How to make a white photo backdrop?

[Former_Member]

Hello all,

I used to take photos for my vintage store against a wall, lit by natural light. Some new construction in the neighborhood has blocked the light on that wall and my pics look horrible now. I wanted to create a white backdrop so that I could take pictures in another room that has good light but unsuitable walls. I guess it needs to be at least the height of a dressform. Can anyone point me to a tutorial or to a store?

I know nothing about these things.

Thank you!

[Former_Member]

Why not just use a ironed white sheet? I say ironed cause I have seen a few people use wrinkled ones and its not appealing. Second idea would be to go to a local fabric store and pick up a few yards of white fabric there, you can normally find some whites in the discount piles.

[Former_Member]

How would I hang it up so that it would be pulled taut?

[Former_Member]

You can tape it just out of reach of the camera to hold it up, maybe clip it to a tall shelve, build a frame to clip it. Using Velco strips (found at fabric store) attach that to the wall (they have self adhesive kind).

:)

[heyshopbonnie]

I made my own lightbox for a few photos. I used this tutorial: http://blog.makezine.com/2006/07/27/diy-light-box/

The pictures came out okay, but it was hard to fit a lot of my products in the box. I tried again with another piece of white fabric instead of the posterboard, but it still wasn't great.

Last week I just used thumbtacks to pin up a piece of white fabric above my kitchen table, and draped the rest of the fabric over the table. I think this would work really well if you have a lot of natural light in the room you're using. It worked okay for me, but my apartment has very little light so I had to do a lot of editing afterwards.

[Former_Member]

I'm going to try this:

http://www.diyphotography.net/low-profile-low-cost-backdrop-wall-mount

[Former_Member]

I use white poster board. Sturdy, no need to iron :)
I am not sure however, how big of backdrop you need, as there may be size limitations for poster board.
If you use fabric, I would suggest using something heavier than the sheets -- more like upholstery weight, will wrinkle less and drop down nicely, especially if you staple a thin wooden plank (like a yard stick) at the bottom and hang of off of wall hooks.

[Former_Member]

b/c I just don't want to spend over $100 on a backdrop

[Miriboheme]

You could use good tape to hold it to the wall. Also, you can buy a wide roll of white paper at photo stores for backdrops. I use four lights: two to light the backdrop and two to light the model. After many trials and many many many errors (!!!) I find that this works the best.

[Former_Member]

I take two 11x14 artist canvases and use them for my backgrounds to make them white.

[Former_Member]

For larger items, I use a backdrop of a large piece of foam core. Really good lighting is critical, too...I use 3 clamp on daylight florescent bulbs, the really high wattage types from Home depot.

[Former_Member]

Thanks for the lighting tip. Because I'm photographing a big item (usually on a dressform) a canvas or foamboard wouldn't work. I am going to try hanging a roll of paper and pulling it taught with tape.

[Former_Member]

if you use any type of white background, then fotofuze it out, the entire background would be white and you would have to worry about it being taut or wrinkled.

[Former_Member]

I use a large piece of painted white plywood, then use fotofuze.com to eliminate the background. It works well for me.

[Former_Member]

That sounds tough. I have one window with...meh-ish light (living a mile into dense Maine forests!) and put a piece of white paper on the floor a few feet in front of it. My pictures look really dark but a few tricks with picmonkey.com and they're bright as can be. :)

[Former_Member]

This is some great info, thanks! I've been trying to find a good way to take photos with a white background.

[Former_Member]

Thanks for the fotofuze.com link. I'll try that out.