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Cheap DIY (Homemade) Muslin Photography Background ABOUT SHARE A TIP ADVERTISE STORE
JULY 31, 2006 213 COMMENTS Like 215 5 Tweet 34
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This project had the website diyphotography.net in mind and strives to help develop it into
a vibrant online community. This backdrop is similar to those sold online for a couple How To Correct The Green Cast From A 10 Stops
hundred dollars! But guess what? for around 20 bucks and about an hours time I've made Neutral Density Welding Glass Filter
a studio backdrop myself, and now I'll show YOU how you can make a backdrop
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Get the parts for your studio backdrop Frozen Nikon 600Mm F/4.0G Falls 4 Meters To
Frozen Tundra, Breaks In Half · 10 hours ago

1. 9X9 feet of muslin fabric - this will be the actual backdrop.

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2. RIT dye and salt - pick the color you want for your studio backdrop
DIYPhotography
3. 18 Gallon Plastic "tote" Like You like this.

4. Twine to tie up fabric

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5. Pot to boil water

Step 1 - Wash the Fabric and prepare dye mix

Pre wash by hand the muslin fabric. I did this in the shower with a little detergent.
Basically, just swish it around in soapy water and rinse out until its not bubbly.

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Step 2 - Prepare the dye

Canon
The box of RIT has all the instructions. The hotter the water the better this dye will
absorb. Dissolve RIT and salt in pot with water. - Remember if you get this mix right, you Nikon
will have better colors on your studio backdrop when you cut your cords .
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Step 3 - Bunch up fabric - this is where it happens!

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This is where you get to be creative! the pattern you make in this step is what will
influence the overall look of your backdrop. What you must do is take that damp, clean
piece of fabric, lay it on a large waterproof surface. flat, and crunch handfuls of the
material towards the center. Then, once its in a ball, take cheap twine (got mine at the
dollar store) and randomly wrap around the fabric ball. don't get too crazy at this point
with the tightness of the string. you're trying to keep your design together, not boucle it
up or make the ball too dense to absorb the dye.

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Step 4 - DyeBath

Fill your 18 gallon plastic bin a little under half-way with as hot of water as you can get
out of the tap and make sure you're doing this in a place that will survive getting dye
spatters around. No matter how careful you are, there will be some contamination of the
surrounding area. Carefully pour in your dye mixture. I actually put some more water in
the mix then the instructions so that the hot boiling water would bring up the temp of the
bath overall. REMEMBER with RIT, hotter is better (within reason). Keep the fabric down
in the bath with a stick. I used a piece of PCV pipe. The max absorption time seems to
be a half hour according to the RIT box. I flipped the fabric ball, which was relatively flat
on the opposing sides, every 5 min or so, for a half hour.

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Step 5 - Cut the Cord

Whatever color it is on the outside is the color the darkest part will be. This is the fun
part, when you'll un-do all the ties and see how it ended up. If you think the parts
restricted from dye are "too white", after untying dunk the whole thing in the dye again for
a min to over dye the fabric. Keep in mind, if you over dye, the variations in the color will
not be as obvious. Dry the backdrop flat, you'll notice it will be a couple shades lighter
when its dry. You don't really have to rinse it out unless you want, since it will just be
hanging up anyway, and probably wouldn't need to be washed. You'll also notice this nice
crumpled texture that makes it a great backdrop! This project had photography in mind,
but this could be used as decoration in a room as well!

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Step 6 - USE IT !!

After the backdrop was dry I took 4 binder clips and clamped them evenly across the top
of the fabric. I'm going to put little white hook-screws in the wall to hook through the
holes in the binder clips to act as a backdrop mount, but for the photo below I just used
clear package tape to hang by the clips (be careful when removing tape, the paint may
come with it!). If you want a more elegant solution you can use this non intrusive
backdrop holder. This is something you can do *really* easy takedowns and setups with,
and you can use any wall in your house and there is no need for a "blank wall". This is in
front of my closet. When its not up, leave it balled up in a corner somewhere so you don't
loose all the cool wrinkly texture. I hope you enjoyed reading this and it helps you out.
Now make your own!

This article was contributed by Jay Bedingfield, and was also posted on
instructables.com to help make people aware of this site.

Did you make one of these backdrops? post a comment and show off!

- there is also a new instructables.com group for this site: http://www.instructables.com

/group/diyphotographydotnet/

125

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213 comments ★ 0

Best Community Share ⤤ ⚙

Anonymous •

i used 2 king sized sheets sewn together in length. the seam will be
bunched up at the bottom and you won't see it. worked great, plus you
can use the top seam of the sheet on your backdrop rod so you don't
have to clamp.
3

cdmb •

We picked up the fabric and the rit dye for $23 10'x12' at Ben
Franklin (they had a 50% off coupon). We purchased the bucket $4
and twine $3 at walmart.

End result:

<img src="http://cdmb.000space.com/albums/userpics/10001
/normal_IMG_4933_%281%29.jpg">
1

Graetdeal4u •

What a great ideal, that is so cool

http://www.digitphotoinfo.com

Sociotard •

How hard would it be to use this technique to create a "hot spot"

effect, where the edges are dark, with the backdrop color getting
much lighter in the middle?

Julia •

I just found your blog today and it is fabulous. You have such great
ideas and your instructions are so helpful.

I have one question.

I want to do some green screen work. I could use this same idea to
dye a cloth the right color for that. How careful do I need to be to pick
the right green (or blue)? I've never done green screen before, and I
don't really understand how it works. Can I just dye a cloth green and
it will work?

Thank you!

Julia

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