Make photography backdrops from bed sheets.
When you're getting started in photography, buying equipment can make your checking account dwindle quickly. Save on start-up costs by making your own photography backdrops from thick bed sheets. Splurge on 800 to 1,000 thread-count white sheets to create a durable photography prop at a fraction of the cost of a canvas backdrop. These luxury-level sheets are thick enough to keep light from penetrating and ruining your images, yet soft enough to keep subjects comfortable when seated on the backdrop.
Instructions
1. Unfold the new sheet. Use scissors to remove the stitching along the narrow sides of the decorative, overlapped fabric at the head of the sheet. This creates a pocket for a rod to slide through to hang your backdrop.
2. Wash the sheet using laundry detergent to remove all fabric softeners, pesticides and mold-inhibitors applied by the manufacturing company. A clean sheet absorbs dye easier.
3. Fill a 5-gallon bucket with water and a dye packet by following the measurement instructions on the dye packet. Choose a neutral-colored dye such as brown, tan, gray or black.
4. Roll the sheet in a random, tousled bundle. Do not neatly fold the sheet. You want the dye to appear darker in some areas, and lighter in others to give the backdrop texture.
5. Press the bed sheet down into the bucket. Liquid should cover the entire sheet. Use the recommended soaking times on the packet of dye.
6. Remove the photo backdrop from the bucket, ring out excess liquid and hang the sheet outside on a clothes line to air dry. Once it is damp-dry, place it in a clothes dryer on the high heat setting. This will set the color into the fabric.
7. Hang the photo backdrop by sliding a portable photography backdrop cross-rod through the opening in the top of the sheet. Mount the rod to two backdrop stands. Or, in a pinch, hang the backdrop from a curtain rod attached to a window.
Tags: backdrop from, backdrops from, enough keep, photo backdrop, photography backdrops
