Background Question With A Twist

kalibre

kalibre

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Doug
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Hiya,

I'm sorting out a paper roll system that is a bit more portable than my giant PVC jobbie I've already got.

A 1.35m roll is too narrow and 2.72m is not particularly portable. Colorama do a 3/4 size (1.72m) roll which looks to be perfect for the sort of thing I'd need. I've also got my eyes on a nice sturdy support which ranges from 1.4m wide to 2.6m.

The problem is that the 3/4 roll range seems very limited colour wise and is only a little bit (£7-8) cheaper than it's bigger brother.

I'm tempted to buy the bigger rolls then cleanly table saw it into two pieces (1.72m & 1.0m). This way I'll have the perfect size for most shoots and also a mini background roll which might be useful.

Two questions:

1) Has any tried similar?
2) Has anyone found a 1m width backdrop useful or do you think it'll be a white elephant?

Cheers in advance,

Doug
 
Never used a paper system..

But i suppose you could use the 1m roll for product or food photography, small items for ebay etc...


:)
 
Everybody cuts down their Colorama rolls with a hand saw don't they?

I find the left over width useful for table top.

Obviously you do it if you haven't got room for the full width, and also if you're only doing head and shoulders you don't want acres of white causing unnecessary flare and too much light wrap. Ideally the background should be just big enough, and no bigger.
 
Cool, just wanted to check that I hadn't made an obvious assumption of anything. Cheers.

Talking of greys, I'm after a mid-grey around 18% but without any colour tinge. Lasolite and Colorama both do loads of shades at 2.72. Any recommendations?

Colorama's Smoke Grey seems quite close, as does Lastolites Shadow Grey........
 
kalibre said:
Cool, just wanted to check that I hadn't made an obvious assumption of anything. Cheers.

Talking of greys, I'm after a mid-grey around 18% but without any colour tinge. Lasolite and Colorama both do loads of shades at 2.72. Any recommendations?

Colorama's Smoke Grey seems quite close, as does Lastolites Shadow Grey........
Click to expand...

The tone of the background will depend more on the amount of light you put on it than anything else. It's not that hard to make a white background go almost black if there's no light on it and it's quite a way back from the main light, and a black background will go white if you nuke it (not easy, but possible).

Just get a mid grey and light it to taste.

Studio light doesn't behave light sunlight as the inverse square law really has a big impact at close distances - that is double the distance, half the intensity. Try it with a torch against the wall and if you move back to double the distance the light circle will double in diameter and so the area is four times larger, ie one quarter the brightness, which two stops. So, if your main light is one metre from the subject and the background is one metre behind that, the light on the background will be two stops down. That's the difference between white and mid grey.

Sunlight is different - a metre or two either way doesn't make much odds after 91 million miles ;)
 
I thought it was 92 million miles - I'm sure a million miles makes a small difference ;)
 
Chaz Photos said:
92,955,820.5 miles (149,597,892 kilometers)
Click to expand...

Google says it varies from summer to winter, between 91m and 94.5m miles :lol:

You learn something everyday. At least, I do.
 
Actually that is true - it's an eliptical orbit but I was just being argumentative :)
 
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