# What Fabrics Make Good Backgrounds?



## rachell

I would like to buy some material from a fabric store to use as a background -- are there do's and don'ts to doing this?

(I've done this before, and the felt-like tan colored fabric worked great, but the one that was similar to polyester and a dark red wine color turned out aweful.  I don't know if it was the type of material that made the difference or the colors, so before I buy any more material I would like to make sure what I'm buying will work.)

Thank you so much!


----------



## fmw

In my experience fabric makes a difficult background to work with. it gets wrinkled and, unless you can throw it out of focus in the image, ends up calling too much attention to itself. I assume you want to use fabric because you need a large background. Go to the photo store and pick up a roll of background paper or two. I think you'll find it will do a better job. When you're finished shooting just toss it and take some more off the roll for the next shoot.

Portrait photographers often use fabric but I think they use it in sets that don't change very often so they don't have to fight the wrinkling. If they shoot full figure portraits, I think they would use a paper sweep or a hard manufactured one, though, and not fabric. Whenever I shoot formal portraits - not very often - I use background paper.

Colors would depend on the subject. For human portraits I would choose both a very light paper and a very dark one just to set the mood you want to capture - light for high key lighting and dark for low.


----------



## EBphotography

Check out the article section, nice article about making your own backdrops. Thanks to Corry I believe.


----------



## Pirate

I have to respectfully disagree with fmw on the question. My very first backgrounds were pieces of muslin that I bought from a fabric store and dyed to suit my needs. I have never used paper so I have no opinion on paper. I have 11 backdrops and all are a fabric of one kind or another. I have several that are professional drops purchased from Backdrop outlet, but I also will dye one to suit my needs as it's fun and it's custom to fit your needs. Go buy a piece of muslin or even a painters drop cloth from Home Depot. They dye well and don't worry about the wrinkles, they are easily removed with a portable steamer, or even a steam  iron. If taken care of they last forever, and can be easily stored away when not in use.


----------



## mysteryscribe

The trick to using fabric is to either use a frame to stretch it on or to use thumbtacks to stretch it. Fabric with sag and wrinkle if not stretched but thumbtacks on a sheetrock wall work well and a bit of toothpastes hides the tiny holes.. 

Done it a thousand times,

I used painted canvas I did myself for a studio drop when I didn't have to take it down and muslin or something similiar when i worked in the house in the early days \.


----------



## rachell

Thanks you guys!   With the fabric I used in the past, I put a bunch of nails in the wall, hung small A-clips from it and used that to hold the fabric up.  I then drape it like a sweep down the wall and on the table, and then weight down the sides.

As to wrinkles, all I do is throw the whole thing into the dryer for a little bit, or do a little ironing.  My whole problem was knowing what fabrics photograph well before I spent money and time on something that doesn't work (which is what happened when I bought that aweful polyester stuff that seemed to suck up all the light)

So muslin is the trick -- thanks you guys so much!


----------



## mysteryscribe

muslin works well so does most any other cloth with a loose or flat surface.... I bought one that reflected the light nothing worse than a reflective black background.  It was supposed to be dead black of course.


----------

