is this normal? how can I fix this background paper?

I just got my new black 107" background paper from Colorama http://www.colorama-photo.com/ .

The problem is that the paper is showing so many wrinkles and bends that its practically useless. here is an example where I over exposed by two stops:

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I never noticed it, and i use paper rolls quite often (standard size 2,7m) Could you see the wrinkles when you opened the backbround and "unrolled" it ?

A "fix" would be to add some blur to the background in ps, by a mask selection. (not one i would want to do though..)

Does the paper show those wrinkles when viewed by naked eye? I assume it does. I haven't seen brand new paper do this.

Thanks for the fast feedback.

I am inspecting the paper role from both sides, the lite and dark side, and yes I can see all the wrinkles and bends in the paper.

Should I role up the paper and inspect the paper in its wrapped state for any problems? Hope my question makes sense.

is your room humid?

I would reject it and demand a new one, if the wrinkles are visible by the naked eye, its not up to spec. The whole point of having a seamless pape bg is that it should be uniform and smooth.

Kindest

yes the weather is very very humid, has humidity an effect on the paper? The dealer I bought it from might have stored the paper in a very humid environment for a very long time. Do I have any hope in fixing?

As for returning, it looks like that's what I will have to try to do, though there is not much customer service in the ME region to count on.

Why not rip off the wrinkled part? Does the entire roll look like this, or only the first few feet of it?

I think you are on to something. Just a tiny bit of moisture will make paper wrinkle like that. I know it is going to be painful to exchange this based on your location, but I will still try to return it.

true, especially that the role cost a whopping $133!!!! and that is the only dealer that carries paper backdrops. I figured paying $133 is cheaper than paying $45 plus $150 shipping but I guess this little adventure will prove me wrong.

Funny thing about the humidity, when I shipped my calumet paper from the US to my location I shipped it in the winter. Although it was used paper it arrived in better shape than this paper.

If your background light is close to the background, much of it will be illuminated at an accute angle which will tend to amplify the texture of the paper.

Using multiple background lights (perhaps one on each side) and moving them further out so they hit more directly, will reduce or eliminate the problem.

Thanks for the tip, I put it to the test and below are the results:

Light at double the distance:

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forget putting your lights a at a distance - the paper should not have any wrinkles at all. Slight horizontal fold-lines can arise if you store the roll laying flat but nothing like the picture you've shown.

Hermes wrote in post #8432554
forget putting your lights a at a distance -

Thanks for the input, but what do you mean by that line?

abdul10000 wrote in post #8432604
Thanks for the input, but what do you mean by that line?

That you shouldn't be getting wrinkles, regardless of what distance your background lights are at. You shouldn't have to move the lights further away and ruin your lighting scheme just to get a flat looking background.

Personally, I have walls painted black, grey, e.t.c. in my studio which I use over seamless for most things nowadays as they are far less hassle to work with, but if you are going to pay money for seamless paper then you should absolutely expect it to be straight and wrinkle-free.

As others have mentioned, your background has the classic look of having been ruined by moisture / humidity.