Stretching The Photography Dollar

Having built my skills as well as my arsenal of photography equipment from the ground up, I have always had a fond appreciation for discovering new ways to stretch my investment dollars and time while avoiding the cheap feel or look.

With this in mind, I recently have been working on collecting studio equipment such as strobes, umbrellas, back drops and various support systems. As I was recently shopping around for backgrounds, I quickly realized they are not cheap. A trip to a few local camera shops in search of 26 foot muslins quickly produced expensive results.

After shopping around, I reached the conclusion that I could spend $150 on a high quality cloth background or $40 on a 10ft roll of paper.

I was left wondering what I should do, then it hit me! Stretch your dollar!

I decided on the more expensive up-front option and purchased a 26ft cloth muslin. My rationale was that the cloth would be more durable than paper, easier to store, convenient to transport, and was long enough to cover a seat/stool with room to spare. Most importantly, it could be flipped over to reveal a second side which offered a second shade of color that could be used to add versatility to my background selections.

The samples above were shot with the same cloth background.

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