Basement Studio Advice

I have a finished basement. It's a good sized room but not great height. I am not a professional photographer but want a place to take pictures indoors of friends, dogs, etc... And for my daughter to do her Youtube videos. I have no DIY skills. I am thinking about buying a backdrop frame, a couple of back drops and a couple of floor drops. Any suggestions on size? What is the difference between muslin and canvas? Thanks for any advice.

JulieCafaro wrote in post #17743815
I have a finished basement. It's a good sized room but not great height. I am not a professional photographer but want a place to take pictures indoors of friends, dogs, etc... And for my daughter to do her Youtube videos. I have no DIY skills. I am thinking about buying a backdrop frame, a couple of back drops and a couple of floor drops. Any suggestions on size? What is the difference between muslin and canvas? Thanks for any advice.

Size of room? Budget?

Yup your budget and actual size of room will help a lot. Muslin is a PITA in my opinion if you want a wrinkle free drop. I started with muslin as it was cheaper and I figured I would work with it or iron it or steam it or something .... 3 months later I purchased seamless paper because I was tired of photoshopping out wrinkles.

Is your installation going to be permanent, or does it need to be taken down and moved around?

Hanging a pipe/rod on the wall or ceiling is a lot cheaper than buying a decent background support system. If you don't need to take it down or take it on location anywhere, that's what I'd recommend.

The room is about 12 by 14. Walls are a very pale yellow with recessed lighting. I have some lights but will have to see how that works. I thought I would get a back drop holder, two back drops and two floor drops and was hoping to keep it around $600.

Is canvas any better than muslin? I was afraid to get paper thinking it would get ripped.

Never thought of making it permanent. Not sure I want to commit to that. And if you did mount a rod, how would you change the backgrounds? Would it be like a big curtain rod?

the difference in size is dependent on how many people you plan to shoot in each picture. Small seamless paper is 53 inches, you can get only one person in there, so you will want to go up to 107" to get more people in the shot. Savage seems to be expanding their printed paper line you might want to check it out.

here is how I hang my seamless, would work for muslin too if you go that route. I like paper (or something like vellum) because it is nice and flat.

here is my 2 background holders: https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1407928

Thanks for sharing that. Very helpful. Now I understand how those clamps are used too.

Paper is pretty tough stuff I used the same section of my roll for 8 shoots, 2 of those were stripper pole sessions where I had girls spinning on a poll and dancing around. The others were boudoir where I moved chairs and beds on and off the paper. I only cut off about 6 feet after I walked on it with dirty shoes and decided it was not worth trying to clean up.

Paper sounds interesting. Any suggestions of where I can buy this stuff online?

Amazon, B&H, Adorama all have it. If your an Amazon Prime member I believe you can get it shipped free. About $40 on Amazon for a 53" wide roll. That should be wide enough for baby photography.

Thanks!

If you want to go with muslin just remember that the set up will be different. To keep muslin free of wrinkles and waves you need to do two things. First, you need to steam it (this doesn't take long), then you need to stretch it. That's what muslin clamps are for. I have a pair of 2x4s running up the wall, offset from the wall with a short section of 2x4 under each. The short section is screwed into the wall using deck screws as they are long and skinny so don't leave big holes. The full length boards are then secured to the short pieces on each side. Then I have my background hanger attached at the top. The muslin is stretched and clamped all the way down each side.

You can kinda see what it looks like in this shot:

IMAGE LINK: http://s103.photobucke​t.com …2271_zpsv0rweep​q.jpg.html

Thanks for this. I am a newbie and know nothing! So this is all good stuff to think about before I decide on what my set up will be.