What Are These Boards? — Photo Studio Backdrop

[ryanstrong]

Taken from A.P.C.'s Spring 2011 catalog, take a look at their little studio set up - and then see the final product. I am wanting the exact same setup.

The setup...


The final product...


The mystery to me is not the boards overhead or on the sides as those I believe to be just simple foam core board, what I am wondering about is what is being used as the backboard and the floorboard?

Most sheets of whatever material come in 8' x4'... tall enough, but not wide enough for a full body product shot - what's pictured here is looks to be maybe a 8' x 6'.

Any thoughts on a) what is being used here? and b) where can I get it?

[Rob C]

Speaking for myself, I don't think I'd pay to have such narrow backgrounds. If you have a studio of your own, two other choices seem preferable to me: standard studio paper rolls; a hard, specially constructed floor/wall curve fixed against one wall that you can give a quick once-over with a coat of emulsion after the end of the day. Of course, your need may be portability, but then I'd still go for the paper rolls and supports.

Rob C

[Ken Bennett]

Looks like a 4x8 foot sheet of white board that you can buy at a lumber store. Something like this:

http://tinyurl.com/637gfqr

But with a smooth finish. I've seen these used for full-length white backdrop photos, even when using a white paper background.

Edit: not sure from the photo but it looks like those are not much wider than 4 feet.

[ryanstrong]

Thanks for the input guys... here is my reasoning for wanting to go this route:

I do not want paper as I do not want the "seamless" look. I like seeing the horizon of the floor to the wall. It gives it a space that the subject stands in, versus the seamless. Also I have a limited space to shoot in. I have tried shooting full-body shots on 53" wide seamless (generally used for headshots) and when cropped you see the room on the left and the right... it's not wide enough. And I'm shooting with a 50mm lens.

Also, K Bennett, there is no way those are 4x8. They would have to be totally rectangle, they are for sure 6x8. The question is... 6x8 of what?

Another question... looking at the finished product, is the foam core overhead really doing something?

[John Camp]

I don't think they are six feet wide -- they might be five feet, at most. Look at the height of the kid in red -- if he's six feet tall, then from his feet to his waist is no more than three feet. The panel isn't too much wider than that. In any case, you can get aluminum composite panels painted bright white on one side, and often used for signs, called Dibond, in sheets of up to 60x96 inches, of 5x8 feet. It's quite light and durable and stiff, and not too expensive. If you need bigger panels than that, you could always make fabric panels -- I think that might be a fabric panel on the aluminum frame in the foreground. These, you could make to almost any size and durability you wish. If you want to do it cheaply, you can buy polyester canvas in widths up to 40 feet (!) and almost any length, used in theater productions, mount them on frames, and paint them with acrylic gesso. That will give you a fairly white, seamless and reasonably durable surface. You can also buy stock sheets of white mylar plastic in rolls of up to 60 inches wide by 100 inches long, and mount them on frames.