Your feelings of Muslin in portraits?

[Snakekilla]

To me muslins feel very out of date backdrops and just doesn't feel modern at all. What do you guys who strictly use only seamless paper and guys who use mostly muslin think?

[GreggObst]

I love the white seamless for just about everything in the studio. It's cheap and very versatile since you can keep it white or make it go grey or black just with lighting and a copious use of the inverse square law. You can also gel your backdrop flashes and turn it any color you want.

but.... I wouldn't shoot my Grandmother on white seamless. For shots like that, I pull out the muslin otherwise it just doesn't feel "right".

[rjbradbury]

Personally can't stand the things and will not use them. Give me white, grey or black paper any day.

[scootermcq]

I have one.... never use it. All my portrait work I shoot on black or white paper.

[Xposurepro]

Looking dated has nothing to do with the material of the background .. looking dated is a design issue .. are you spending $100 on a muslin or $1000 .. are you buying muslins off ebay or from some lame mass warehouse distributor or are you buying from smaller top-end designers who custom paint each order?

The best thing is to offer variety. We use muslin, canvas, seamless paper, printed backgrounds on paper, wallpaper, random fabrics, metal sheets, tiles, wood. If you use just one thing all the time you will just end up looking like everybody else who just uses one thing all the time. Mix it up .. use one group of backgrounds for awhile and then swap them out for something completely different.

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by Xposurepro

Looking dated has nothing to do with the material of the background .. looking dated is a design issue .. are you spending $100 on a muslin or $1000 .. are you buying muslins off ebay or from some lame mass warehouse distributor or are you buying from smaller top-end designers who custom paint each order?

The best thing is to offer variety. We use muslin, canvas, seamless paper, printed backgrounds on paper, wallpaper, random fabrics, metal sheets, tiles, wood. If you use just one thing all the time you will just end up looking like everybody else who just uses one thing all the time. Mix it up .. use one group of backgrounds for awhile and then swap them out for something completely different.

wouldn't using muslins take away the primary attention of the subject being shot? (unless you're only shooting the muslin, so that would be subject in the shot.) If you're shooting model photography thats really hard because the viewers eyes first gets the background as the attention grabber and then goes to the subject... it will just feel "too busy" or cluttered in the image at least in model photography.

[Xposurepro]

Originally Posted by ChrisAdval

wouldn't using muslins take away the primary attention of the subject being shot? (unless you're only shooting the muslin, so that would be subject in the shot.) If you're shooting model photography thats really hard because the viewers eyes first gets the background as the attention grabber and then goes to the subject... it will just feel "too busy" or cluttered in the image at least in model photography.

You want to coordinate your backgrounds, subject and clothing so that everything compliments one another. Memorize your color wheel, complimentary colors, etc. When it comes to clients the more the better. Say we have 2 clients come in .. Client A only gets shot on a white, grey and black paper for 1 hr. Client B comes in and I spend 1 hr shooting them on papers, muslins, canvas, etc. Now comes the ordering session. Client A has their images picked out in no time and I make a couple hundred bucks off them. Client B comes in and has a horrible time picking their images out because they have so many totally different shots to choose from ... They can't narrow down poses for the package they want so they end up upgrading and they end up spending a couple thousand dollars, tell all their friends how awesome we are and later down the road we are their first choice for photos. ... Variety = Huge Profits and a more diverse portfolio.

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by Xposurepro

You want to coordinate your backgrounds, subject and clothing so that everything compliments one another. Memorize your color wheel, complimentary colors, etc. When it comes to clients the more the better. Say we have 2 clients come in .. Client A only gets shot on a white, grey and black paper for 1 hr. Client B comes in and I spend 1 hr shooting them on papers, muslins, canvas, etc. Now comes the ordering session. Client A has their images picked out in no time and I make a couple hundred bucks off them. Client B comes in and has a horrible time picking their images out because they have so many totally different shots to choose from ... They can't narrow down poses for the package they want so they end up upgrading and they end up spending a couple thousand dollars, tell all their friends how awesome we are and later down the road we are their first choice for photos. ... Variety = Huge Profits and a more diverse portfolio.

Interesting, but in model photography I think the primary focus should be the model's face first and then the body. Using muslin I feel its too busy to keep attention to the model, unless of course its on-location and you're telling a story. I would love to see your flickr page or portfolio though and I could understand better on what you are saying when using muslin properly.