Backdrops

[scorpio616 1797]

Do the H18 ones cut glare somehow?  That's the main issue I have with my printouts of the Corvus ones.

Wouldn't a dusting of dullcoat help with that?

[Girot 8280]

 

Do the H18 ones cut glare somehow?  That's the main issue I have with my printouts of the Corvus ones.

Wouldn't a dusting of dullcoat help with that?

 

I'd say no.  It's not the ink that causes the refraction, it's the the density of paper.  You'd have even worse luck with a laser printer.  Fabric on the other hand absorbs more light than it bounces and (unless you're working with something like vinyl, silk, etc) won't create any glare issues.  I've been using fabric since I started photographing my work.

 

Also, having a filter on your light source will help immensly.  By that I mean like a white t-shirt (single layer of fabric) or bed sheet over the front of the light source.  This greatly cuts down on glare and casts fewer shadows.

 

There is a lightbox/photography thread in here somewhere that is incredibly helpful for all of this.

[Bathory 13907]

I was out of some ink when I got home so I used a piece of scrapbooking paper and my pic looked better than with stark white. lol.

Scrapbook paper is thick and in many cases matte. Seriously, now I want to go to the craft store and see if they have something similar to the printed out ones. I know they have a whole isle of the paper....

 

Haha, aisle there is not a magical isle of miniature backgrounds 

Edited August 6, 2015 by Bathory

[Kheprera 36862]

Instead of putting possibly flammeable fabric on a light that gets hot (fire hazard), i advise using parchment paper, wax paper, or aluminum foil (all found in the grocery aisle) and are made for hot ovens.

 

Same effect for diffusing the light (wax and parchment) or reflecting it (foil). When I was a professional photographer I often carried foil to tape to my flash to reflect light so I could use a fill-flash without blasting the faces with so much light the background would turn black (resulting in floating ghost face).

 

Miniature photography is a mix of close-up photography and portrait. You have to use elements of both in order to achieve desired results. The newer "cameras" (phones a lot these days) may have some ways to allow to control of these elements (exposure, depth of field, macro) but it's important to have proper lighting and background.

 

Fabric does not reflect light like paper does. A neutral grey really is best for most colors, and white is easy to "blow out." Black absorbs a lot of light and requires extra lighting for best results. Colored backgrounds can distract from the color scheme of your mini (like taking a picture of someone with a blue shirt on a blue background; their shirt tends to blend in and you get the "floaty face" effect).

 

There are a lot if good posts on this subject in this forum. I looked over the Hanger 18 backgrounds and they do look nice. I can get a similar result going to a fabric shop and buying a yard of fabric in the color of my choice. I'd tend more towards a knit than a polished cotton, though. :)

 

Edit: Typo

Edited August 6, 2015 by Kheprera

[scorpio616 1797]

Well, making one's own cloth backdrop isn't very hard, cloth, paint and a chunk of rough sponge ( cheap kitchen sponge works just fine ). Hobby is expensive enough as it is.

 

[tiniest rhombus 17670]

There are a lot if good posts on this subject in this forum. I looked over the Hanger 18 backgrounds and they do look nice. I can get a similar result going to a fabric shop and buying a yard of fabric in the color of my choice. I'd tend more towards a knit than a polished cotton, though. :)

Edit: Typo

Yep, I was looking at the price of those hanger 18 backgrounds and wondering why I couldn't just buy a yard of fabric. Guess I can. :-)

 

I was thinking of using muslin tho. Thoughts?

[Kheprera 36862]

Too thin imo. I'd go with maybe duckcloth if you want, and that is very easy to paint (used for oil canvases) if you want to make varied colors (it's an off-ish white) and holds up forever.

[ub3r_n3rd 152256]

I was using fabric from Michael's before I purchased my H18 backdrop. It worked fine, but I much prefer the H18, I feel it gives a better picture.

[Bathory 13907]

Michaels doesn't exactly have a great fabric selection :)

Depending on your budget and what's close buy you can always check your local fabric store for remnants. You can also buy fabric by half or quarter yards, which lowers the price even more.

I happen to sew... Fabric stores are a dying breed, and are normally family run, so I always encourage people to support their local one

[ub3r_n3rd 152256]

Michaels doesn't exactly have a great fabric selection :)

Depending on your budget and what's close buy you can always check your local fabric store for remnants. You can also buy fabric by half or quarter yards, which lowers the price even more.

I happen to sew... Fabric stores are a dying breed, and are normally family run, so I always encourage people to support their local one

 

No matter any longer for me tho, now that I have my H18 backdrop, I'll also buy at least 1 or 2 more of them from H18 at some point, just to have a selection. 

[Bathory 13907]

 

Michaels doesn't exactly have a great fabric selection :)

Depending on your budget and what's close buy you can always check your local fabric store for remnants. You can also buy fabric by half or quarter yards, which lowers the price even more.

I happen to sew... Fabric stores are a dying breed, and are normally family run, so I always encourage people to support their local one

 

No matter any longer for me tho, now that I have my H18 backdrop, I'll also buy at least 1 or 2 more of them from H18 at some point, just to have a selection. 

 

 

Yeah, just trying to come up with alternate options for people looking for cheap backdrops. 

[Kheprera 36862]

Joann's, Walmart, and Hobby Lobby also carries fabric. Also, check online. If you aren't sure about a fabric weight, PM me. If I don't know, my mom will. She's been a seamstress for longer than I've been alive.

[tiniest rhombus 17670]

Joann's, Walmart, and Hobby Lobby also carries fabric. Also, check online. If you aren't sure about a fabric weight, PM me. If I don't know, my mom will. She's been a seamstress for longer than I've been alive.

Thanks, we have Joanns, Michael's, hancocks, and another one I can't remember the name, all within 5 miles. Kicks self for not taking some of grandmas fabric after she passed, she had an entire room full, for reals could not walk into the room it was so full full. I didn't know...I DIDNT KNOW! :-)

[Marvin 41400]

I'm really cheap, and I don't paint well enough and/or don't give enough stuffs to pretend my photographing minis makes much difference, but I needed a way to take pictures of minis that didn't make me want to kill myself. Lightbox was step number one, obviously. Let me get the lighting under control. Not everyone has that problem, I know, but I did. And that solved it. Anyway, step two of getting a background--I didn't much like the white paper. Straight muslin was problematic in that the texture showed funny as a background. I don't know if painted muslin or whatnot would pose that problem. So, anyway, I hit up Hobby Lobby's papercrafting aisle and searched out pieces of paper that I thought'd work well. I was really pleased with the first one I've tried, a gray mottled page; I have a blue I'll eventually try out, too. I'm sure there are much better ideas; this totally seems to have worked out for me and my very basic needs, though.

[Kheprera 36862]

Heavy paper can work quite well. I have an 18% grey card used in photography that actually makes an excellent backdrop, too. It's a thick matte cardboard material. Want really cheap? Cardboard and grey paint. Foamboard you can get in a variety of colors and has a matte back...

 

The one benefit of fabic or paper os you can curve it to remove any harsh line that might show where the "floor" and the "wall" of the backdrop meet. This can also be avoided with stiffer material by raising the object up enough on a stand to remove the "floor" from the frame. In this instance, the closeup photography eliminates one of the issues that have to be watched by portrait photographers.

 

In this case, "floor" = desktop or whatever object your mini is sitting on and "wall" = backdrop.