LX93
Senior Member
What are the pros & cons of each?
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Paper vs Muslin
- Thread starter LX93
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Charlie Self
Senior Member
lbdina
Well-known member
Hi,
So far, I have used only seamless paper (but I recently ordered 3 or 4 muslins). Just a few comments on paper.
White, gray and black seamless are very versatile. If you are able to limit light on your background, you can probably get away without the black, but I like having all three. You can use colored gels to change colors, etc. Large paper rolls are a PITA to set up, take down, lug around, etc, especially if you need wide rolls (9 foot or wider). It is easy to tear or wrinkle too, and it is a good idea to have your subjects wear socks or put masking tape on the bottom of their shoes to keep it from getting dirty or worn too fast.
If you have a studio and will use your paper rolls in that location most of the time, you can use stands, but they take up space and can be cumbersome. I recently installed a 3-roll ceiling mounted bracket in my studio and it has made life MUCH easier and convenient. It mounts to a wall or ceiling and has a plastic chain drive system to raise and lower up to three rolls of paper. You can set the brackets any distance apart to accommodate different width rolls (not adjustable on the fly, but bolted into the wall or ceiling). The rotating end pieces fit into the cardboard roll and expand to fit tightly. I have mine set to accommodate 9' wide rolls. It is really awesome, especially for $70 delivered! I ordered a second 3-roll bracket, which I plan to use with muslin backdrops. Since the muslins don't come on a roll, I will need to pick up a 10' section of PVC, cardboard or aluminum tubing/pipe and use it the same as the cardboard rolls on the paper. I'll mount these 10 feet apart, since the muslins I ordered are 10x20 feet. Here's a link to this item on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002P32990/ref=oss_product
Now that I have my white, gray and black paper rolls permanently installed, I can lower or raise any of the three in seconds. The paper doesn't wrinkle, stands don't get in the way, no big rolls to lug around, and it is really fast and convenient. What you give up is portability. Of course, you can quickly and easily take the rolls down and remove the end pieces and transport the rolls for use with conventional stands, and that is not a major deal.
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Lou Dina
http://www.Dinagraphics.com
So far, I have used only seamless paper (but I recently ordered 3 or 4 muslins). Just a few comments on paper.
White, gray and black seamless are very versatile. If you are able to limit light on your background, you can probably get away without the black, but I like having all three. You can use colored gels to change colors, etc. Large paper rolls are a PITA to set up, take down, lug around, etc, especially if you need wide rolls (9 foot or wider). It is easy to tear or wrinkle too, and it is a good idea to have your subjects wear socks or put masking tape on the bottom of their shoes to keep it from getting dirty or worn too fast.
If you have a studio and will use your paper rolls in that location most of the time, you can use stands, but they take up space and can be cumbersome. I recently installed a 3-roll ceiling mounted bracket in my studio and it has made life MUCH easier and convenient. It mounts to a wall or ceiling and has a plastic chain drive system to raise and lower up to three rolls of paper. You can set the brackets any distance apart to accommodate different width rolls (not adjustable on the fly, but bolted into the wall or ceiling). The rotating end pieces fit into the cardboard roll and expand to fit tightly. I have mine set to accommodate 9' wide rolls. It is really awesome, especially for $70 delivered! I ordered a second 3-roll bracket, which I plan to use with muslin backdrops. Since the muslins don't come on a roll, I will need to pick up a 10' section of PVC, cardboard or aluminum tubing/pipe and use it the same as the cardboard rolls on the paper. I'll mount these 10 feet apart, since the muslins I ordered are 10x20 feet. Here's a link to this item on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002P32990/ref=oss_product
Now that I have my white, gray and black paper rolls permanently installed, I can lower or raise any of the three in seconds. The paper doesn't wrinkle, stands don't get in the way, no big rolls to lug around, and it is really fast and convenient. What you give up is portability. Of course, you can quickly and easily take the rolls down and remove the end pieces and transport the rolls for use with conventional stands, and that is not a major deal.
--
Lou Dina
http://www.Dinagraphics.com
LX93
Senior Member
Good info here, thanx.
I probably should've mentioned that I'll be working on-location pretty much exclusively. Does that completely rule out paper for my situation? Doesn't muslin also get wrinkled when transported?
lbdina wrote:
paper doesn't wrinkle... What you give up is portability.
I probably should've mentioned that I'll be working on-location pretty much exclusively. Does that completely rule out paper for my situation? Doesn't muslin also get wrinkled when transported?
lbdina wrote:
paper doesn't wrinkle... What you give up is portability.
lbdina
Well-known member
If you are working on location, I'd lean toward muslin, especially if you need a large backdrop. 9 or 12 foot rolls of paper are not fun to lug around. If you can manage with 54" rolls, that wouldn't be so bad, but if you need more width, PITA.
Muslins wrinkle. My experience is very limited with muslin at this point, but it appears a lot of people just go with the flow and stuff them in a bag to get random wrinkles.
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Lou Dina
http://www.Dinagraphics.com
Muslins wrinkle. My experience is very limited with muslin at this point, but it appears a lot of people just go with the flow and stuff them in a bag to get random wrinkles.
--
Lou Dina
http://www.Dinagraphics.com
Jim Cassatt
Veteran Member
I use both muslins and white seamles paper. I keep the white seamless paper permanently mounted and use muslin in front if it.
