What type of paint is best used for backdrops? Flat , Satin, or Gloss? I’m looking to paint the backdrop on the new layout and I’m curious what everyone is using. I’m looking at a latex based paint. Thanks.
Flat latex is generally used.
I used flat latex. For shade differences I use acylic craft paint to tint the latex.
Flat is the only way to fly. Anything glossy will have shiny spots where lights reflect off it. The only shiny spot in the real sky is the sun.
Flat, and I have found the cheaper the better.
Ron
Flat.
And if you go to Home Depot, they now seem to be pushing anyone who says “flat” to get “flat enamel” - which isn’t true fully flat, but has just a hint of gloss. If I’m recalling correctly, that’s a new level of gloss. I don’t recall anything between flat and eggshell in the past…
When I went in, they were pretty aggressive about it. They asked, I said “flat”, they said “are you sure,” I said “yes,” they said “flat enamel is easier to clean…,” I said “flat”… eventually they gave in and “allowed” me to buy just flat…
So stick to your guns. Flat paint doesn’t make reflection spots, hides imperfections better than any kind of sheen, and is cheapest (probably why they pu***he $2.00 a gallon more semi-flat thing). That’s what you want.
All the backdrops shown as examples and/or described are painted to resemble blue or light gray sky with or without distant landscapes. The problems with this approach appear to be that because most of us are not sufficiently skilled artists, the backdrops fall short of realism and even if we are, the lighting almost inevitably casts shadows from scenery and equipment features against the backdrop, killing the illusion. Has anyone tried a plain black or deep charcoal gray backdrop? After all, the fascias are not painted to resemble foreground landscaping, and our layouts are obviously models/ stage sets. Why not call a spade a spade and try a form of black-box to frame the setting?
Can a digital photo blown up to the dimensions of the background be used? Seems a real photo of a far away distant object (mountain, city skyline, whatever, etc., ) might be more realistic than just light, flat blue, with a few clouds painted in. Just a question. Has anyone tried this before?
Mike S.
yes this has been done , it works very well when done well . if i could find an example i’d post it
try going to a paint store and ask if they have any mismatched paint they would like to give away or sell cheap. If you box some of them together you will get earth tones.
glenn
Ereimer:
Thanks. I just needed to know if it was possible (or plausible) that it could be done. You probably won’t find anything to post because not too many have done this. I remember seeing this very topic in a MR issue back in the early ninety’s, way before digital photography. So it CAN be done, but how realistic is the finished product? I am going to ask one of my company’s advertising exec’s photo experts about this. I think he can come up with something.
Mike S.
Actually Mike there was an article only a few months ago in MR using and describing how to use digital pics for the backdrop.
I always thought it was quite common, especially in city or industrial scenes. Also the comercially produced backdrops are just blown up digipics, although expensive they look good.
Have fun & Be safe
Karl
Further to ereimer’s comments. I went up on my roof on a day with blue sky and fluffy white cumulous clouds. I put my 5 MP digital camera on a tripod and rotated it 360 degrees snapping off shots with a slight overlap. I held a lens from a pair of polaroid sun glasses over the camera lens to darken the sky a little and enhance the clouds. They came out fabulous. I will be using Photoshop to further tweak them and then use one of the panorama software apps to make a continous strip. In my opinion, if you want real looking clouds, this is the only way to get real looking clouds because they ARE real clouds. Then I can add the hills and buildings or whatever to hide the bottom edge of the printout. Incidently, my most realistic layout had no clouds in the sky. I started with a very light (almost white) blue at the bottom and using a wide brush I kept adding a little more dark sky blue as I worked my way to the top. If it is a little streaky it looks more realistic. At the very top it was all dark sky blue. Everyone who saw my layout said that the sky looked so realistic, how did you do that? Experiment with a piece of cardboard and you will see what it looks like.
Thanks Ukguy.
If/when I ever get to that point of layout construction, I will check that issue out.
Mike
The purpose of typically painting the fascia a darker, monotone hue, is to purposely direct the observer’s gaze into the scene above it. This would not work in reverse, where the background was dark. Most likely it would serve only to create the impression of an approaching severe storm or a generally surrealistic aura to scene.
CNJ831
“The purpose of typically painting the fascia a darker, monotone hue, is to purposely direct the observer’s gaze into the scene above it. This would not work in reverse, where the background was dark. Most likely it would serve only to create the impression of an approaching severe storm or a generally surrealistic aura to scene.”
Perhaps; however, if a dark, monotone fascia focuses attention on the modeled scene, should not the black background do the same? And avoid the close-but-not-quite character of an attempt at a realistic background spoiled by shadows and perspective that is incorrect except from one viewing angle? Haven’t tried the black approach - has anyone?
photographic backdrops:
http://www.sceniking.com/catalogue4.htm
rolls of styrene (choose “cut to size”, 18"Wx10’L=$15):
http://www.interstateplastics.com/detail.aspx?ID=StyrenesheetGP-SB1012
Recent MRR had article on mounting this; staple scrap to wood then use glue).
If you want to try splicing your own photos together (and have a plotter):
http://www.wfu.edu/~matthews/misc/pano/pan.htm
I downloaded a program called Huge Picture Splicer and made a couple of backdrop pics from my digital. With practice I will get better. It cost me $9.00 and I found it someplace on the internet. I brought back some great scenery pics from Arizona I plan to practice on. If you try it, let us know what you learn.
We used cheap flat latex from Wally World for the sky and artist acrylics for the scenery. I’m certainly no artist, but a reasonable backdrop isn’t hard to do.
