Photography Thailand Forum

[evil-evan-bkk]

I spent all weekend running around town looking for muslin backdrops.  Nobody seems to have them or knows where to find them.  I know they must exist somewhere in this city.

Any ideas?

Also, how do people find stuff here anyway?  I get so frustrated trying to find things sometimes.  Isn't there a phone book or some kind of business directory, or you just gotta rely on word of mouth?

[Marc Schultz]

Try the big fabric store at the Sukhumvit Road/Asoke intersection on the south west corner right next to the sky train stairs. They have inexpensive stuff and the shop is run by a bunch of old Chinese women. If you have a sample of the type of fabric you want that you can show them it helps a lot to pinpoint what they have which might be similar. If you are looking for a wide piece though you might have to buy a couple of pieces and stitch it together, but then you run the risk of seeing the stitching line when you shoot with it. Hope that helps.

[evil-evan-bkk]

Thanks Marc! 

That shop is within walking distance from my home.  That is great.  It's probably the first convenient thing that's happened to me since I started this mission of getting lights and a backdrop. 

Hopefully the bg will be out of focus enough to blur out any stitching, because I probably will need to stitch it.

I am also getting some lights tomorrow so I might have a chance to check out this fabric shop too. I'll post back and report what I find.

[Marc Schultz]

Your welcome. Good luck with it!

[aksiam]

You could also try Sumphang (its a long narrow market soi, which runs parallel to Yaowart {main road in Chinatown} on the river side) there are hundreds of textile shops  and the prices are dirt cheap! You will mostly find 70" is wide as you can get. Additionally you will also find some rather helpful umbrella wholesellers who have perfect strobe diffusers for you and also very cheap.

I understand your frustration with looking around this vast city, but slow down and take it slow and you should find it all becoming a bit easier.

[evil-evan-bkk]

Thanks for the replies guys.  I ended up just going for the paper background.  I figured that's what you need for pure white backgrounds.  I was just uneasy about it because, well, it's paper and if your model walks all over it, it's gonna get dirty.  Oh well.

I did checkout the fabric shop Marc mentioned.  I can't remember the price, but it was reasonable.

I'm finding it hard to get the floor near the subjects feet white.  So next step is to find some white tile board.  Not really sure exactly what it is, but I've read it's a good way to keep the ground white.  I'll check homepro in a few weeks.

[Marc Schultz]

You can also buy a large sheet of white Acrylic for the models to step on and place that on the floor. I bought some recently at a shop a bit past China Town going further towards the river. The sheets are quite big so you will need a pick-up truck to haul it back. They also have matt white and reflective white, depending on what you want and the sheets come in various thicknesses. SOmehting around 4mm to 5mm is best so that it is not too thin. I think I bought 4mm going from memory. I have the name card from the shop, but I am travelling now so don't have it handy. When I get back next week I can post the info for you if you are interested.