As others have mentioned, muslins wrinkle and seamless paper is a PIA to haul around. If you are using a mottled pattern, which works well for portraits, the wrinkles get lost in the background. With black the wrinkles don't matter since they don't show up.
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Jim
http://www.pbase.com/jcassatt
As others have mentioned, muslins wrinkle and seamless paper is a PIA to haul around. If you are using a mottled pattern, which works well for portraits, the wrinkles get lost in the background. With black the wrinkles don't matter since they don't show up.
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Jim
http://www.pbase.com/jcassatt
beautifulimpressions
Leading Member
what I do with my muslin backdrops is that I have strong clamps (you can get them at hardware stores) to hold the edges & corners down and clamp them to my backdrop stand. by doing that a majority of the wrinkles disappear and smaller wrinkles aren't very noticable especially if the background has some sort of pattern on it.
paper rolls as already mentioned are easy to tear, get dirty and are not easily portable. muslin is much more versatile
paper rolls as already mentioned are easy to tear, get dirty and are not easily portable. muslin is much more versatile
LX93
Senior Member
Thank you, I'm glad to find out these things BEFORE spending $$.
beautifulimpressions wrote:
paper rolls as already mentioned are easy to tear, get dirty and are not easily portable. muslin is much more versatile
beautifulimpressions wrote:
paper rolls as already mentioned are easy to tear, get dirty and are not easily portable. muslin is much more versatile
LX93
Senior Member
That's a good point. I've heard that gels work best w/ plain white; how would they fare w/ black?
Jim Cassatt wrote:
With black the wrinkles don't matter since they don't show up.
Jim Cassatt wrote:
With black the wrinkles don't matter since they don't show up.
Jim Cassatt
Veteran Member
I have not used gels with black. I ahve used them with gray and white. The colors with gray are more intense. One tool that I find very handy when using gels 0nr colored backgrounds is the selective saturation/desaturation tool in Lightroom. Color too intense, just desaturate to taste.
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Jim
http://www.pbase.com/jcassatt
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Jim
http://www.pbase.com/jcassatt
Lawrence Keeney
Veteran Member
I can tell you gels work much better on a dark gray than on a white background. The colors are much more saturated with the dark background. The colors look washed out on a white background.
To further clarify this, I use both a super white and thunder gray seamless paper.
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http://www.blackcanyonsystems.com
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Lawrence
To further clarify this, I use both a super white and thunder gray seamless paper.
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http://www.blackcanyonsystems.com
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Lawrence
LX93
Senior Member
Jim, Lawrence,
Thanx. I'll be using muslin due to working on-location w/ a portable backdrop stand. So I might have to go w/ a grey other than "thunder grey".
Thunder grey sounds closer to dark gray than light gray- is it?
Thanx. I'll be using muslin due to working on-location w/ a portable backdrop stand. So I might have to go w/ a grey other than "thunder grey".
Thunder grey sounds closer to dark gray than light gray- is it?
Many good advices in the above replies.
Depending on the width you need and wether you intend to shoot full body portraits on a seamless, you may also have a look at collapsible backgrounds which fold and unfold like reflectors. Easy to transport to location and they don't need a support system.
You can check Lastolite : http://www.lastolite.com/collapsible-backgrounds.php but I guess other manufacturers offer collapsible backgrounds too (I have seen some on ebay too).
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http://erickn.online.fr
Depending on the width you need and wether you intend to shoot full body portraits on a seamless, you may also have a look at collapsible backgrounds which fold and unfold like reflectors. Easy to transport to location and they don't need a support system.
You can check Lastolite : http://www.lastolite.com/collapsible-backgrounds.php but I guess other manufacturers offer collapsible backgrounds too (I have seen some on ebay too).
--
http://erickn.online.fr
lbdina
Well-known member
I agree with Eric, but be sure to get a decent brand. Some of them are flimsy when opened and don't stay open without support. I have a 6x7 foot collapsible by Superior, and I consider it to be "inferior". Damn thing flops around and needs as much support as seamless! If you go that route, fine a brand to opens flat and stays flat without a lot os extra support.
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Lou Dina
http://www.Dinagraphics.com
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Lou Dina
http://www.Dinagraphics.com
Oh and I forgot... while you're on Lastolite's website, you may have a look at their knitted curtain backgrounds : http://www.lastolite.com/knitted-curtain-backgrounds.php . Never used them personnally, but they're supposed to be somewhat stretchable and as such get rid of wrinkles. Make sure you have a look at the videos for each product.
--
http://erickn.online.fr
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http://erickn.online.fr
Lou, thanks for the warning. If I remember correctly, the one I used (borrowed from a friend) was a 5x6 and I had no problem having it stand against a wall without any sag. But as I plan to buy a larger one, I'll be careful about this issue.
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http://erickn.online.fr
Lawrence Keeney
Veteran Member
This will give you an idea of the color:
http://www.backdropsource.com/Productinfo.asp?id=1198&pname=thunder-gray-background-paper
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http://www.blackcanyonsystems.com
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Lawrence
http://www.backdropsource.com/Productinfo.asp?id=1198&pname=thunder-gray-background-paper
--
http://www.blackcanyonsystems.com
--
Lawrence
LX93
Senior Member
Cool, thanx. Not many skin tones that won't stand out w/ that in the background. Now I just need to find a muslin in that hue.
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