Blue Sky Plus Clouds Poster as a Simple Background

[atasar]

Hi Folks...I'd like to get a decent blue sky+clouds poster (say a few feet on each side) that can serve as a background in my MR photographs. I would like to mount the poster on a piece of cardboard and then just sit it in the background of the photo so that I can get a more realistic looking background than the furniture in the room can provide. I'm looking to spend less than say $20 on such a poster. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

[stokesda]

Try looking at a craft shop like Michael's or Hobby Lobby in their poster section. You might find a poster that has some nice mountains or a lake or something in it.

Also, (this is a shot in the dark - thinking out loud) maybe you could take a picture of the sky with a digital camera, then use your computer to create a panorama picture of the sky. You might then be able to take it to Kinko's or somewhere and have them print it out on a poster-size sheet of paper.

Cheers,

[Anonymous]

Many years ago I bought a set of three sheets of heavy paper that had only blue sky and clouds printed on them, they were about 2 feet square. There wasn't any name on either the sheets nor the flat corrugated box they came in. Doesn't help you much does it?

Walthers sell various paper backgrounds, some with a fair amount of sky and clouds. I've use the sheets made by Faller with limited success. The sky is too light for my taste, looking washed out when lighting a scene with photoflood lamps. One set is from European mountains I think, and is one meter high, with a fair amount of sky in it. Might be worth a look at their offerings either on line or in a catalog.

You might check wallpapers - some designs have clouds and blue sky in them, normally on large photo scenes.

I got tired of trying to have enough sky in my photos and painted one wall in my hobby room a dark blue and airbrushed on some clouds. After toning down the shine with some cans of Dullcoat spray, I'm fairly happy with the results. But not everyone has the luxury of have a whole wall to paint! There are some scenes on my website that show the results: http://www.geocities.com/fundynorthern/

Good luck!

Bob Boudreau [:D]

[MichaelWD]

http://www.realisticbackgrounds.com/
This company sells backgrounds that are pictures rather than printed. I think they did a good job on their product. Looking at their website I see two different cloud and sky ones. I think they are from the Pittsburgh Pa. area so they are more East Coast than West Coast type of pictures
Mike Dickinson

[MAbruce]

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[Anonymous]

But how far should you go with digital editing? If a poster is ok and a painted wall is better, is a digitally contrived background best but possibly a little too fakey? I am unsure.
If the goal is to create an interesting and aesthetic scene, then it seems to me that fake backgrounds are as legitimate as fake foregrounds that use fake grass etc. Comments?
Bryant

[WickhamMan]

If you have a digital camera, you may not need to buy anything at all. You can simply take a photo of the sky and of the scene you want in your layout. Use Photoshop or any other photo editing software you might have to superimpose the sky background over the old leather couch (or whatever).

[AntonioFP45]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MichaelWD

http://www.realisticbackgrounds.com/
This company sells backgrounds that are pictures rather than printed. I think they did a good job on their product. Looking at their website I see two different cloud and sky ones. I think they are from the Pittsburgh Pa. area so they are more East Coast than West Coast type of pictures
Mike Dickinson

I checked out the website. Looks like a very good option for a sky background.

Thanks!