Back drops: Can anyone please give me suggestions on where to buy back drops? I don't shoot portraits professional but my church school ask me if I would take a few pictures for our...

tita1948 Loc: North Idaho

Can anyone please give me suggestions on where to buy back drops? I don't shoot portraits professional but my church school ask me if I would take a few pictures for our school basketball team.

I don't want everyone to have the same background, (the wall) so I thought I would buy a back drop stand and one or two back drops.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

Try gift wrap or wall paper with a little blue tac. Practice at home so that you know where to position subjects and what f stop will blur the back drop if it has a pattern ( or use backing wall paper). Equally a couple of bed sheets would do quite adequately but are more difficult to hang up. As a one off shoot why go to too much expence.

George

tita1948 Loc: North Idaho

G Brown wrote:

Try gift wrap or wall paper with a little blue tac. Practice at home so that you know where to position subjects and what f stop will blur the back drop if it has a pattern ( or use backing wall paper). Equally a couple of bed sheets would do quite adequately but are more difficult to hang up. As a one off shoot why go to too much expence.

George

Thanks for the info.

cmikal

Ebay, unless you are in an extreme hurry. A lot of the photo stuff ships from Hong Kong or China, so it might take a few weeks to receive.

Try a fabric or craft store in your area. Either one should have felt or other material that should work.

Also try your local Home Depot, Lowes, or other hardware store, paint store, or home improvement store. They sell painters drop cloths. The good ones are a heavier canvas. Most of the ones that I've seen are a lighter tan, so this might not be ideal for what you are doing, but they are available in large sizes, which is desirable.

canon Lee

tita1948 wrote:

Can anyone please give me suggestions on where to buy back drops? I don't shoot portraits professional but my church school ask me if I would take a few pictures for our school basketball team.

I don't want everyone to have the same background, (the wall) so I thought I would buy a back drop stand and one or two back drops.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

I use http://www.owens-originals.com If you plan on doing a lot of team pictures I would suggest their "softees" wrinkle reduced backdrops. They also print custom backdrops any size, using your own image. You could take a shot at a game of the court with people in the stands as an example.
Some shoots I don't use a background, but use the court as my background. To get the basket in the shot you will need to lower the camera, & use a wide open aperture in order to blur out the background a bit. I would also suggest a printing company that does picture day printing ( memory mates,sports tickets,trading cards,magazine covers etc. http://www.centurycolor.com/contact/about.html You will have so much fun on this shoot. I built my business on youth sports clubs. You will need more than just a camera and flash as far as equipment.

tita1948 Loc: North Idaho

canon Lee wrote:

I use http://www.owens-originals.com If you plan... (show quote)

Yes this is true. I do have material that I can tape to a wall and crop real close. All good ideas. Thanks

wolfman

tita1948 wrote:

Can anyone please give me suggestions on where to buy back drops? I don't shoot portraits professional but my church school ask me if I would take a few pictures for our school basketball team.

I don't want everyone to have the same background, (the wall) so I thought I would buy a back drop stand and one or two back drops.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

B&H photo

tita1948 Loc: North Idaho

wolfman wrote:

B&H photo

Ok I'll try them. Thanks

Sherman A1 Loc: St. Louis, MO

cmikal wrote:

Ebay, unless you are in an extreme hurry. A lot of... (show quote)

Precisely, A fabric store is a good option and the drop cloth concept is also a great one!
:thumbup:

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

tita1948 wrote:

Can anyone please give me suggestions on where to buy back drops? I don't shoot portraits professional but my church school ask me if I would take a few pictures for our school basketball team.

I don't want everyone to have the same background, (the wall) so I thought I would buy a back drop stand and one or two back drops.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

You can go to Walmart or some of the Dollar stores and get drapes and widow curtains, in addition to gift wrap paper etc. Adorama, B&H and others have rolls of paper backdrops (I have the standard white, tan, blue, red, yellow, etc.) and a backdrop stand (consists of 2 tripods similar to light stands with a cross piece to hold the paper rolls... it also will hold the (inexpensive) drapes/curtains etc.

Donkas1946 Loc: Southern NH

Bought a used projection screen which is 5 feet by 5 feet on Craigslist for $10.00. Going to buy cheap white sheets and dye them various colors including camp for the outdoor enthusiast. Then just clamp them on the screen and then have a very portable backdrop for under 30.00. Hope this helps.

tita1948 wrote:

Yes this is true. I do have material that I can tape to a wall and crop real close. All good ideas. Thanks

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

I went to a haberdashers that sold fabric for Indian Sarees etc. Got the end of a bolt (2.5m x 1.5m) of some sort of heavy drape material with a semi satin finish on one side and a matte finish on the other for a song. So pleased with it that next time I'm passing I'll pop in for some more, in a champagne tone to complement the dark grey I've got.

blackest Loc: Ireland

Figure out how big a backdrop you need, some of those basket ball players can be very tall. You also need plenty of space between them and the backdrop and there is lighting too. Many gyms are quite low lit. Maybe you will find it easier and cheaper to find a good outdoor location.

Although worth considering outdoors a backdrop could be considered a sail and hard to control

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

tita1948 wrote:

Can anyone please give me suggestions on where to buy back drops? I don't shoot portraits professional but my church school ask me if I would take a few pictures for our school basketball team.

I don't want everyone to have the same background, (the wall) so I thought I would buy a back drop stand and one or two back drops.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

If you want different backdrops, you may try green screen. Actually you can use a grey background and accomplish the same thing. Here is the rub, you need to have a good program that can create a key. Such as photoshop, Photokey, or any other program that will allow you to remove a solid color. Then you simply add in any color background you want.

All depends on your PP program, and how good you are with it. When I shoot events, I can key out backgrounds in under one minute and add anything back in there I want. This is much cheeper than buying a bunch of backdrops, so long as you already have the PP software.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

I do a lot of off site photography. When I needed backdrops I went to Walmart and bought the cheapest flat king sized sheets I could find (started with black and white then added other colors as I thought I needed them).