why is muslin background so expensive?

Ok...its not thousands of dollars. But for a piece of cloth with some paint, it can be expensive. Why?

hand painted...labor cost

Because someone will buy it. I have gotten a beautiful background that I bought full price $180, then 1 month later bought another beautiful background off ebay for $25 free shipping. Same quality, same cloth, different picture on each.

http://www.diyphotogra​phy.net …in-photography-background

Doesnt have to be.

A-ha. Why paint it if you can stain it!

Probably because there's not a huge demand for it and they can charge a higher price. Those who need it will pay the higher price.

i will not support muslin extremists!

Because every time you order one, the guys at B&H have to fire up the time machine and go back to the 80's to get it from the manufacturer. That time machine fuel isn't cheap.

Cesium wrote in post #12787093
Because every time you order one, the guys at B&H have to fire up the time machine and go back to the 80's to get it from the manufacturer. That time machine fuel isn't cheap.

Evidently they haven't upgraded to "mr. Fusion." 2.1 gigawatts is nothing with mr. Fusion.

gonzogolf wrote in post #12786425

Not the greatest photo, and it needed to be ironed, but here is a sample of my DIY background

Very nice!

rxjohn wrote in post #12787250
Very nice!

It looks better with a little light on it, but the only photo I had handy was a one-light quicky of my nieces.

gonzogolf wrote in post #12786425
Not the greatest photo, and it needed to be ironed,

Rather than literally ironing, which is a real pain on a large background, we use a steamer. Takes just a few minutes for it to take out any wrinkles and looking like new. This is not the exact same unit we have but similar.

I have a selection of 8 muslin backgrounds and while they aren't cheap they are good quality. I tried the diy method and they didn't look right for my liking. Anyone that is going to be in the business will find that these are a good investment and in the overall scheme of things are not that expensive given how long they do last with proper care.

I've steamed it, and I've ironed it. In the case of they tie dye process it needs to be ironed once.

The real key for nice looking portrait backgrounds is to get some distance (6 to 10 feet minimum) between the subject(s) and the background. That way, you can blur the background a bit. If you stuff the muslin into a bag randomly (the more random the better), the wrinkles don't even show as wrinkles with the blurring.

In addition, you can light the background and use colored gels to change the color to your heart's content. I typically use a dark grey mottled muslin for this purpose and I can make it appear to be almost any color that I want it to look like. By varying the light intensity I can change the brightness of the background over quite a range as well.