I have been struggling with backgrounds for my portrait photography.

Looking to the modern masters such as Rory Lewis, Leibovitz, Mark Mann, Platon etc, has left me with mixed feelings. Many of their images are taken with solid or near solid colours and when they are not, I like their images less.

If I like a texture, I tend to prefer one that is subtle, almost a non-texture, more of a “worn” look on a solid colour.

This is the Oliphant look, which is based on less is more. It has the benefit of being fairly neutral, while also contributing to an image. Like well worn makeup, it only adds to the subjects image, or stays out of the way.

To this end, the only Lastolite backgrounds I have tended to like are the solid colour ones or the Pewter/Walnut, because the Pewter is the closest they do to a texture-non-texture and the Walnut looks very natural as almost the other extreme, like an old wall, not the more styalised and obvious look most have.

I have the Lastolite 1.8x2.1 black/grey on the way. This will be the “fix anything” backdrop, useful for most situations and providing room for gentle colour or tonal shifts to compliment subjects, but not carry the image on their own. For textures though, a $350+ dual sided is a tougher call.

Lots of research, lots of ideas, nothing solid, until………..

My wife dragged me to “Spotlight”, an Australian retail fabric supplier. I discovered their “Jonah” faux leather furniture fabrics and it was sale time!

I came across the brown/grey 140cm wide roll and picked up 4 metres for $60au. This gave me a floor and wall option with gentle texture and a neutral and flexble colour base.

Keen to make the most of the sale, I went back and to my surprise, I found not only the two other colours they have on their website (light grey and beige), but also a true grey and warm caramel-leather.

I went with 2.5m of the caramel and the light grey for $80au total. That’s three standard width backdrops, each longer than most for under $150au. Today I returned for 3m of the darker grey.

The light grey looks like very mildly textured concrete or stone. It is really just a lighter version of the brown I have, so a dual backdrop shot with a tonal difference is possible and even a near match if I want, with a darkening of the lighter fabric in post or with lighting.

The caramel or “true” leather is a more opinionated fabric, giving me a real tanned brown with again a subtle texture, but more warmth and deeper colour for treaking.

The True grey is tonally identical to the brown-grey, but obviously different in colour. They match well enough to be used together and are nearly identical in mono.

Not award winning images, but good for tests. The three are like mached colours on a paint chart.

In mono, they will look like different densities of the same thing, in colour they are quite different, but still very harmonious.

From a purely practical perspective, the furniture cover fabric is light, very wrinkle resistant, can be sewn on a standard machine, cleans easily, is relatively low sheen*, hangs well and feels great. It is lined with a fleece-like material (possibly another background option), and is durable enough to be walked on.

Compared to a Kate microfibre, that are not as wrinkle resistant as I had hoped and tend to be “vignette” printed, they are a god-send.

Compared to a near thousand dollar, heavy canvas Oliphant, Savage or Unique backdrop, it is a very cheap and practical look-alike that would fool most. For a shooter who is not that in to heavy textures, it is the perfect solution. An affordable compromise that is not really a compromise.

I think my “signature look”, may be to work outside the norm. I will continue to investigate regular fabrics and my environment as my backdrops of choice.

I may still get the Pewter/Walnut Lastolite, but to be honest, between the options of using the environment, the solid colour Lastolite, these four, my Kate and post processing, I doubt I will need it.

*The finish is somewhere between the microfibre of a Kate and a Savage paper roll.