Using a Pop-Up Collapsible Background

COURTESY OF WESTCOTT

Another quick and flexible studio background is a pop-up collapsible background that instantly folds up into a small, flat circle, but expands to be a full studio background in a matter of seconds. The one I use is a 6×7′ Westcott Masterpiece 2-in-1 Collapsible Illuminator Background with white on one side and black on the other. It sells for around $215, and I also recommend buying the Illuminator stand to hold it up, which is another $67, but unless you can stand there and hold it up (or have somebody else hold it up), it’s worth its weight in gold. So, with this background, anytime you want to shoot, you just open the round plastic case it comes in, pull it out, and it pops up, ready to go. You put it on the Illuminator background stand, and you’re ready to go. Another advantage of this particular background (over the seamless paper route) is that it’s very portable, lightweight, and you can set it up in literally seconds—by yourself. The only downside is it doesn’t go all the way to the floor seamlessly, so it’s fine for ¾-body shots, but not full-body shots. One more thing: although I use the black/white version, these collapsible backgrounds come in all sorts of patterns, looks, sizes, and colors.