Monday 18 June 2012

Homemade Photography Background




Lee  & Tash

I have been looking at various options for a photography background from the well known brands to just different designs on sheets, the large branded ones are expensive and the bed sheets and things are limited to their size and proportions. So i looked at material and decided to buy some extra wide dye sheeting. This is about 2.5 X 5 meters or 8.5 X 16.5 feet. The size is perfect for any type of portrait work from a single portrait, couples or small family groups. The length is ideal for full length shots as the background simply fills the frame into the foreground , as shown below.


Full length portrait
The material i purchased was at a cost of £29 i then purchased some dye. The idea was to screw the material up and dye it in a bucket, however the material was larger than i thought and i didn't have a large enough bucket so into the sink it went. The dye was antique grey, to the dye you have to add 500g of salt as a fixer. I filled sink with hot tap water added the 500g of salt stirred until salt had dissolved and then added the dye again stirred and then placed material into the sink. Just gently push material into water if you want a tie dye effect so not to move water around to much. Left it for half an hour. Then with rubber gloves removed material into the largest bucket i had and took it to the bathroom to wash material out in the bath. Not a bad result but for me it was to light and wanted a darker shade. So i repeated the dye process. However this time the material was darker but i lost most of the mottled tie dye effect. So to give the background some texture and interest i got some acrylic titanium white paint. Took a paint brush and cut the bristles at different lengths. I then started to hand paint the white markings.

Not totally happy with the look and may still add another colour and or different applicator to achieve a different look.

The total cost was about £45 but for the size is a huge saving and its unique. If you are more artistic than me i am sure you can create some wonderful backdrops.

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2 comments:

  1. This is very nice blog. I got meaningful information from this. Keep it up.
    Thank you for this great post and i have bookmarked your blog..

    Photography Background

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    Replies
    1. Thank ypu, i am glad someone out there is at least looking at it. It is hard to judge how many people actualy read ant of my blogs but glad you found at least one thing of interest

      Lee

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