Yay! I just about destroyed my first roll of seamless!

[ChrisOquist]

So my girlfriend bought me a background support system for Christmas, and I picked it up a couple of days ago and brought home a white and black rolls of seamless. About an hour ago, I decided to assemble it along one wall of my living room. All good.

So I mount the white roll of seamless, and after having a lot of trouble tearing off that first perforation (it reminded me of taking the tape off of a new roll of gift wrapping paper, now there are all these little tears along the first edge) I let go for it to unroll.

Somehow - stupidly - I assumed the thing had some kind of invisible mechanism to stop the paper from unrolling when it got long enough. Or that maybe it was built to allow physics to take care of it. But, to my dismay, the whole entire thing spun out, unrolling a brand new roll of Arctic White seamless all over my living room floor, bending and creasing and twisting under its own weight until, at the very end, the glue attaching the paper to the roll let go, and the whole sheet ended on the ground.

I just stood there and watched the whole cringe-inducing debacle with a horrified look on my face, planted like a moron in the middle of the room without moving while it happened.

And the thing is a ***** to roll up again, made even worse by the fact that all these little crinkles and creases probably will show up horribly once I start shooting.

Yay to burning fifty-dollar bills!

:banghead:

 

[dtornabene1]

I love someone who can admit to doing something just plain stupid. Been there, and yes, I've done that. Hence the purchase of studio clamps!

Hang in there brother. With enough light, all creases go away.

-Nick

P.S. I actually laughed out lound reading this. Not because I think you're an idiot, but because the entire time I was reading, I saw myself in the room with you just staring and doing nothing.

 

[ChrisOquist]

Got it rolled up again, although it was a slow and painful process. There are definitely little creases everywhere, although Nick, you're right, enough light will kill them - at least I can still do completely blown out white with this.

How's that 5D II treating you? I have to talk myself out of going out and getting one every single day.

Chris

 

[AlexColeman]

One trick, if you aren't doing active portraits, is set a shutter speed about 1/15 or a little longer, and put a powerful fan behind it, the wind will flap the creases right out, and make it seamless, once again..

 

[SpeedTrap]

LOL, I almost did the same thing with my first roll and I even had clamps.
I am not sure what it is about paper rolling off the spool that turn photographers in to deer in headlights.

 

[Phranquey]

I actually laughed out lound reading this. Not because I think you're an idiot, but because the entire time I was reading, I saw myself in the room with you just staring and doing nothing.

:thumbup:

:lmao:

Don't worry, we're not laughing at you, but with you. I guarantee many here have done something similar, or worse, (myself included) only to stand there watching in seemingly slow motion...." OH NOOOOOoooooooo!!!!!!!!"

 

[dtornabene1]

Got it rolled up again, although it was a slow and painful process. There are definitely little creases everywhere, although Nick, you're right, enough light will kill them - at least I can still do completely blown out white with this.

How's that 5D II treating you? I have to talk myself out of going out and getting one every single day.

Chris

I wish more would respond to this post. I just love it. Anywho, stop talking to yourself Chris. Buy the damn camera. You will never look back.

-Nick

 

[ChrisOquist]

I wish more would respond to this post. I just love it. Anywho, stop talking to yourself Chris. Buy the damn camera. You will never look back.

Yeah, although I've only had my Rebel XT for a year and a half. I'm sure I can squeeze a lot more out of it, and it's probably not the best time for me to spend almost 3K.

With my new lights, backdrop, and tablet there's plenty to keep me occupied

(I'll keep telling myself that until I can't hold out any longer..)

 

[JerryPH]

ROFL!

My first experience with seamless was at a strobist meeting. It was kinda obvious to me how to unroll it without killing the roll (these were larger 200 foot lengths). We did have a model come to it with VERY dusty feet and kill off 6 feet of it, after we blasted her (in a fun way!), we placed the towel to wipe your feet/shoes on, on top of the seamless instead of beside it so that others would get the hint... lol

Meh... the photoshop clone tool can fix anything like that in a few seconds. I'd not even worry about it!