Knowledge You Can Build On — Est. 1998
background photo material
gary clarke
>I have John Lucas's photo info and pics of his setup. I seem to remember someone uses some material( Paper ?) from Michaels for background. Since Michaels is having a sale this wk I thought it would be a good time to buy the backgound stuff, but I cann't remember and cann't find it in the archives. Help? thanks. John are you there?
Matte construction paper works well.
Garrett in Victoria
>Inexpensive, lots of colours, fairly stiff.
Cheers, Garrett
Re: Matte construction paper works well.
John Lucas
>I agree Garret. I often use thin matte board or poster board for smaller pieces. Look at the stuff closely. Some of it has a really ugly uneveness(is that a word?) to the color. Get some that has a really smooth color. Then store it carefully. It shows markes if you slide the work on it. These are little polished marks and they show up after a while.
Cloth also works well but you have to iron it and spread it out so there aren't any wrinkles. It should form a gently arc behind the piece.
Jamie Donaldson recommends roll up shades. If you get a good quality one that doesn't show little waves when it unrolls it will work well.
Graduated backdrops that fade from light to dark really look nice but they are painted and scratch very very easily. You can only buy these at professional photo shops.
Seamless photo paper is an excellent choice. You can get these at professional photo shops.
I use Formica at work sometimes. It's really nice and tough as well but really hard to store. Especially 5x 10 foot pieces like I use. When it gets scratched (glass and ceramics are hell on a background) I take it home and use it for counter tops for my shop.
Re: background photo material
Ken from SW WI
>It was in Menards or Home Depot, one or the other, where I saw 4x8 sheets of this thin, flexible white vinyl wall covering for $12 apiece. I'm thinking of getting a sheet, it should roll up pretty tight to get out of the way.
I'm fairly sure it was slightly textured on one side, but smooth on the other. I'll check into it next time I go there.
was probably me
Mike Schwing from Md.
>I used that technique a lot before buying a new booth - now I use some sort of nylon that came with it.
But, before that I would buy a charcoal grey art paper, 2 pieces, and tape them together with double stick tape, then use that as the background. Worked great. I bought lots and lots of different colors, but charcoal produced the most pleasing photos, as far as I was concerned.
Cord Camera
Jennifer@Indy.USA
>Hi Gary,
I recently did the scouting for just the right background material and finaly decided to look at the photo stores. I bought localy at Cord Camera. What I ended up buying is a roll of photo background paper. It cost me $25.00 and is a roll 52" wide and I forget how long, but it's enough to last me for years. I cut it up the middle to the length I need and if it gets wrinkled between uses, I just cut it up for scrap paper or drawing paper for my son. After I use it I roll it backup and store it inside the tube. It comes in many colors (I bought Studio Gray). I think it looks real nice and the price in my opinion was very reasonable.
Good luck.
Jennifer
