I need a bright red backdrop for a shoot and I though a good way to do this would be to paint a section of a white seamless. Does anyone have any experience with this, what would be the best way?
Like the others say, it's much easier to gel a gray (or even black for a deep red) to get a nice bright red. White washes out the color to much. The best you usually get with white is a weird pink. Painting will work somewhat the same way. Painters and fabric dyers will start with a light base for a very light tone, dark for base for a deep rich hue. Grays will hold the bright saturated tones better and how dark you start with will determine the depth you can get. Be aware if you gel that you might need some extra power if you use dark colors or double up. Be sure to do a exposure test on your background tlll you get it right, 1/3rd can make a big difference. If you want to paint, try a small section first and light it up to see what you get.
i have to agree!! besides, between the cost of the paint, the application, the drying time, not to mention your time, buying a roll of red seamless has got to be a more cost effective option.....
The problem with paint is that it will wrinkle the paper, solving one problem but causing another. If you are going to paint something thicker like the back side of a piece if seamless vinyl flooring would be a better option. A local flooring shop might have a reject / roll end they could sell you cheap.
The other option in addition to gels is masking. I just shot some Christmas card shots with a red background. This is as red as I could get with gels on white..
But then I just selected the background with the magic wand tool, created a mask to knock out the background and inserted a new layer under it with a background created by sampling light and dark tones on the red foreground and applying Filter>Render Clouds.
