Black Backdrops and You

Hey Folks,

I have a shoot tomorrow, and I was doing my 'before shoot' prep. I am in a bit of a lather because I just cannot get the Samoyed off of my drops! I shot three Sammy's last week of course, it was a hair fest.

So, the 64,000 question - how the heck are you getting it off of your drops without having a conniption?

James

We simply wash the muslin backdrops. Since we like the crinkly look, there's no ironing involved. Just take them out of the dryer and crumple them into a bag.

Jim

Perchance I need a larger washer then as I cannot get the hair off of them. It is moderately frustrating. IMO, the drops still look filthy - and they were washed twice with an extra cycle.

BTW, I also don't iron drops. I like the textured look. :P

James

Well, maybe Sammy hair is so much finer than Rottie fur that it just gets interwoven into the fabric itself. How about dry-cleaning -- I know, a little late for that.

On the other hand, if you can get it far enough behind the subject(s), chances are you can fix anything that's visible in PhotoShop pp.

Jim

Hey Jim,

Any idea how much it costs to dry clean two 10x12 foot drops? I imagine it must be expensive. Yesterday afternoon, before my shoot (which I used different drops for), we stopped by B&H and look at some velour drops. They look like the fabric may be better for what we are doing. I really would like a micro-suede (like a rich brown) if I could find one.

James

So, go to JoAnn's and find what you want and have someone sew in a pole pocket. My last 4 backdrops came from JoAnn's and two of them are black velour in different widths. Linda can sew .

Jim

Mind if I ask what you are paying per square foot? Is there actually any cost savings, or is it because you are able to customize the drop to exactly what you want?

James

Depends on what we find when we get to the stores. We have 12 stores within a 10 mile radius of the house and we go bin-hunting and apply our discount coupons -- Linda and RoseAnn both buy a lot of fabric. So we seldom spend more than $5.00/yd for the remnants we buy and if we have to stitch two pieces together, that's not a problem. We drape the backdrop fairly loosely often with folds so you don't see the seams and if you do, we can fix it in PS.

Jim

A couple of years ago I got some 109 or 120 inch wide black muslin for 99 cents a yard at JoAnns.

I found an interesting rubber like 'mitt' at Target that seems to work wonders - for 8 bucks. Having said that, I my be about to begin phasing out the muslin for Velour, which is significantly lighter and a bit more hair resistant....

James

Has anyone here used velour drops?

James

It's magnetic! And it exacerbates the primary rule of lint: if your backdrop is black, the lint will be any color other than black; if it's another color, the lint will be black . The only huge problem for me is that velour shows wrinkles in a much more intrusive way than muslin. I'm OK with wrinkles in my backdrop but they have to be "quality" wrinkles . They are much less "reflective" though. I've used both and I only have muslin in my kit now.

Jim

Nope! But thinking of it! Safe to use ?