Vinyl Backdrops on ebay?

[matrosov]

So I am trying to set up a living room studio photoshoot with kids, to get some practice with off camera flash composition proper exposure and some fun. I have white seamless paper for background but am concerned that what will come out will look a little boring and I am not a photoshop guru by any means to start compositing it afterwards. Came across some very reasonably priced vinyl printed backdrops on ebay like this one for example

Balloons Photography Backdrops Children Photo Studio Baby Background Vinyl 7x5FT | eBay

Are those total trash that I will absolutely not get any good results with or will I get something that will be good enough for beginner and family album?

 

[Derrel]

Gotta consider how small the larger size is: 5 x 7 feet...not a very big backdrop is used as a seamless! The photos shown on their ad page...notice how cramped that is? These would be better hung up and allowed to drop straight down, and not used with the subject seated on the actual backdrop.

The ones you link to are low-cost versions. Some of the big background manufacturers, like Denny Manufacturing, have bigger backdrops. A 5 foot wide by 7 foot tall backdrop is still small. Half-width backdrops, meaning 5 feet or 4.5 feet wide, demand very careful positioning of the subject, and careful use of the lens and distance to the background; meaning what? Meaning you can not use a wide-angle lens, or the edges of the background will show up.

Their smaller, 3 x 5 foot backdrop? See this Photoshop job? I do NOT beleive this is even possible to do with two children of that age and physical size! photography backdrops ballon bear children wooden floor viny 3x5ft background | eBay

 

[matrosov]

Gotta consider how small the larger size is: 5 x 7 feet...not a very big backdrop is used as a seamless! The photos shown on their ad page...notice how cramped that is? These would be better hung up and allowed to drop straight down, and not used with the subject seated on the actual backdrop.

The ones you link to are low-cost versions. Some of the big background manufacturers, like Denny Manufacturing, have bigger backdrops. A 5 foot wide by 7 foot tall backdrop is still small. Half-width backdrops, meaning 5 feet or 4.5 feet wide, demand very careful positioning of the subject, and careful use of the lens and distance to the background; meaning what? Meaning you can not use a wide-angle lens, or the edges of the background will show up.

Their smaller, 3 x 5 foot backdrop? See this Photoshop job? I do NOT beleive this is even possible to do with two children of that age and physical size! photography backdrops ballon bear children wooden floor viny 3x5ft background | eBay

Thanks Derrel, I need to crawl before I can walk so of course Denny at $200 is a bit out of price range for my skill level. I don't mind 20-30 bucks for the experiment sake if I have a chance of taking some keepers. I have two 5 foot kids was going to plop them on backdrop one at the time or buy two backdrops and use one for the floor one straight down. I do have a 70-200 lens so I'm guessing I can get a 70-100 range on them seated or around 50 equivalent with my 35mm prime. Will that work with this setup or because of ultra cheap quality I'd get some undesirable results in a final picture and waste my money?

 

[Derrel]

I would take a blanket and safety-pin or tape it up to be 5 x 7 feet, and then try that as a substitute, and see how limiting it is to work on such a small background.

worked on 4.5 foot wide "half-width" background paper before; it is a major PITA. With two kids on a 5-foot wide backdrop? I think it will be a nightmare. Your poses will have to have them touching, and shooting will need to be done very carefully.

Again: see the 3 x 5 foot backdrop Photoshop composite photos? Those are FAKED images! You can NOT get two kids that far apart, on a three foot wide by five foot tall backdrop, hung as shown.

 

[matrosov]

I would take a blanket and safety-pin or tape it up to be 5 x 7 feet, and then try that as a substitute, and see how limiting it is to work on such a small background.

worked on 4.5 foot wide "half-width" background paper before; it is a major PITA. With two kids on a 5-foot wide backdrop? I think it will be a nightmare. Your poses will have to have them touching, and shooting will need to be done very carefully.

Again: see the 3 x 5 foot backdrop Photoshop composite photos? Those are FAKED images! You can NOT get two kids that far apart, on a three foot wide by five foot tall backdrop, hung as shown.

Thanks I was thinking 5x7 backdrop straight down and something for the floor maybe a solid wood print or paper for that matter. And one kid on it. Just wondering if I'll get crazy bouncing light from that vinyl or halos or something else totally unusable. I am willing to waste 20 bucks for a meaningful learning experience/experiment but if it is a fools errand from the get go I'd rather experiment in photoshop

 

[photo1x1.com]

I´m totally with Derrel - many (if not all) photos of those vinyl backdrops that include a "floor" are fake. Not only do they look extremely unnatural, you can even see some photoshop leftovers if you change between image four and five in the link Derrel posted. If you want to use some printed backdrop, you should either exlude the floor in your images, or use a separate floor (e.g. wooden texture) and separate the two with some kind of plinth.
In general the smaller the backdrop you use, the further away you have to get with your camera and use a telephoto lens. The more wideangle, the bigger the background has to be.

In general, pictures on white background don´t have to be boring at all - of course it always depends on taste and preference, but I love to shoot on white - even people dressed in white on white background can be done. You´d need 3-4 flashlights though to achieve a good result. And if you are in a living room with white walls and ceiling, it isn´t all that difficult. You may need to ramp up your ISO if your lights are not strong enough. These ones were done in my around 34m² and 2,33m high cellar. We´ve been kicked out of our photostudio, so we had to find a workaround. The white background was cleaned up in lightroom. All I did in photoshop was add the text. I have attached an unedited file below.