Materials....

[will87]

I know that this may not be the place to post this but it does involve lighting a little. What do you guys use as a material for a background?

When i used to shoot studio at school we used a kind of felt/cotton black sheet. Do you think this would be a good to try and find some of this material again and use that for shooting at home?

So please feel free to chuck in any suggestions on what you guys uses or what you think will be a good idea?

One final thing, I'm going to make a home made soft box? What material do you think will be good to put in front of it. I have managed to make my own snoot (3 lenghts), honey combe (2 types) and a gel holder. [i will post photos up over the next few weeks of the equipment i have made]

 

[Garry Edwards]

Black felt or genuine black velvet is fine if you want a black background. but pure black (and pure white) backgrounds compress distance and tend to make shots look two dimensional, so are not always the best choice.

Use ripstop nylon or a plain white shower curtain as softbox diffusers.

 

[ScarySquirrel]

I used a black coat as a background for my first play with my flash setup last night. It isn't a felt coat, but it has that feel to it. So I would say a large piece of black velvet or something would be great.

The coat seemed to do the trick anyway
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scarysquirrel/3212962351/sizes/o/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scarysquirrel/3213807094/