Okay, the new studio is coming together nicely. I need some help on the background setup for the shoot room. There are so many options out there and I'm a bit lost!

The shoot room itself is 10x15. I'll be putting a seamless background against the 10' wall, full width, then using the 15' as working room to move around. It will be perminent in that I won't be taking it down and traveling with it or anything, so I'm not sure if I should still do stands or if I should just mount a rod accross the room.

I'm not sure exactly how a studio uses or maintains seamless backgrounds. What about the material itself. Should I invest and puchase a large canvas, or should I stick to rolls of paper? What about keeping it clean and dealing with inevitable wrinkles?

I mainly want a pure white and a pure black background, but I'd also like to be able to throw up some color easy enough. None of those aweful grade-school style blotch backrounds or anything, I'm just thinking an easy way to go bright blue or something, but I'd rather not have to stock rolls of many different kinds of paper, or spend $$$ on all the canvas.

Is there a place I should go to find this stuff used? I'd imagine there are plenty of backgrounds on the used market, though I can't imagine what it would cost or involve to ship a 10 ft ream of fabric.

It's so simple, yet I've somehow over-complicated it. Go figure. lol.

Help???

I don't have very strong opinions about stands versus ceiling mounts. I'm sure someone will know more on that

I like rolls of paper, they are cheap and easy to store (if your ceilings are tall enough). When the paper gets dirty or wrinkled just cut off the damaged part and unroll more... it is disposable

Get some gels from BH or a lighting store and you can change your background color by adding a gel to the BG light. Attach the gels to the lights with gaffers tape and make sure to leave some room for air circulation if you use a modeling light. Medium grey is a very easy BG to gel

Paper and gels are so cheap that you may as well buy them new

If I was in your place, I'd install a cyclorama (also called just a "cyc") which is the back wall with a permanent sweep. Then paint it white. You can get "Tuff White" paint from Shooting Gallery Backgrounds (formerly Les Brandt) to paint the floor, and they have a Sherwin Williams paint code that matches for the wall and cyc. It's $50 a gallon, but it is permanent and easy to clean scuffs with an eraser. Go to a trade show where they have a booth and buy it there -- the shipping is killer, otherwise. The walls won't get as dirty, so the regular paint is fine for those.

I remember Zack Arias having a post either here or on his blog about how he installed his cyc.

I'd then get a roller system with various colors of paper. If you want something more permanent for the colors, get canvases and paint them yourself. Solid colors are easy to paint -- just use a roller like you'd paint a wall. I'd start with paper and see which colors you use most. Black would be a good one to start with for the canvas -- most folks use that more than other colors. You can also use colored gels over your background light to color it less expensively.

There are places to buy raw and/or primed canvas -- I'll try to find some unless someone beats me to it. Primed canvas is more expensive, but you won't need to prime it, first (duh). And you really should use a primed canvas. You can save on shipping, too, if it's unprimed and they'll ship it folded. Otherwise, count on over $100 for truck shipping the 10' long box.

I'd really love to be in your position. You can really do a lot with a space that size. It might seem cramped a little -- you just need to be creative. If you're using soft boxes, Larson ones are more shallow than other brands -- and you'll need as much help as you can get in that respect. They cost more, but they'll last forever and won't turn yellow like others can.

Hope this helps. Let us all know how it turns out.

Edit: Whoops! Brady beat me to it. A lot is repeated.

I'd suggest doing from the ceiling... less on the floor is GOOD.

check out this- I know it's a home studio but it will give you an idea.
http://dpchallenge.com/forum.php?action=re...HREAD_ID=307634

Also Tempe Camera sells white seamless paper rolls (you'll have to ask about black?) in lenghths of up to 9 feet (very reasonable price too) Just make sure you have a way to get it home!!

Good Luck!

I can fit a roll in my Camry. I put the back seat down and it goes from the windshield on the dashboard to the back of the trunk. And the trunk closes. I get my paper locally at Midwest Photo Exchange.

As far as backgrounds go, I've used rolls of paper, they are cool to use because they are cheap and there are a lot of colors available-but they really tear and get dirty easy, so they don't last long. I would stick with a heavy canvas or something more durable!

Awesome info everyone!! That's a great start.

I don't think I'll be painting the floor however - it's got really nice tile right now and I couldn't bring myself to paint over that. I think I'll just bring the backrounds out far enough to cover.

That cyc sounds pretty cool. I may actually hand build something like that but a bit smaller just to hold the slope angle where I'd like it.

For now I think I'll just hang a few rolls of paper from wall hooks and see how that works for a few months. I did some looking around and found paper was less expensive than I realized. B&H sells the colors for $20 a roll plus shipping. I'll check my local shop also.

Anyone ever use standard butcher paper? I'm sure it could be had for pennies through school distributors. My only thought on that is it's usually fairly reflective and I want punchy colors without the glare.


As for lights, I'm just going to bounce my 550's off the walls. I've done some testing in there and a soft box may technically give some added control. Then I could have the whole setup using just a couple small lightweight stands holding up the 550's with a clamp for a small umbrella or whatever.


Thanks guys. I'll probably have it shoot-ready in a couple weeks and I'll post some pics.

Stuff to say but no time to say it. I'll try to get back to this thread later tonight. white seamless rocks. You can do a lot with it.

Cheers,
Zack