Photography Lighting + BG Questions

For those of you who shoot content professionally i have a couple of questions you may be able to help with.

We're in the process of getting our first few exclusive shoots ready but im trying to decide what type of background materials we should be using?

Have you found any significant differences between using a muslin backdrop compared to either paper or rigid plastic?

Im presuming, the light diffusion is different between the different types of backdrop materials, is that right? If so, in your experience, what is going to be the better material to use for backdrops?

Also, when it comes to lighting the shoot, what type of setup do you have?

Im looking at a couple of different options right now, one of which (the one i prefer) is the 120 volt / 500 watt Dynaphos lighting system, the other option im looking at (which im not to keen on) is the 2 smaller lighting systems from Dynaphos, with the same 500watt / 120volt system as the single system.

Would you say it would be better to get a single, larger lighting kit as oppose to two smaller ones or, should i go with the two smaller lights?

Your thoughts?

Regards,

Lee

It depends on the effect, style and location.

For our normal effect/style I use two strobe lights with soft light fitting about 4 metres or more away from the models and set high. Then for a floor light or pussy light I use one light low with a soft box.

Then for a side light I usally use a light high and shooting it through an umbrella.

Sometimes use a normal camera flash on the camera to work as a trigger for the other lights, this softens any harsh shadows.

We are shooting film and digital for boy girls sets.

For backgrounds I use "seemless" paper that you can buy in 9' rolls. I am currently shooting with plain white, that way it's easy to change the background in Photoshop. Seemless rolls are only available from professional photo supply stores, but they come in millions of colors and only cost $35 a roll.

A muslin background can be a nice effect, but if you get shadows in the wrinkles, it will be more difficult to change the background color in Photoshop later.

I'm not sure what you have in mind for rigid plastic, but the lights will probably cause glare off the hard surface.

Here is a white seemless backdrop:

don't forget canvas... it's stronger.