Shadow Fabric

Hi there! first time designer here and i was wondering you could give me some insight to a problem in having. I want to have a fabric material that when lit from behind will cast a visible shadow onto the fabric but can also be lit to make it translucent ( i want to use this for a tent in which sometimes you can just see silhouettes but can also be a dramatic playing space) any thoughts on what Fabric i could use and how to go about lighting this?
 
Tell us how you define "translucent". Online definition: "allowing light, but not detailed shapes, to pass through; semitransparent". A bed sheet would show both shadows from behind and be translucent. Did you mean transparent, being able to see more detail through the fabric?

PS. Welcome to CB!
 
This is one company that gets frequent mention:
 
The thing to keep in mind as you try to do this kind of thing is... to make a scrim not show what's behind it, you probably will do better to light it from a high angle..
More light will reflect back at you if you "skim" the surface... you will catch more fibers, and it will appear opaque. Also this avoids any "bleed through" from lighting your actors.

To use it as a lighted acting space.. no forelight on the scrim of course, and fore light the actors and space from behind the scrim.... or sometimes depending on the fabric, direct forelight from in front of the scrim
will mostly
go through to your actors, and they will be the predominant thing that is lit.

To get your "shadow effect" you would to the high angle scrim lighting to make it look opaque, and then light your actors directly from behind with no fore lighting on them.

Best example ever.. which was done without even a scrim, just fore light, back light, and 2 towers of lights to alter the audiences pupillary diameter was when David Copperfield
Made the Statue of Liberty disappear. I'm sure it's on youtube somewhere.

You might play with some black guaze fabric from fabric.com or some such if you don't want to do a big outlay.. I used it for my Bedford falls bridge, which had George in front of snow falling,
yet you could see the set behind the scrim as well.

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Now I'm really worried.. y'all let ME? be the last word on this :);):grin:
You did well. I don't know of any material that can be both translucent and opaque with shadows. Scrim doesn't do that. The only option I can think of is silhouette instead of shadows as you described.
 

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