PVC Backdrop Pole for Muslins
May 20th, 2005 | Published in Photography | 3 Comments
Looking for an easy way to hang your background muslin? I was just “clamping” mine to my backdrop stand till I saw this idea at a photo seminar a few weeks ago.
They took a 10′ - 1.5″ thick PVC pipe and drilled holes through one half of the end of the PVC pipe. These holes are used to slip over the top of your background stands (but you go halfway to the “top” of the pipe prevents the PVC from sliding down to the floor.)
Then, I took my Muslin and duct taped it to the PVC rod on both ends and lengthwise. To hang the muslin, just sit the Pipe over your stands… and to store it, just pop it off the top and roll it up and store it with your background paper. Pretty simple easy solution. I like those!
May 21st, 2005 at 10:23 am (#)
Great idea! I bought my roll of white fabric from a fabric store and asked them to leave it on the carboard roll. I bought a really long wooden pole from Home Depot and slid the carboard roll over the wooden pole and just put that up wherever I can find a spot; usually between two bookshelves or on some rope in my kitchen that makes it look like I am about to hang laundry. Now that is ghetto. I need to invest in a stand so I can put it up wherever I want and take the damn rope down. Off to check out B&H… ;)
July 11th, 2005 at 10:29 pm (#)
lol. I read this quickly (a bit toooo quick!) and thought it read “PVC Backdrop Pole for Muslims”, which, obviously, wouldn’t have been nearly as nice a blog entry to read about.
Okay, nevermind.
Move along, there’s nothing to see here. =:D
August 27th, 2009 at 12:08 am (#)
One thing I have found about this solution is that once you get out to 10 ft, the pole sages in the middle. To solve this problem, I cut the pole into 4ft sections and glued threaded couplers to each end. Not only does this eliminate much of the sage, but it allows me to adjust the length of the pole to area I am shooting (4ft to 20ft) as well as the ability to store and transport the pole with my light stands. I started with the holes in the ends of the poles, so they slip over the top of the stands, but I have found that using super clamps are a much safer alternative. These clamps are cheap, $30 each or so. The pole cost me about $30 and took about 2 hrs to make.