Frosted mirror background
 

Ok, after many emails to the tabletop studios guy and them NEVER having the frosted mirror background in stock, I finally got fed up and made my own. Here's how:

I went to TAP plastics and found that they, sadly, do not carry frosted mirror. Poop. BUT, they do have mirror AND they also have frosted so I bought one sheet of acrylic mirror (I had them cut mine to 12" x 15" but it is a little too wide to put inside my little photo tent so if you have the same tabletopstudios photo tent, do yourself a favor and get it cut 11 inches instead!) and another sheet, same size, of frosted acrylic. Put the frosted acrylic on top of the mirror and PRESTO! You have this:

Brilliant! You're so smart!

:D Thank you Alex! I'm not so much smart as obsessive. LOL!

Hey...smart, obsessive...whatever works! :)

Got to love that outside-the-box thinking! Lori ~ it looks great!

Jo

Great idea Lori! did you get the matte or non glare?

On my receipt it says P.95 and when I cross-reference that against the www.tapplastics.com site, they refer to that as Matte finish.

Me likey! What a great photo background and WTG figuring out what you needed to do to get the effect.

Cool~ thanks for posting!

Great! Thanks so much Lori!

Thank you!!!!!!! Lori for sharing. I was wondering how that was done. I'm still learning the photo stuff. You help alot on that idea.
Thanks again,
Janet

Lori I couldn't find it on their website. Could you post an item number and did they mind cutting you such a small piece?
Great picture btw. I've been trying to figure out this same thing.

Well DANG! That's the easy way. Leave it to me to find the hard way…I sprayed my mirror with matte clear spray paint :rolleyes:

Only problem is, the spray paint doesn't stick if you have to wash the mirror.

The next thing to try is to actually etch the mirror (small mirror, less than two bucks) to see what will happen.

But frosted acrylic on the mirror…how brilliant is that? Wow!

Here's the frosted acrylic:
http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=513&

and here is the mirror (although in hindsight it would be much cheaper to just go down and get a regular glass mirror from Target or something.)

http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=521&

These are both listed in the "cut to size" category.

thanks Lori!

I just painted some etch cream on the top of a round mirror, and an old one at that :D
You be the judge? I think it's working well, AND I can keep it handy for those late night (in chat) show-me-what-you-did-todays :D And really, it doesn't scratch easily, which is grand because I'm not a gentle person
HUGS
Nita
http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/6...6404389567.jpg

I did something like this similar last December. The only problem I had was finding frosted acrylic locally, but I didn't look too hard. I bought regular acrylic at Home Depot and went to Michaels and bought a matte finish spray to spray the acrylic with and put a mirror underneath. It looked like yours Lori, but I went ahead and order the frosted mirror riser for Tabletop studios anyway.

Thanks Lori, for the info...when visiting California a few years ago, TAP plastics was one of my stops...love their stores!!!! Just got done ordering mine.

Kathie

Can I ask what thickness you ordered? They have 1/8 and 3/16. Thanks!

I would get the thinnest one they have in the frosted. I got a thick one and it doesn't show the mirror effect enough for my tastes.

Thanks Lori-that is what I was thinking to-I didnt want to waste the effect on to thick of acrylic.

Hi, Lori, I should have listened to you the first time!! I wrote an email to the tabletop guys, got a very nice email back that they would be in "next week"....that was right after your first post...I have emailed twice more and haven't heard a word!!!
I think I will try Nita's trick...thanks to all for the info...pat

Looks awesome!

I painted Armor Etch cream on a flat round mirror (local craft store $1.50) and as I suspected, it was streaky. Not only was it streaky, I pained from the center out so it was more sunburst-y.

I wasn't out that much money on the mirror, so WTH, it was ugly but since the surface was now sufficiently "roughed up" from the etch I sprayed it with a very light coat of matte clear spray paint. It came out perfect! The sunburst lines were gone and the matte surface was much smoother than when I just used matte clear spray paint alone.

I can't wait to take new pics on it!

That's a great way to get to the end result! Fantastic!!!

I am resurrecting this thread. Are most of you taking pictures from above the beads?
I can't seem to get a good shot from the side of my tent using the frosted bottom.
HELP!!! Thanks.

They're in stock now at TableTop Studio.......

http://store.tabletopstudio-store.com/smsifrreri.html

Thanks, Vivian...That is where I got mine. They finally let me know they were in about a month or so ago. My problem now is how to use it with my light tent!! My camera is on a tripod and I use the side window of the tent. Can't seem to get the pix right.

Can you show a picture of what you are getting? That might help in offering advice on what to do different.

Mike

Thanks so much, Mike. I will take some more later today.