The drawbacks would be that the canvas is thinner and lower quality.

The cheaper option would be to get a 9×12 canvas drop cloth from Home Depot for less than $10. There are a couple of options for the canvas itself. Fabric softener I got at the grocery store, and the needles, thread, and thimble were from a local fabric store (I’m sure you could also find them at Michael’s).

Several paint stir sticks (usually free at hardware stores)Īlmost all of the items were purchased at Home Depot.

5 gallon bucket/s for mixing the base colors – $5.

Sponges and brushes for texturizing – $10.

Small containers for mixing accent colors (I used yogurt containers, my answer to all of life’s little quandaries).

Lots of rags (FYI, cheap cloth diapers are the world’s best rags).

I used my studio space, but if you don’t have that or don’t want to block off a few days of use in it for the project, a garage floor or hard-surfaced basement floor would work. You’ll need a rather large place to work since the backdrop will be painted on the floor and you’ll want at least a couple of feet surrounding it on which to work.

I’m sure there are about a million ways to paint a backdrop, but seeing what I’ve done may give you a great starting point.īefore you make a trip to Home Depot, the first thing to consider is where you’re going to be working on this project. There may be ideas of mine that you use or you may come up with your own little tricks. In this post, I’m going to tell you all about my process from beginning to end for those people out there who’d like to try it. There was a lot of creative problem solving along the way, and it’s a nice change of pace getting to work with a physical medium again when I’ve gotten so used to the world of digital photography and all those hours in front of a computer. Beginning to end, I had a great time working on these backdrops.

Recently, I set about doing it!Īlong the way, I made plenty of mistakes and learned a few things that may be helpful for others out there who are embarking on this project. While they’re certainly worth every penny, I’ve always wanted to try my own hand at creating a similar look for my studio. But so do Annie Leibovitz and the rest of the world, so their price tag is justifiably out of reach in the thousands of $$. As pretty much every portrait photographer out there, I’ve always adored the look of Oliphant’s custom hand-painted canvas backdrops.

Plain backdrops for photography