Building Flats

[Dman65]

Hello Al,

What I am going for is an indoor painted wall look. No seams like you get with paneling. Some of the images that I saw and liked can be seen here:
Michael Biondo in Rangefinder
Nice rich painted color. I am afraid paneling and such would produce a seam that would have to be dealt with.

[Dman65]

Thanks Marty. I think I have a good picture of what you are talking about.

[Dman65]

Thanks Tom, I will keep that in mind when I put them together.

[Al_Nowak]

Interesting article. Obviously he has something good going for himself with the backgrounds. I'd be interested in knowing what type of paint he uses on the muslin.

Yes, paneling, luan plywood, foamcore, wallboard, etc., are all going to have seams to deal with. I think the brick paneling I saw did a fair job of hiding the seam. But it wasn't the inexpensive brick paneling that looks printed, it actually had some depth and texture.

I'd like to try the muslin on a frame, but most of my indoor shooting is in the living room of my apartment. Kinda hard to deal with flats in that situation, storage space is already a major issue. Foamcore doesn't take much space, and stretching large fabric remnants over it avoids the painting and seam issues.

Good luck!

[Andy_Pearlman]

First off, most of the time when I use a flat, I only need one. I would use it as in the shot below where we applied stucco to a 1/4 plywood sheet attached to a wood frame as I mentioned above. Now this one was a little heavy but we slid it around the studio all the time. I painted it several times with different colors over the years and got a lot of use out of it. So, no seam here of course. Before Photoshop, if I had a seam, I would have the model stand in front of it, or if it were a room setting, decide to place the curtain over it. If it showed up in the shot, I would make sure the client had it retouched. Nowadays, I wouldn't worry about it, I'd just PS it. Its the easiest and fastet way to deal with it.

Jaime Bergman w/ ringflash



Regards,
Andy Pearlman
Andy Pearlman Studio