I am assuming you all know about this and just haven’t told me about it, as this seems so incredibly obvious as to be intentional. And no, I have no clue as to why I never noticed this, even after 20 years of using them!
Yes, believe it or not, your floor-stands seemingly double up as backdrop holders and this isn’t even another of my scuffed-DIY-hack-jobs that kinda works when everything else has failed. These floor-stands really do seem to be perfect at holding any sized backdrop in place.
Just to prove I’m not being dramatic, here is one of my ACTUAL scuffed-DIY-hack-jobs!
That’s right, straight out of art college in 2002 and doing expensive corporate headshots for large architectural firms on 35mm film, and we rock-up with this ingenious backdrop support! Arriving via public transport and taxi was awkward with long background supports, so my clever idea was to beat the ends of an old curtain rail flat and drill holes in it as a lightweight and travel-friendly alternative.
All joking aside, it worked pretty damn well and I won’t tell you how many years we worked like this.
Fast-forward a decade and we finally started to act like professionals and got some proper telescopic backdrop supports. But it wasn’t until very recently when I was on a shoot and needed even more background supports than the typical 2 we normally carry, that the idea dawned on me to use the floor-stands in a way that was similar to my original hack of 20+ years prior.
I’m sure you’re all familiar with what a floor-stand looks like, but if not, it’s a 3 legged support that can be closed to form a single arm to be easily folded and packed away. When open it provides a very sturdy support for floor lighting like background lights and fill-lights, but it’s when this stand is closed away that this seemingly hidden dual purpose comes to light.
You’re all smart people and you’re in the right place that proves that so this image should need little explanation. But yes, flipping the floor-stand upside down and mounting it on top of a light-stand does indeed produce a very sturdy and rigid background support. Yes, you will need two of these, one for the other end of the backdrop too, but I always travel with 2 or 3 floor-stands anyway so this isn’t an issue for me.
If you’ve used these floor-stands in the past, you’ll likely recall that the legs are slightly bent to keep the centre column off of the floor. This is oddly perfect in the reverse too as when mounted upside down and the background/Colorama is in place, this natural spring to the legs keeps the tube very steady. From here of course you can clamp the tube/roll in place as you normally would.
PRO-TIP: One final little trick to this that I’ll mention, is that the central column of the floor-stand can be rotated to either be out of the way on the outside of the stand, or it can be rotated inwards to be snug up against the backdrop roll. With it spun towards the roll, the thumb screw can now be rotated to be pressed against the roll to now act as a brake!
As I mentioned right at the start, this is such an obvious secondary purpose for the floor-stands that I’m sure many of you already knew about it, but more importantly…. shame on you all for not telling ME about it!
It is odd how perfectly this works though and if you are ever caught needing another background support, this floor-stand alternative is far more than just a hack-job in a pinch, this really is a very viable solution that I will undoubtedly use many more times in the future instead of dragging a background crossbar around. Give it a go yourself as I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
P.S. I will be accepting all reasonable offers for those OG ‘JHP sawn-off curtain rail background supports™’. Truly a remarkable piece of photographic history right there for one judicious and minted soul.
JHP Livestreams…
I livestream every other Tuesday night via YouTube and there I answer your questions, critique your shots, take community images into Photoshop to work on them and discuss all manner of lighting tips and techniques. I look forward to seeing you and your work there real soon. Jake Hicks Photography - YouTube
