Gray Backdrop - Best Material

Looking to build my own gray backdrop. Rather than buy it from BH or Adorama, I was thinking of going to Walmart and getting some gray material. What kind of material works best for backdrops?

Do you mean painting your own? Or buying something ready to hang?

If you want to paint your own, heavy cotton canvas (raw) is the way to go. If you can, staple it to the floor and use a roller on an extension pole. It'll take a few layers and you can get creative with mottling in different shades of gray if you want an Oliphant or Schmidlii look (can be tricky to get just right and it can take several layers of paint).

If you are wanting to just buy some gray fabric, then I'd say get something relatively heavy. Start in the upholstery fabric section and see if there's anything there that would work. Plain cotton in a single color will be an ongoing battle with wrinkles.

The biggest problem you'll have with buying fabric is that it is almost always only 4 to 5 feet wide, maximum.

tried this route, ended up buying paper.

Home made backdrops may seem like a cheap way to go but my experience is not so much.

That said, check hobby lobby. My wife gets upholstery fabric there which is very thick and durable. Lots of options

Another option is JoAnns. They sell automotive headliner material that is foam backed. My wife uses that to make padded cases for me. Good stuff and comes in gray.

Gray seamless paper (Savage's Thunder Gray is a popular choice).

My go-to for basic business-style headshots is a couple yards of slightly-stretchy faux-suede from Joann's. Downside is that it's not very wide - fine for headshots, not much else. It's about the same width as the standard backdrop paper (53"). Store it loosely wadded - not folded - and when you clamp it to the stands, most of the wrinkles stretch out, and the remaining ones are not objectionable. Doesn't look like I have any behind-the-scenes shots in my flickr.

IKEA also has a decent fabric selection. If you know your way around, you can use the self-service to cut it yourself, or there's usually an employee in the area.

None of these are perfect substitutes for high-quality hand-painted backdrops, but they're an order of magnitude less expensive.

Better off buying a grey canvas cloth background then you can blow it out for white underexpose it for black or any shade in between or gel it for color

if you're just looking for something cheap, try Amazon. There are lots of backdrops on there for nearly as cheap as you'd pay to buy materials and make your own, depending on the size.