Studio Lighting

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Permalink Reply by Renee Graner on December 3, 2009 at 8:26pm

That's been an issue for me too....and I have steam ironed without great success (besides....I hate to iron!). Downy does make a spray that "relaxes" wrinkles....have used that with moderate success. I have found that the farther my subject is from the background, the less wrinkles are an issue. Love using black as I can "burn" any wrinkle out in photoshop

I would love to see a good answer to your question too.

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on December 3, 2009 at 8:28pm

If you want a B.G. with no wrinkles you will need to use a different material. My suggestion is back ground paper. I use to buy it in two different widths, 102" and 140". The drawback with Back Ground paper is that it is heavy so it requires a substantial stand of some type, also it wrinkles easily and tears. Once it starts tearing it can tear the whole length of the paper so be sure to cut off damaged portions or tape it above the tear. Pre-Photoshop it's what everyone used and we learned to balance our lights so that the tonality desired was achieved, the hue desired was achieved and the light was even, left to right. In the digital age I suspect that the perfectly smooth backgrounds you see on ads are done in Photoshop since it appears to me that studio craftsmanship is going the way of T-Rex.

I've worked with muslin backgrounds for years and I've never seen one that laid perfectly flat. If you decide to use a steam iron (which I think will make you run screaming into the night) be sure to test it on a small portion first. Some backgrounds that are advertised and sold as muslin are actually synthetic blends, which could be damaged by a steam iron, and some aren't color fast. I've actually had the color come off on my hands. Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by Renee Graner on December 6, 2009 at 3:21pm

I just wanted to add another comment as I've been researching and experimenting with muslim backgrounds. The other day I bought a couple of sheets, one tan and one wine red, and hung them on my screen stand with clamps (I have white, black and chromogreen). I took them straight from the dryer with no iron. I wanted to try a couple of different tips to see if I could photograph my subject without having to do any editing to the screens. I used two studio lights pointed directly onto the screen, just behind my subject. I used natural light and my in-camera light with a diffuser. I set my subject about 5 feet from the screen. The key to keep wrinkles from showing does seem to be to light the background at a higher kelvin than the subject.

I have looked into the seamless paper....too heavy for my setup. I checked into the seamless vinyl (which would be my preference).....again too heavy and too expensive. Even with both of these items, you still have to provide adequate light behind the subject to prevent shadowing. In my opinion, the difference between a "snapshot" and a professional shot is the shadow or lack thereof.

I recommend that you do some experimenting to see if you get the result you desire. That is what I've done and I uploaded two of the images I shot today....no editing on the background whatsoever.

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on December 7, 2009 at 7:47am

You can get rid of shadows on any background if you positions the lights, the subject and the background correctly without a background light. As a guideline; the distance from the camera to the b.g. should be approximately equal, or as near as possible to that. The background light is there to provide for separation and dimension of the subject from the background in terms of tonality and to assure that the color of the background is what it is meant to be. If you are using a b.g. light to get rid of shadows, in all but the smallest of camera rooms, the lights are being used incorrectly and you are generating more problems with the use of multiple lights than you are solving. As a general guideline I position my subject at between four and five feet from the b.g. and, when I am making a head and shoulders type portrait, the camera will be about 5 to 6 feet from the subject.

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Permalink Reply by Vito on December 8, 2009 at 9:48am

Thanks for your input. You're right about the background lights creating problems. I've found that the light spillage creates highlights where they are unwanted. I will try using your distance rule (similar distance from camera to subject as background to subject I think is what you're saying).

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Permalink Reply by Vito on December 8, 2009 at 9:57am

Thank you Renee. I will experiment and see what i come up with. I don't see the images you uploaded. Are they on your home page?

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Permalink Reply by Sean on December 6, 2009 at 3:28pm

Steam iron and if you light it right it should hide the remaining imperfections.

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Permalink Reply by Gary Vernon on December 7, 2009 at 7:26am

Hi Vito,
i use 3.7mt white / grey / black vinyl, costwise, it's more economical than paper as u can clean it and it's heavier and keeps it's shape - no wrinkles ever and many permutations with different gells and modifiers.
Also i use many coloured papers in 2.75 mt widths and the lastolite "pop up" backgrounds including the "highlite" for location work.
Muslin is ok if once ironed and left there, would suggest some other type of fabric if you are transporting it around...
Dazian - http://www.dazian.com/cgi-bin/page.pl?action=index have a fantastic selection of fabrics for just about everything and will send you samples,
regards,
Gary..

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Permalink Reply by Vito on December 8, 2009 at 9:55am

Hey Gary, thanks for the info. I've used the paper and seems to work well but I'll check out the vinyl. I think that would work even better.

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Permalink Reply by Brehl on December 7, 2009 at 3:06pm

sure try steaming the creases out and also photshop has a great tool that cleans up backgrounds , like the blur filter or spot healing or clone stamp, there are lots of ways to clean up a background

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Permalink Reply by Sean on December 7, 2009 at 6:41pm

If you have CS3 or better surface blur would probably be you best bet on this.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Leng on December 8, 2009 at 8:11am

Here is a friend's website, get a hold of him. He was selling the ones he had who were made by his sister.
www.ahrendphoto.com/contact.html
Good Luck,
Brian

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