Background, which to choose?!

anaphoto · Nov 3, 2011

So fabric such as muslin wrinkles a whole lot to location shoots. 9 foot paper rolls are don't really fit in my car. So what would be best? Is there a way to transport fabrics with the least amount of wrinkles? No I don't want to buy a steamer. On location meaning ppls houses for pet, newborn, family photos.

EIngerson · Nov 3, 2011

Been reading up on these lately. Chroma Key Backgrounds | Westcott Pro Photography and Video Lighting

Big Mike · Nov 3, 2011

So fabric such as muslin wrinkles a whole lot to location shoots. 9 foot paper rolls are don't really fit in my car. So what would be best? Is there a way to transport fabrics with the least amount of wrinkles? No I don't want to buy a steamer. On location meaning ppls houses for pet, newborn, family photos.

I have a vinyl backdrop that I often use. It gives me the seamless look of paper but it's a lot more durable than paper. It can be rolled and then folded for transport. It does have many tiny wrinkles, but as long as I can light it with a couple lights, the wrinkles don't show in the images. The same can be true of fabric backgrounds as well. As long as you can get it mostly smooth, you can use careful lighting & shooting techniques to prevent the wrinkles from showing.

In this one, the lighting on the background wasn't perfect, so you can see a bit of the wrinkle/texture...it's not that bad IMO.

Been reading up on these lately. Chroma Key Backgrounds | Westcott Pro Photography and Video Lighting

Shooting still photos on chroma key backgrounds seems silly to me. It's not necessary to have those colors if you plan on extracting your subject...as long as you light it properly so that your subject doesn't blend into the background. Plus, there is the added issue of color bounce-back, putting that color onto your subject.

Ulriksen · Nov 4, 2011

It might be silly, but you can get rid of the wrinkles by putting a fill flash for the background itself, but then again kind of useless....

mrpink · Nov 4, 2011

Polyester does not wrinkle. p!nK

cgipson1 · Nov 4, 2011

use one of the faux crushed velvet type fabrics... use it, then just wad it up in a ball in a bag for transport..... even when wrinkled, you can't really tell. The only bad (or good thing) is that some of these fabrics can reflect light in an interesting way.

Big Mike · Nov 4, 2011

Ulriksen said:
It might be silly, but you can get rid of the wrinkles by putting a fill flash for the background itself, but then again kind of useless....

That would make it a background light, not a fill light. :er:

But that was essentially what I was saying above. If you light your background properly, you can prevent wrinkles from showing up. And if you are going for a white background, you will need to light your backdrop separately anyway.