Background stands/supports + backdrops

Andy77

Andy77

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Hey guy's, where's the best place to buy a background stands and some backrounds for home use, whats better fabric,paper or vinyl :)

Thanks Andy..........:thumbs:
 
Having spent a month researching, this advice is tried and tested.

Paper is expensive. Roll it up once or twice, it gets wrecked quickly. At around £50 a roll, after roll 4, you are at the same cost of a Vynil Backdrop from Lastolite (20 metres x 2.75 metres).

The Vynil backdrop weighs a tonne. Absolutely horrendously heavy. Paper isn't light either though.

Backdrops? If you want to go FULL HEIGHT with the vinyl, you will need a heavy duty one (imo), and even then potentially have to secure it. I bought the Calumet Heavy Duty Backdrop Support Stand at £160. When fully extended, it was absolutely wobbly as hell with the Vinyl - I chained the legs to a back wall at several locations....

So, Vinyl and Background support = £360. Someone mentioned a company based in Glasgow which makes the material for the sides of articulated lorries....I think the Vinyl cost from them would be a bit cheaper, but obviously you may end up with off whites etc.

G.
 
Cheers for info gary............ anyone else:shrug:
 
I got a set up from backdrop source with white and black muslin. Also soft box kit all in one. Cost me £259 all in and got free carry all that was last year.

The muslin is a bitch to get creases out of when new. Once its up, and left up if you have the space, its not that bad.
Variouse colours available.

Gary is the expert here he uses this stuff more than most. Mine was just for a home kit.
 
Creases are an absolute BITCH in my opinion, folds too. If you get a material which folds, it often hides bits of hands and feet and processing will be lost on those photos....

Vinyl all the way I reckon.

G.
PS - Expert? LOL!
 
For home use, I went cheapo stands from ebay, £50 roll of white paper from ebay and £50 black cloth from ebay.

Fine for my use but I do kind of wish I had gone for Gary's setup.
 
Gary, I am also considering a home studio to do the family/friends thing.
I was looking at a vinyl backdrop that is 3x8 metres and weight 14kg.
You quoted a 20m length as being heavy and wobbly. Would I really need to buy a 20m backdrop
for what I will be doing, and do you think at the weight stated, it will be less wobbly?


Cheers mate.
 
Cheapest for vinyl is Tony Beal, the people Gary mentioned earlier. The vinyl is good, I haven't had any colour problems whatsoever, and it's thicker than the lastolite stuff that's more than twice the price. It is very very heavy though, the stands I use are £56 each from calumet, and a £50 manfrotto crossbeam. A great setup for it would be to lose the cardboard tube that it comes with, replace it with a scaffold pole, and just put a superclamp on the top of each light stand supporting it, would get no sag in the middle and would be cheaper too.

Johnny Thunder, do you really need a 20m length? :o that sounds insane... for a standard seamless setup that I've fitted up to 10 people on, I have 2.5m * 7m length. My stands can go up to 4m, but I never extend them completely fully as there is a tiny bit of wobble when there isn't much of each section overlapping the one below it on the stands.

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=194592

Creases are a pain in the rear and whatever you do, you will have problems with them with cloth, get paper if you only use it for light duty stuff once in a while, get vinyl if you use it a lot, you can just wipe off the dirt.

cloth should be fine for black 'low key' though as long as you're good at lighting :)
 
Well before I splash out on anything expensive

Ive bought 6m * 3m of blue heavy duty cotton, and 6m * 3m of white heavy duty cotton. Got my mother to stitch them together and hem them at the top, with a hole for the support pole.

Voila two in one just turn it around when you want a different colour.

Material £48, chocs for mother £5 - Total £53

REgards

Phil
 
Phil Bennett said:
Well before I splash out on anything expensive

Ive bought 6m * 3m of blue heavy duty cotton, and 6m * 3m of white heavy duty cotton. Got my mother to stitch them together and hem them at the top, with a hole for the support pole.

Voila two in one just turn it around when you want a different colour.

Material £48, chocs for mother £5 - Total £53

REgards

Phil
Click to expand...


Your going to want to shoot yourself if you can't control creasing and folding....
 
EdinburghGary said:
Your going to want to shoot yourself if you can't control creasing and folding....
Click to expand...

if it's heavy enough fabric, and the holes on the top are sewn well enough, you *could* be ok, end of the day white you're just bashing with light anyway. Light it through some reflector brollies or whatever and you could well be alright. The blue (presumably for bluescreening) could be more tricky, for video at least, it's gotta be pretty well and evenly lit...never done any chroma with stills :/

Plus you presumably have the luxury of editing time that neither Gary nor myself can really afford... whereas end of the day for example I'm putting out seamless full length shots from shoot -> mounted print in a couple minutes... Gary's got it harder because the floor is the most difficult part of seamless, and he deals with small children crawling about on it...fortunately I tend to avoid children and animals like the plague, so it's all good ;)
 
itsdavedotnet said:
if it's heavy enough fabric, and the holes on the top are sewn well enough, you *could* be ok, end of the day white you're just bashing with light anyway.

Plus you presumably have the luxury of editing time that neither Gary nor myself can really afford... whereas end of the day for example I'm putting out seamless full length shots from shoot -> mounted print in a couple minutes... Gary's got it harder because the floor is the most difficult part of seamless, fortunately I tend to avoid children and animals like the plague, so it's all good ;)
Click to expand...

Floor all working process free now :D

[smug] lol.
 
Just hire a studio, don't mess about with backdrops or stands. They take up loads of space, transporting the roll's a PITA, and fabric creases like a creasy thing.

I sold mine after getting fed up with it getting in the way, because now, if anyone wants "white background" I hire a studio for an hour (<£30) and that gets rolled into the fee.
 
I have a duo collapsable backdrop. It's black on one side and white on the other. Creases aren't that bad, even if you use a high f.stop it's minimal PP to get rid of it. I think I paid around £80 for it TBH, probably no more than £100. It folds up the same way as a relfector (I can't do it myself though, I always need hubby to do it, but that's parly cause my arms are knackered). It's fine for home use.

Examples of white side... http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=208544
 
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