Muslin backgrounds - Are they all the same?

Deano

Deano

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Karlu.com do their own at £49.99 for the large size yet the equivalent Interfit are £119.99. These are for plain black or white. Is there much difference do you think?
 
i too would like to know this. going down to the local fabric store i could have bought some muslin that was quite a large size for £10.

but it seemed pretty thin and see through. are there different thicknesses of muslin?
 
White sheets.. the thicker the cotton the better really so you cant see thru it.
 
yeah we ended up buying some white cotton sheets but the creases are very apparent in any of the pictures i take. without ironing the bloody thing everytime is there any tips for this?

i'm assuming people use muslin as it doesnt crease? ?
 
thefunkygibbon said:
yeah we ended up buying some white cotton sheets but the creases are very apparent in any of the pictures i take. without ironing the bloody thing everytime is there any tips for this?

i'm assuming people use muslin as it doesnt crease? ?
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If you blow out the background by a stop or two brighter than your subject with background lights.... no creases will show.
 
I use white rolls of paper - 2.7m wide which are great! Come with about 60ft of length, so as the ends get inevitably scraggy you just trim it off and keep shooting.

No creases to worry about, and some marks can be simply rubbed out with a rubber (or cloned out in PS).

IIRC, I paid about £60 for this.

Cheers

Lee
 
our saturday market has a few fabric traders and their prices tend to be way below proper shops

length is easy, you buy by the meter off the roll but watch the width as it may be too narrow. SWMBO knows all about this cloth stuff and suspects we may have to resort to bedsheets (plain unfitted) for a cheapo solution with enough width. She went into town last saturday to see what was available on the market but the hideous weather had scared them away.
 
got 3m of white cotton drill off the market today, £3.99 per metre and 1.5m width
not ideal but I just want enough to experiment with a clean backdrop (got no plain white walls in the house)

interesting point was I said what it was for and he apologised he had run out of his stock of wide seconds blackout curtain/blind material, all the local 'togs had bought it as it was brown one side but pure white on the other. Currently the 1sts quality rolls of blackout that he has are creamy beige coloured.
So have a look at the blackout material too.
 
Yeah mine has just arrived from Karlu. Its very thin and if you hold it up to the light you do get light coming through it. Im no expert on this stuff tthough so maybe its all like that?....
 
Yes, there are Sunni and Shiite varieties. Oh wait. You said "muslin." That's very different. Never mind.
 
I must admit, I dd wonder what a musilims background had to do with anything when I first saw the topic ;)
 
well i just bought a stand system and muslin backdrop off of ebay. looks good, just need to find the space in the house to put it up :(


trouble is the muslin is pretty creased, and whilst i don't fancy ironing it, i think i may well have to.

i've tried to take photo's that blur out the sheets but not doing so very effectively. does anyone have any decent tips? i've tried the lowest f-number for my lens and the creases are still very visible. (i'm a beginner here, be gentle :))
 
Karen said:
My backdrop was quite expensive but its made from blackout material which is quite thick and because of its texture doesnt crease easily.
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Karen, your backdrop sounds a good one, mind sharing who its made by/where from?

thefunkygibbon said:
well i just bought a stand system and muslin backdrop off of ebay. looks good, just need to find the space in the house to put it up :(


trouble is the muslin is pretty creased, and whilst i don't fancy ironing it, i think i may well have to.

i've tried to take photo's that blur out the sheets but not doing so very effectively. does anyone have any decent tips? i've tried the lowest f-number for my lens and the creases are still very visible. (i'm a beginner here, be gentle :))
Click to expand...

Perhaps try putting more distance between your model and the bg.
Also, to remove or soften the creases, consider hanging the muslin in a steamy bathroom for a while.
If you do though, make sure its fully aired before you put it away.
 
distance... hmmm yes i was thinking that .. but my rooms are a little lacking in that sort of department :( damn


its a white muslin btw
 
I don't have to transport mine about as I have studio so thats why I went for large quite expensive material. I attached it to a plumbers pipe drilled a hole in each end and its fits lovely over supports and rolls up no bother if needs be
 
thefunkygibbon said:
distance... hmmm yes i was thinking that .. but my rooms are a little lacking in that sort of department :( damn


its a white muslin btw
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mmmm...i got the feeling that the white would show up creases although theres no way you would catch me ironing that muslin. It would take all day! Increasing the light onto the white muslin might make the creases vanish though.
 
I think you can get blackout Material from most half decent material stores, I used to work on a market stall and we sold it on the roll.

However, I'm not sure how wide you can get it.

Just done a quick google. Black out material 2.7M wide £9.95 per meter on the roll upto 50 meters
 
Deano said:
mmmm...i got the feeling that the white would show up creases although theres no way you would catch me ironing that muslin. It would take all day! Increasing the light onto the white muslin might make the creases vanish though.
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It does! Get it right and theres not a crease to be seen!
 
King size, flat white bedsheets. Iron them, obviously. Excellent for those of us doing stuff on the cheap :)
 
I have just received the Interfit muslin backdrop (comes with its own storage case). It is worlds apart in quality compared to the Karlu 'tracing paper'. Much better quality and well worth the extra money.
 
I just went for the black and white obviously for high & low key shoots. I think the jury is still out on the tie dye ones. I reckon they look a bit '1970's school photos' but obviously thats personal taste. I much prefer a plain colour
 
Wigwam Jones said:
Yes, there are Sunni and Shiite varieties. Oh wait. You said "muslin." That's very different. Never mind.
Click to expand...

I was wondering if this was another thread about Canvas prints. There's an obvious joke about blowing up the size...
 
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