----- Original Message ----- From: "Jerome Reyes" Subject: Help with backdrops for portrait photos
> Between the pregnancy and the baby on the way, I think I'd like to invest > in some type of backdrop / studio set-up sooner than later. Any > suggestions as to where I should start? Brands, types, etc., any tidbit > would be appreciated. > > FYI, I've done no research yet. I've only checked B&H for an idea of what > was out there, and between the support stands and the actual backdrops, I > got overwhelmed, so I just figured I'd start here. I posted this to the list back in June 1999. It may help you out. Simple Background manufacture: Buy some large pieces of muslin, and sew them together to make as large a background as you want. Our studio has 2 huge ones that must be over 20 x 20 feet each. Buy a couple of gallons of latex paint in colours you think might be apprpriate to your needs. For portraiture, I prefer warm neutrals. (An oxymoron, I am sure). You can go fairly dark, but again, try to stay in a neutral density range as well. Mix a liter of the paint that you want as the base colourwith a liter of water (or thereabouts, you want it fairly thin) and paint the entire background. We layed the fabric out on a lawn for this (you might want to use someone elses lawn)Quickly take a squeeze bottle (we used a well rinsed dish detergent bottle) with some of the other paint, and perhaps one with a mixture of the two colours, and spray beads of paint evenly onto the background. Then take a big step back in time, remember "tye-dying"? What you want to do, is to fold the thing up and twist it for all your worth. This is definitely a 2 person job, and expect to get messy. Unroll the background and check your work. You may want more paint here and there. Our backgrounds cost us the princely sum of $200.00 each, most of that was for the muslin, which we paid premium for to get 9 foot widths. William Robb -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
