I'm trying to source some fabric to serve as background for a photography project. The chief criteria is that it has to be a very matt fabric - most of the shots will be in close-up, and quite brightly lit. It also shouldn't have too much 'texture' ( if any ), as weave patterns could prove problematic when the photos are printed. It needs to be a solid colour ( red...not bright, something darker than signal/pillar box red and lighter than burgundy ). Ideally it should be resistant to creasing/marking - it's going to get pushed and pulled around and I don't want to have to go buy an iron! I'll need a couple of yards.
I've had a bit of a schlep around a number of shops and taken a few test shots, and it seems to me that synthetic fabrics do best in terms of having little or no weave - but fail miserably in close-up with regard to reflections of flash lighting. It's not excessive, but you end up with colour being washed out in magnification. I looked at velvets, but they tend to pick up brush marks - and all the felts I've seen have been a bit shiny. I found a fake suede fabric that looked promising, but that too picked up brush marks just like the velvet. The closest match I've been able to find so far is a fine weave woolen fabric, which I suspect ( at a guess ) could be wool flannel - something rather like this:
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I'd like to be able to walk into a shop and have a good oldbrowse....but although there are quite a few fabric shops here andthere ( south UK ) they don't seem to carry the more expensive stuff (like the wool fabric ) - so I'm having to trawl through assortedwebsites. Trouble is, I'm none too sure what it is I'm looking for in terms of a fabric name/type...which is a bit of bummer when I'm trying to order swatches and samples.
Any ideas/recommendations?
Regards,