blackest Loc: Ireland

I had a bit of an unfortunate experience with an ebay seller, who was supposed to send me a photographic back drop stand and backdrop but was unwilling to deliver ( well he blames his courier...).
As it stands now I am waiting for a refund from him which he says he couldn't do because paypal are holding the money, however paypal say that isn't a barrier to him making the refund.

After waiting for him to deliver and then his non response to my email I moved to stage one of the paypal buyer protection. At which point he spoke but only via ebay not paypal.

I think he was trying to get me to drop the paypal case but that would have left me with no protection at all, after talking to paypal they escalated it to a claim
which will mean either he refunds me soon or after 10 days paypal will do it for him. Just giving a little background on how to deal deal with a dodgy seller
after googling the vat number I was able to find complaints dating back to this seller under a number of names dating back to 2005.

Anyway I have found a local supplier for just the backdrop frame but backdrops will be extra, there is pretty much a choice of white black and green in either cotton muslin or vinyl. If you had to pick one to start with which would you go for? A cheaper option might be a flat sheet from a department store.

There is good reason to buy all 3 colours but my wallet says no not for a few more weeks yet at least. So which do I go for now?

sixshooter Loc: constitution state

Black muslin..most used hands down.

jlrivera Loc: Round Lake, Illinois

What is the vat number; what it means :?:

amehta Loc: Boston

:thumbup: doesn't seem to go with "hands down", so "I agree".

amehta Loc: Boston

I believe it's a European tax ID number, VAT is value added tax.

jlrivera Loc: Round Lake, Illinois

Oh! The sales tax. :-(
Thanks.

blackest Loc: Ireland

Yes there is a European website which enables you to find the company name attached to it and Companies House will help find the trading status of that company and former names too. In this case founded in 2002.

Once you have the company name google is pretty useful. I found complaints details of company directors alternative seller names used on ebay.

Some companies like to give their VAT number to indicate they really are where they say they are. Sometimes a chinese seller will try to say they are relatively local and give a false location. I use chinese sellers all the time but only up to a certain value and if I am prepared to wait. UK sellers are usually a bit more expensive but shipping is faster and any EU purchases don't attract additional customs duty or VAT or handling fee's because I am in the EU and its a common market.

Amazon is more of a problem for me since there is no amazon.ie I have to use amazon.co.uk and they still will not tell me if the product can ship until I have it in my basket and ready to pay for it.

I've had a few purchases which have gone a bit wrong on ebay usually just extremely slow shipping, which is acceptable, china post is a bit unreliable at times. Once a product was sent that wasn't what they said it was and once a remote for pentax was doa. both times the sellers refunded me with no problem. on a couple of slow shipping items i had to start a dispute with paypal but the seller came through in the end. So I've never had to go this far with a seller before.

Anyway black it will be this week :)

queencitysanta Loc: Charlotte, North Carolina

Don't use Backdrop Outlet

blackest Loc: Ireland

well I got a reasonable deal i got a full size black muslin a smaller green i think and a white vinyl which is small for photography but may be good for a projector screen. In the summer I may set it up outside for movies :)

OviedoPhotos

For head shots, Wescott has a line of 'drops called Xdrop. Easy to setup and tear down.

auspom Loc: Australia

I have found that the cheapest backdrop is a Roller Blind .
Easy to hang rolls away and can be painted with house Acrylic in any colour.

Crwiwy Loc: Devon UK

Thrift shop for a clean sheet? They worked OK when I tried it some time ago.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

My opinion is probably going to differ to others but here is my take on it.

Grey.

Get a grey backdrop...grey sheet...grey wall...whatever you want because your backdrop SHOULD be a blur so wrinkles won't matter...the fact that it's a wall shouldn't matter..etc.

Grey can be white, black or anything in between depending on how much light you throw on it vs your exposure.

You can also shoot colored gels on it and turn it other colors.


So if it were me, I'd get grey.

Here is a Gavin Hoey video showing what I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDGn4VzEOlU

Benttree Loc: GA.

blackest,
The most usable is medium gray paper 9'x100'. Coming on rolls and set on bar with stands. Roll paper is most useful and a most economical, practical solution. I do have on muslin black, green and white 10'X16' . The muslin is all of time full of wrinkles, black show all lint and dust on it. Stay way of these.
Medium gray paper serves tree most usable back ground colors in my studio. Gray paper turning white by pointing strobe or external flash to the paper as a back lite, and for to the black by leaving 6' + distance from your model, and no light pointed to the paper it will be black, for gray by adding just bit of light or spilling some from your main soft-box or use of reflector.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Original Post said only available colors are white, black, and green. I would go with white. If you underexpose the backdrop, you can actually get to black or almost black, add a couple of stops and you have gray, or, of course, you can actually use it as white. If you want a black backdrop, you really don't even need a backdrop. Just light the subject and flag your lights so absolutely no light falls on the background. There are plenty of youtube videos to explain how to do this. Gray would be my first choice, but since it wasn't one of the available colors, I would go with white. Just my 2 cents.