabletop. It worked very well.

posted by TJfromAZ
over 2 years ago

An article on making a light tent:

view link

posted by TJfromAZ
over 2 years ago

Thanks so much, TJfromAZ. This is a great DIY project that anyone could do, whatever we can do to keep costs down is welcome!

posted by Sylk
over 2 years ago