Well… apparently not all paper backgrounds are made equal!

I don’t remember who made the paper background we initially tested. But it was awful. Very reflective and prone to hot spots. We figured all paper would have the same problems. After listening to a talk by another company that does greenscreen software, I decided to revisit this and give Savage Paper’s ‘tech green #46′ a try.

So how’d it fare vs. the foam materail we’ve been recommending since day 1?

Excellent! I was very impressed with how evenly it lit. The paper has a very flat finish on it, meaning very little reflection and easy lighting. Of course, we lit everything with two big softboxes, so that helped I’m sure.

I’m going back on my opinion that paper won’t work for greenscreen backgrounds, and give a solid recommendation to the Savage #46 paper. I DO NOT think that all paper will work as well. As in our initial test, some papers are glossy and not suitable for chromakey. Also, Savage just released vinyl backgrounds that come in green and I’m highly skeptical that it’ll work for greenscreen. It’s got a pretty glossy finish, which is usually a disaster for chromakey.

We still recommend the foam material as well. But I think the Savage paper is on par with it, except in terms of reusability. I think the foam material generally works well, it’s easy to transport, and you can easily clean and reuse it.

For full length in a studio, I would give the nod to the paper. I think you’re likely to get a little less spill around the feet, but I don’t think the difference is that significant. You can take a look at the results with the two materials:

There are other materials out there… paint, canvas, etc. The important part with any material is a very flat finish on the surface. If you have that, it should work fine as a greenscreen.

If there are any other manufacturers of greenscreen backgrounds reading this that would like our recommendation on their product, please feel free to contact us to send us a sample. However, right now, the only materials we’re recommending is the Savage #46 paper and foam-backed material made by velcro.

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iStockphoto was all the rage a few years ago when the company first started. They advertised ‘one dollar’ stock images, a pricing structure that was way cheaper than legacy stock houses like Corbis.com and Getty.com. You don’t buy their images by the dollar; it’s a pay-for-credit structure, and a credit translates into a little less than a dollar, depending upon how many credits you buy in a batch.

The brand’s cost-cutting — or cost-undercutting, depending upon whose side you look at things from — continues to be a hot topic among artists who try to sell their own work, and folks who are able to get their art into stock sites. I listened to a related debate for two years straight at a Microsoft industry event called the Pro Photo Summit.

The iStock pricing has definitely risen over the years since the service launched. They still have dollar purchases in their Dollar Bin, though these images cost more than a dollar if you want the resolution larger than, well, unusable. But iStock, and Artbeats, are still a good destination for getting photographs that are less expensive than, let’s say, taking the time to shoot them yourself. Time vs money, as always.

Must say that I love the vector illustrations used as branding on the iStockphoto.com site. Wonder if they are for sale…

Enjoy your weekend! -debbie