It began with a wedding job - the client wanted simple pictures, all taken indoors in a living room. I had plans to rent a backdrop and stand but decided to make my own. I found designs online, fiddled with them a little and came up with this.
The first thing I did was use 1 1/2 inch and 2 inch plumbing pipe rather than PVC pipe I found on other sites. A little more expensive but more sturdy and durable.
The feet were the easy part. The vertical lengths are two sections that slide into each other -- two 6-foot sections mean it's expandable to 12-feet. I drilled holes in both and used a 50-cent bracket-pin frmo Princess Auto to hold it in place.
The horizontal sections are two 1 1/2 inch sections with a 2-inch section that holds them in place. Similar holes and bracket-pins hold it all in place.
The elbows - where the vertical section meets the post took a little plumbing. I originally had the 1 1/2 inch secton jammed into the elbow piece. But it wasn't as stable as I wanted. So I plumbed a short 1 1/2 section into the elbow, then added a step-up joiner and then a short 2-inch section thas was long enough to accept a couple of holes. The bracket-pins make it all nice and secure.
The stand cost me about $85 including the pipes and pins.
As for the backdrop, I started with a $35 painter's drop cloth -- it has a seam in it, but you can't see it in any of the pictures I took. A made a second one, ordering a 12'-15' section of muslin from an online fabric place in New England. That cost me about $50. I tie-dyed both backdrops, using ritt dye I found at Michaels. The grey backdrop, which is the painter's drop cloth, is quite a bit heavier. I had my sister-in-law sew a loop in it so the horizontal piece slides right inside of it.
So, this is cheap, sturdy and very portable. It sets up in a snap and it's easy to do for one person. It's expandable to 12-feet high and 15-feet wide.
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