Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Just curious to see what your preference is when it comes to backgrounds for a portable studio, muslin or seamless?

Which one is more portable? Easier to "assemble" and "disassemble"?

My preference is for seamless. With muslin, you need some distance from the background and subject and good lighting to avoid the wrinkles from showing. With seamless you have a bit more flexibility for a clean background and it also easier to gel than muslin. Mind you, muslin is a lot easier to transport than a 9' roll of seamless.

On a strictly "portable" basis, the muslin is a hands down choice. But, is a pain to deal with the wrinkles and fall of the fabric, and typically results in a lot more post production work ($). Not sure what you're shooting, but if you can get away with the 53" seamless that's the way to go. Then again, I regularly transport the 9' rolls around in my Honda Civic (fits trunk to windshield!!). Food for thought...

Oh, forgot to mention, if you're doing full body work (fashion/glamour) stuff, you'll start pulling your hair out with the work that's required to clean up the floor area where the model is standing.

I would have to recommend muslin.

Paper is the biggest pain. It gets dirty, it's challenging to use without an assistant, and it's also fairly expensive (I think my 5', 40 foot roll was about 40-50). I've found the need for even wider (they make them in 9' and even 13'), but I can't work with it. It's just the biggest pain, it pulls the paper, etc.

To avoid some postwork, get a big white muslin, and use DOF to kill the background and work on the feet. Usually I'm in PS removing OOF blemishes anyways....