Movie Poster Photography Stand
A Simple Stand for Poster Photography
I have a business selling posters on the internet (like just about
everybody else). Because of that I often find myself taking pictures
of posters for online display. As the technology of photography goes,
this is not a formidable task, but if a few simple techniques are
applied the results can be vastly improved.
It is usually better to work without a flash. If the poster is not
glossy, a flash photo will usually be fine, but if the poster is
glossy, a flash exposure will produce ugly hotspots. A common
technique among internet poster sellers is to use a flash with the
poster cocked at an angle way from the camera's focal plane. This
solves the hot spot problem, but looks odd, and looking odd is another
problem! The people who don't think that is a problem are odd too,
but I suppose even those odd pictures are better than no picture!
Still, along with the visual information about the poster, there is another piece of information that comes through loud and clear with those slanted, distorted images: the person who took this picture doesn't know how to use a camera! Also implied, at least for me, are the questions "I wonder what else he does poorly? Does he really know the things he ought to know as a seller about his posters?"
Whether the poster is glossy or not, the results are good most of
the time if the exposure is made with available light and no flash at
all. Then the biggest problem is making sure the available light is
evenly distributed over the surface of the poster. This usually means
turning off all the room lights and facing the poster away from the
windows. A picture taken with available light doesn't have to be
tilted away from the focal plane. Yay!
In most cases, available light will require a tripod, and
preferably a remote shutter release, either cable or infrared.
Low-light photography without a flash means long exposures (slow
shutter speeds), and if the camera shakes or jiggles at all during a
long exposure, the image will be blurred. If the camera has a built-in meter for automatic exposure, the job becomes really easy and the results consistently pleasing.
Although photographic lighting is a complex subject, in the
paragraphs above I've given a simple lighting solution to the task of
photographing posters that is eminently reliable. Everybody can use it
successfully the first or second try.
A more difficult problem is mounting the poster in an upright
position for the picture. For that we need some kind of stand that
can accommodate different poster sizes; we want to attach the posters without using tape, tacks or glue. We want to put the poster up in front of the camera and then take it down without altering the poster's physical condition.
Some people have developed fantastic solutions to this mounting
problem. I've seen big sucking vacuum walls that will make any poster
of any size lie perfectly flat and vertical in front of the camera
instantly. The ones I've seen have been installed in elaborate
permanent studios with lighting and camera prepositioned to yield
perfect results every time based on extensive testing. I've also seen
steel background walls used with magnets to hold up the posters, again providing infinite flexibility for sizes.
For my work I don't want a permanent fixture because I don't have
space for a studio. I want to be able to assemble and then
disassemble my stand to allow for multiple uses of my limited space.
At a camera show in Southfield Michigan last weekend I found a used
portable background stand made by the Da-Lite Screen Company in Warsaw Indiana and decided I would modify it for use as a poster photography stand.
Da-Lite Screen's Portable Background Stand
Many companies make background stands for photography. This
happens to be first the one I found. The stand has a 1 and 1/8" diameter adjustable aluminum bar across the top, and the two supporting stands can also be adjusted up and down. It was designed to hold up background paper or cloth, so there is nowhere to attach posters.
I made an accessory for my background stand that I can attach to it
for poster photography. It is a 72" aluminum ruler that I fasten to the horizontal bar with two steel hose clamps. The hose clamps are attached to the aluminum ruler with rivets. I had the riveting done at a machine shop, but I probably could have done it myself with some kind of consumer rivet gun and drill.
Hose Clamp Attached to Aluminum Ruler with Rivet, then Attached to the Aluminum Crossbar
The aluminum bar is too thick for bulldog clips, but the attached ruler gives me a hard surface that is a good size for bulldog clips and I can use it with the clips to hang the posters up in front of the camera, as I've done with these posters:
Insert, The Old Barn Dance (R1944) Gene Autry
4x5 foot banner, Friday Night Lights (2004) Billy Bob Thornton
For the Insert, as with most posters, I also used bulldog clips at
the bottom to make it hang down straignt. For the large banner, I
used clips and another 72" aluminum ruler to make the poster hang
straight and to make its long folded bottom edge line up evenly for
the camera.
Bottom Corner of Mounted Frday Night Lights banner showing end of long ruler clamped to the bottom with bulldog clips
