If you have decided to try your hand at studio photography, you have probably had to deal with getting a background. And yes, some of those backgrounds are high dollar. And you probably looked around and figured out that you could get a king-sized bed sheet at the dollar store for $12. Ha ha! You just saved yourself a couple of hundred dollars. Wow, I’m so impressed with your ingenuity that I have this lovely cone-shaped hat for you. Put it on and sit in the corner.
All kidding aside, it saddens me to see bedsheets used as backgrounds. Mainly because the photographs I’m seeing have backgrounds so wrinkled that it looks like the sheet was balled up under the bed of a 15 year old. Seriously? Get a damn iron.The bed sheet may have been cheap … I mean affordable, but if you don’t take the time and effort to iron out the wrinkles, the resulting photos are just going to look bad.
Furthermore – when you think of all the times you’re going to have to iron the sheet, do yourself a favor and get a roll of white seamless paper. Eventually you’re going to break down and do this, anyway and you will be so happy you did that you will be mad at yourself for not doing it sooner.
Most pros use white seamless paper or else they will buy a large piece of white vinyl made specifically for photography purposes. They’re pretty pricey, so I’d recommend you get the paper.
I buy all mine at B&H photo. I get the Savage super white 107″ rolls, which are $45 plus shipping.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/552037-REG/Savage_66_12_107_x_12yds_Background.html
And put the damn sheets back on the bed!
If the skill level is only at the bed sheet stage, then getting white seamless paper is going to be useless. They will have no clue why it come out grey in their photo. It will be highly unlikely they will have the proper lighting and know how to overexpose the paper for white. So if they are going to have an ugly background anyway, it might as well be a wrinkled bed sheet.
I haven’t done it, but I read somewhere that a dark grey flannel sheet works well. Has anyone tried it? Is this the exception? I haven’t seen any dark grey flannel sheets around anyway.
Saw the title “Bed Sheets Belong on Beds” and nearly shouted “Amen!” out loud…. seriously. My biggest pet peeve with corner cutting photographers is the horrible bed sheet draped over the couch and the couch lit with “studio lighting” from a pop flash.
… and people pay for that kind of horror photo of their new baby.
You’re preachin’ to the wootness choir – amen!
Ha Ha HA! : )
I have never used a bed sheet for pictures.
Thank goodness!
I never did either, but when I first started, I bought a black background and a white background from a cheap background place. When they arrived, they looked like king-sized sheets. They were horrible. They’re stuck in a box in the basement. I can’t bring myself to offer them to someone else. They’ll probably make good drop cloths for the floor when I paint the dining room. 😉