Fabric Photography Sweep

Want to take pictures that look clean and professional.  Use this easy photo backdrop to enhance the quality of your photos.

We have a paper photo sweep in the office, but since I make a lot of my projects at home I wanted a space where I could take nice pictures.  This photography sweep is easy to set up and very affordable.  Unlike our photo sweep in the office (frenzy made a great instructable on it - see here), mine uses fabric instead of paper.  I figured this would be more affordable because when the sweep gets dirty I can just throw it in the wash.

Step 1: Materials

Fabric - 2 yards, I used cotton duct fabric, the best fabric to use are ones that don't wrinkle that much and are mat so there wont be too much reflection from a flash.  I bought black and white fabric so I can switch them out.  Buy any fabric that you want - solids and patters!
2 Cup Hooks
Dowel Rod - 4 feet
Drill

Comments

[MrBillG59]

A) That's cotton duck fabric.

B) If you've got a few extra bucks, go to Home Depot and buy a 2' x 4' sheet of white Formica (kitchen counter laminate). Before it is glued to your counter it is very flexible. It is also clean and kind of shiny. When you bend it, it never has a wringle and is very easily cleaned of the natural kinds of stuff like dust that will accumulate on any white horizontal surface.

[spuma1]

This is a great idea. Could you please tell me where I should look for "cotton duct" fabric? Does it go by any other names?

Thanks!

[lancer525]

Spuma, I think the OP means Cotton "Duck" instead of "duct". (Another pet peeve of mine is when people refer to "duct tape" as "duck tape" to the point that the company decided to brand "duck tape", but that's another story.

Cotton Duck is a bleached muslin or twill fabric that is similar to denim or canvas. Canvas is the heaviest weight of these fabrics, followed by denim, followed by duck, followed by broadcloth. Quilters use a lighter weight broadcloth called "batiste".

I also think the OP means "matte" instead of "mat", but what they really mean is "unpolished". Fabric has some unusual terminology.

TMI, but I hope this helps.

[Adam Manick]

Keep up the good work.

[scoochmaroo]

My paper sweeps are always getting messy. This is a great idea. I would probably need to make them twice as long, as I often get them messy in the middle of shooting something and need to unroll more paper!