One of the best places you can go for photographic equipment is your local hardware store. Bungie cords, tarps, and various other items that can be transformed into valuable photography equipment. For today’s post you’ll need to steer your shopping cart to the paint department. All a professional background is is a large piece of cloth with some type design painted/dyed on it, or it may be a solid color. However, many photographers, at least those that go for a more timeless look, will use a simple canvas background. Canvas provides a neutral color background that help the subject pop, but it also provides a texture even when working with a relatively shallow depth of field.

If you go to a fabric store ultra-wide canvas can be quite expensive, running 100.00 for a 9′x7′ seamless piece. For some pros this seamless quality is worth the extra money, but with the advances of digital post-processing a little fabric seam can be removed in seconds. With this in mind, enter the aforementioned paint department and look for the canvas painter’s drop cloth. These run in two larger sizes, the most commons ones being 10′ x 12′ and 8′ x 9′, with the larger being priced between 24.99 and 29.00 depending on your area. The smaller on is usually priced from 17.99 to 19.99. It’s an excellent deal when compared to the 100.00 of the fabric store canvas.

However, quoting countless TV infomercials, “But, wait, there’s more!” A large canvas is just like any other fabric, meaning it can be painted or dyed, just like those other multi-hundred dollar backdrops. If you happen to be handy with some spraypaint, or even regular paints you can create a wholly unique background that only your studio has. You can also custom tailor the background for your subject, and even charge a premium for the service.

Below is an example using a plain canvas backdrop that I bought in a local hardware store for 18.99 plus tax. As you can see with some simple retouches you can get an alternate color to the neutral tone that is inherent to common cotton canvas. You can look at the other images in my gallery and my flickr page for other examples of this look. I tend to use this plain background because it is a timeless look, with no tacky background graphics to date the picture. You can also see the subtle texture that the un-ironed canvas gives to the image which adds elements of depth.

I had planned for this to be a photo free weekend, so I left the tripod at home. It might seem strange, but I find I don’t take photography as seriously if I don’t have my tripod along. My framing and “capturing the light” skills still hold, but without a tripod I feel like my photography takes on a much more “playful” tone, and play is always good for the soul. But, my photo-free weekend didn’t happen since I did have my camera with me. Just a few of the best things though. So this leads into my rules of Photography that Illl be expounding on each day for the next several days. So stay tuned for them all.

Rule 1# If you have your camera with you, you have your tripod … period. This might seem like a no-brainer but the tripod is key to sharp pictures. I know, “but but my pictures seem pretty sharp and I dont use a tripod.” You CAN get sharp pics w/o a tripod, but never as sharp as they COULD be with a tripod. I have even gotten acceptable shots at 1/8sec hand held, but the trick is to brace yourself, hold your breath, and then shoot several shots. Hopefully one of them will come out sharp. However, the real trick is to not find yourself having to do this. USE a tripod or a monopod if space doesn’t allow its three legged brethern.

I won’t wax long on the types of tripod you should get, I will say buy the best one you can afford that you will use regularly. Buying a 1000.00 tripod is a waste if you aren’t going to use it as much as humanly possible. For those who ARE looking for tips, I suggest the following.

Manfrotto tripod with a ball head. You can get these in a kit for about 200.00US. Trust me, for someone who shoots alot on uneven ground, a ball head will save your sanity. If you don’t shoot on uneven ground, a pan/tilt head is acceptable but overall I still prefer the ball head for its ease of use and application in the field. While the Manfrotto tripod/heads are the best cost to quality ratio in my opinion, there are other choices such as Gitzo and Slik. Both also make excellent tripods, in fact the Gitzo mountaineer carbon fiber models are considered, by many, to be the creme-de-la-creme of tripods. But again, the best tripod for you is one you’ll actually use, but again, try not to be too frugal in getting one, it’ll pay off in the long run.

For those REALLY new people, I suggest buying gear from B&H Photo or Adorama. All of my gear has been purchased from these two locations, and they come highly recommended by me.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you tomorrow.

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