Am I wasting my time and money?

stwb · May 16, 2009

I'm interested in taking some portraits with bright white background. No one in town sells white seamless paper so ordering online is fairly expensive when shipping costs are added on. Is there an alternative to white seamless? Can a guy use white foam board with similar results? Will the seams show? Should I just bite the bullet and get the paper?

Thanks.

Rick A · May 16, 2009

You dont sayhow large your project is. How about a white bed sheet? Maybe a 4'x8' sheet of rigid foam insulation painted white? I'm sure there are several other ways to achieve your purpose.
Rick

archphoto · May 16, 2009

How about a store in Calgary ? Don't they have anything ?
Otherwise ask McBains in Edmonton, spend some phone calls on it.

Good luck,
Peter

Addition: nothing in Regina ?

jmcd · May 16, 2009

Are you shooting b&w or color?

Paul Goutiere · May 16, 2009

White foamcore! 4ft. by 8ft sheets.....cheap, big, very white!

jmcd · May 16, 2009

I am thinking the benefit of seamless over the foam board is the flat,non-reflective surface of the seamless. Perhaps the foam board would work well, painted with a flat white paint.

removed account4 · May 16, 2009

the background that avedon used was white fabric on 4 sides
and very easy to make ...
all you need is white cloth lathe and a staple gun

BradS · May 16, 2009

I have used a plain white bed sheet tacked to the ceiling in the garage. A strobe can be set up behind the sheet to make it really white...if desired.

Q.G. · May 16, 2009

That's the trick anyway: overexpose the white background by a stop or two (extra lights on the background only).
Seams, small marks, smudges, etc. will disappear.

Anscojohn · May 16, 2009

ralnphot said:
You dont sayhow large your project is. How about a white bed sheet? Maybe a 4'x8' sheet of rigid foam insulation painted white? I'm sure there are several other ways to achieve your purpose.
Rick

*****
Bed sheets "never" work because it is impossible to get them completely smooth. The creases, folds, and billows always seem to show, now matter how out of focus.

nyoung · May 16, 2009

Check around your local sign/screen printing shops for a product called profile board. It's basically a plastic board made like corrugated paper. The sign shops use a lot of it to print campaign signs, house for sale signs etc. It's available in a very white white in 4x8 sheets and I've bought it around $10 (US) per sheet from a local printer. An added attraction is that it is very flexible and makes a good reflector as well as a very clean white background.

2F/2F · May 16, 2009

The key is really lighting. You can "fake" a seamless if you light a big thing (preferably a light thing) in a way that will render it plain and bright white. Not that white b/g= Avedon, like some people tend to think automatically whenever they hear "white b/g", but from a technical standpoint, he is worth mentioning. For "In the American West", Avedon had the advantage of the largest and farthest away light source on Earth, taking his portraits/typologies outside in diffuse light. The distance of the sun and clouds made it so that the differences between subject and backdrop were not huge in a relative sense. You don't have that with basic studio lighting. The falloff due to the inverse square law is far greater in the studio, due to the relative distances between lights, subject, and b/g. This means you need dedicated b/g lights, in other words, and ones that are stronger than your main light. If you just have a main light for the subject, and maybe one for a fill, you will have a tough time even on a white seamless.

Also, don't forget that Avedon used very little of what he shot for that series, and trashed the rest. So, practice and repetition can be key as well.

jmcd · May 16, 2009

If 4x8 is used vertically, that isn't wide at all by the time you separate your subject from the background. For shoulders up, this would work horizontally.

gerryyaum · May 16, 2009

Hey from Alberta, All you need is something white (paper, cloth, wall etc) without a pattern and give it extra exposure as QG suggested. When I was in Asia I used 2 speedotron heads on my background along with 2 soft boxes on the subject to make these white background portraits.

http://www.gerryyaum.com/sex worker.html

Gerry

Edwardv · May 16, 2009

Buy some canvas and paint it with acrylic paint, thin it out some, to heavy will crack. Use titanium white. Before painting make sure you have a 4-5 hem to run the crossbar through.

Good luck.

fotch · May 17, 2009

stwb said:
I'm interested in taking some portraits with bright white background. No one in town sells white seamless paper so ordering online is fairly expensive when shipping costs are added on. Is there an alternative to white seamless? Can a guy use white foam board with similar results? Will the seams show? Should I just bite the bullet and get the paper?

Thanks.

Yes, bite the bullet and get the paper! Stores easily, many uses per roll, works perfectly, no labor needed. The KISS principal (Keep It Simple Stupid):rolleyes:.

John Koehrer · May 17, 2009

Just before I left the camera biz there was a rep touting a folding background. As I recall it was almost 8' and had a metal loop in the hem, like those light shield you would use in the windshield of your car to keep it cool. Check with Helix, B&H and Calumet.
These things fold up small enough so they're relatively inexpensive to ship. The cost of shipping an 8' long roll of paper is obscene.
What about using two short rolls(63") & tape them together on the back. Or just use 63" rolls, it would be wide enough for head & shoulders.

David A. Goldfarb · May 17, 2009

As others have said, the key is lighting. Light the background so it's about two stops brighter than main light, and you'll get a clean white background, even if the background isn't actually white.

On the other hand, seamless is a handy thing to have on hand. I keep super white, grey, and black, and depending on how much you use it, it can last for years.

EASmithV · May 17, 2009

How about a pull down projector screen?

Am I wasting my time and money?

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