Printed Vinyl Backdrops

[smoke665]

Anyone use them? Problems? To cheesy? I really have the urge to bite on a couple for some fantasy granddaughter photos. Comments??

 

[astroNikon]

Depending upon what you need for the shot setup, there's also printed/design 5'x7' popup backdrops too.

Or are you looking at heavy designs like the the brick backdrops?
I've been looking at those too but the cheaper ones are much smaller like 3x5 foot.

 

[smoke665]

@astroNikon The one I'm looking at are 7' wide x 5' tall, fantasy type scenes (castle, woods, Easter, etc). Also some 5' wide x 7' tall (Wood, brick, Stone, ect). I'm sure they are probably on very lightweight vinyl.

 

[astroNikon]

Yeah, they're cheesy to a photographer but useful for backgrounds in a studio. How many castles are you going to find in Alabama ?

I'm looking at a few of those too as I've seen other photographers use them and they're a cheap investment.

 

[smoke665]

Yeah, they're cheesy to a photographer

Yup, but Mimi likes them, to go with the cheesy fairy wings. LOL Happy Mimi = more photo equipment = happy photographer!

 

[Derrel]

We had a question about these 5 x 7 foot backdrops come up a while back; one e-Bay vendor was selling them,and had Photoshopped-in kids shown,literally, seated on the backgrounds, which was clearly FAKED. I visited the seller's e-Bay page, and for the next few days I received a couple of e-Bay e-mails asking me to come back and take another look at his shoddy products and his FAKED shots.

I think these 5 x 7 foot vinyls would be useful mostly for shoots involving smaller children, and for shots in which the background is not being stood upon in the conventional way, but used more like a background projection. The prices are pretty low from the e-Bay vendor types of sellers; keep in mind these are not like Denny Manufacturing backgrounds, or backgrounds of serious sizes sold by other, big background vendors.

The smaller the child, and the tighter the composition's area, the more a 5 foot wide by 7 foot tall background makes sense. I think there's a place for these, but do be aware that there are vendors showing this tiny sheet with TWO kids seated on it, in what are clearly falsified images where the kids are pasted in.

 

[smoke665]

@Derrel I suspect the closer the child is to the background the more fake they look. I went ahead and ordered a 7' x 5' of an Easter scene the I can use indoor/outdoor carpet or vinyl flooring.

Considering the way our little girl is growing they'd likely only see limited use, so the quality isn't that critical.

My main concern was if the material was going to be to reflective

 

[Derrel]

@Derrel I suspect the closer the child is to the background the more fake they look. I went ahead and ordered a 7' x 5' of an Easter scene the I can use indoor/outdoor carpet or vinyl flooring.

Considering the way our little girl is growing they'd likely only see limited use, so the quality isn't that critical.

My main concern was if the material was going to be to reflective

Not a worry about reflectivity I think. This type of product has been around for 30+ years, and the desired degree of surface sheen is understood to be quite low by people in the printing industry. As long as the manufacturer understands what a vinyl backdrop is supposed to be like, there should be no issue. Of course, there are those MIC issues where basics are sometimes not followed. Like the Bowens mount speed ring I bought that had the lug placement and lug width both mis-measured, and had to be hand-filed for an hour on all three lugs, so it would just fit the light! Or the MIC hand can opener that had the cutting wheel at the wrong angle to actually OPEN a can. And so on. But chances are, there should be no reflectivity problem.

 

[table1349]

You might want to look here: Backdrop Outlet
They are not as cheap as e-bay but they are of good quality and secondly you can order them long enough to have the subject(s) actually on them.

 

[smoke665]

might want to look

I found this site yesterday. They really aren't that expensive for a better quality. The one I ordered is probably a one shot use, so it should be ok. If I like how the vinyl works I'm going to this site for a more long term use piece

 

[dennybeall]

Green screen..................would be my choice but...
Also, I noticed that sign makers are now using this technique for signs and billboards. Could be you could get a local guy to make what you wanted for a good price.

 

[smoke665]

Green screen..................would be my choice but...
Also, I noticed that sign makers are now using this technique for signs and billboards. Could be you could get a local guy to make what you wanted for a good price.

Tried it a few times, and never liked the way it looked. I always had trouble getting the light/colors to look right.