White Back Drops

Ryan Izzard

Ryan Izzard

Active member
Hi Everyone! Can anyone recommend a good place to buy white back drops (paper and/or fabric). I need to turn a black room all white, including the floor, and absolutely can't paint so I need something that will look good, but won't shred to pieces when the band rocks out on top if it. Any ideas?
 
What I would suggest is either

A) Go to a fabric store and buy enough yardage of thick white matte cotton or similar Fabric to cover your room. Cotton is cheap, and durable. Make sure it has a matte finish so you don't run into glare/reflection problems. Make sure it is thick enough so that colors under the fabric won't show through.

B) Find some old white bed sheets, or buy some. They might work if you're on a budget.

C) Use a green screen, and add the white in post. We did this with good success using green screens and green butcher paper, you know the kind you get from those big rolls that people use to make posters with. If you wanted to use blue, one of those blue tarps might work, however it would be really noisy, slipppery, and shiny.....
 
PDX_DVX said:
B) Find some old white bed sheets, or buy some. They might work if you're on a budget.
Click to expand...

One thing to add to this suggestion - I've used this before and it worked fine, just make sure to get new sheets, don't use your own sheets - the wife will not be so happy if you do ... especially if they are not in the same condition afterwards. (Ooops!)
 
Sometimes the color might be off too, that is if you don't use new ones......When I was little we used a white sheet in the snow to make a fort, and it looked purple. LOL
 
That's true. White fabric often has a slight color cast, usually blue or pink. But if you put a background light on the fabric and expose for skin tone, then the white will overexpose and look truly white. Need to balance the main light with the background light.

You can also buy white background paper from a photography store. It won't work on a carpeted floor because heels will punch right through the paper. If you use it on a wood floor, make sure to tape it down otherwise it will slide around the floor.
 
If you have the budget there are probably studios in your town that'll rent out - I know one in my area has a pre-built "white space" as they call it, basically it's a wall, but it meets the floor at a curve, so there's no hard shadows. Thing is - you gotta bring your own lighting equipment and whatnot
 
We actually created pretty good white space using a green screen, because that's all we had. It's better to do it the real way, but it is possible the other way if you need to....
 
I have to agree with Monte. You would be better off hiring a studio with an infinity cove. To light the space as flat and as evenly as possible use space lights. If you go to my web site and click on the studio link you'll see what kind of effect you'll get. If you go the material route I can guarantee you'll have nothing but problems. You really need to get some proper studio space. As for green/blue screening........Em Don't do it. If you wanna shoot white then spend the time and resources locating an appropriate studio. I realise your posting said that the room is black. If I were you I'd re-locate and not have the headache your about to get involved in trying to make something out of nothing.

Just my 2c worth.

Studio are pretty flexible these days, ask for discounts and remember to ask if the price includes power supply for the day.

www.steadicams.com

PS: No I'm not a representative of Space Lights. They just rock man.
 
For some reason the studio link pictures don't load. If you go to my photo album you'll see 3x studio images.

Apologies
 
Those space lights are pretty sweet. Where can you get them? What sort of lamp do they use? I think I have seen pictures of people using those to light green screens and the like. Awsome
 
Space lights are actually very cheap to buy. I think you can pick them up for around $300/$400 (US). The ones I had are 6K units. Basically 6x 1000 watt lamps per unit and I had 9 units in the studio, covering approx 1000 square feet. So it got pretty warm after a few hours. And your right DOP's use them to light Green/Blue screens all the time.
 
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