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Set up temporary indoor photography studio for cheap?

I usually just do outdoor photographs, but have been considering trying an indoor setup. I've had several people ask for indoor photos because they want newborn pictures and aren't comfortable with having the baby outside for very long. I live in a small apartment, so that's out. However, our apartment complex has a clubhouse. I thought about trying to set up a temporary setup there. I can't use anything that will damage the wall, too expensive, or too extravegant. There are french doors in the room, so there will be natural lighting. My question is what can I do for a backdrop. I want to do a black backdrop for b&w photos. Should I use a sheet? I'm afraid of too many wrinkles because I'm wanting something smooth for a background. Could I use poster board? Would that be large enough? Could I get a large peice of paper from a craft store? Specific suggestions would be so appreciated!

Couple of things.

You apartment contract most likely has a "no commercial activity" clause in it ... most of them do to stop people from renting an apartment and using it as office space.

Using the clubhouse to do a shoot with some paying clients could be a violation of your lease, the landlords insurance coverage for the clubhouse and potentially a couple of zoning laws.

As for setting up a cheap studio, you can get a 2 to 3 light setup for about 300$ on ebay. I don't mean those horrible hotlight kits but some manual flashes (yn460), remote triggers (pt04)... so on so forth.

As for a background being wrinkled you can either use a roll of seamless paper (not very expensive 35$ I believe in most shops, you just need a stand for it) or use a cloth and simply control your DoF so that the background is blurred and that way you won't see the wrinkles.

I also find that low key photography works nicely with baby pictures.

Another solution is to rent some studio space and just increase your shoot cost. Typically it's between 35$ and 50$ an hour for studio rental or, if you do enough in a month, some offer monthly packages (10, 20, 30 ... hour packages).

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