Working With Vinyl Backdrops And Keeping It Clean

[goodlucksdk]

I have a vinyl backdrop. It is white and 9'x20' large. I use it for full body length portraits, either standing or lying. The issue is that as soon as the model starts walking around on it, it quickly becomes dirty. That the material is white only worsens the situation. If I use it for a couple of hours I have to clean it afterwards, which I do in a 2 phase process and is a hell lot of work. Phase 1 is cleaning with towel soaked with soapy water. Phase 2 is with a Mr. Clean "Magic Eraser".

I was wondering if anybody has a way to:

1. Clean the bottom of the models shoes before they step on the vinyl in way that reduces or eliminates shoe marks.

2. Other more efficient cleaning methods for the vinyl that anybody may have come up with.

 

[Sailor Blue]

Try covering the bottom of the model's shoes with masking tape. The blue stuff is used by painters and if removed in a day or two doesn't leave any residue.

It is also good to use masking tape on shoes if you have the models standing on a sheet of tileboard or acrylic on top of a fabric background to prevent wrinkles forming under their feet.

 

[Hugowolf]

I have you considered seamless paper? a 9' x 12 yd roll is about $45. You lose a few feet everytime, but that takes just a few seconds if you value your time.

Brian A

 

[goodlucksdk]

I have been thinking about it and if I cannot figure out how to efficiently use the vinyl then that is just what I might have to do. Thanks.

 

[goodlucksdk]

Thanks I will try that.

 

[Jack A. Zucker]

What we do is to use a shiny white 4x8 tileboard ($15 from home depot). This way, the model stands on the tileboard and not the paper or vinyl. This works best if you are blowing out the background to pure white and if you are, the seam between the tileboard and paper or vinyl will disappear.

I recently bought a 9'x20' roll of grey vinyl from savage and was disappointed in that it did not roll out smooth. It had wrinkles in it that we could not get out. Additionally, it was EXTREMELY heavy. Sadly, I am back to paper backgrounds which I hate because they always seem to get wrinkles...

 

[goodlucksdk]

Yes mine is from Savage too and it as quite heavy as you stated yourself, but I am willing to deal with that.

On my white version I do not have any wrinkling issues. Even if I put a wrinkle into it, by handling it, it will disappear short before long. Maybe there are differences between the white and grey version.