This is a blog post on making background for photography. I would focus mainly on food photography as I blog about recipes quite regularly. It’s been slightly more than 2 years I have been blogging. I would say I am expert at blogging nor I am a professional photographer, however in recent times I wonder if I can make my photos look better. I have been look into props and recently started making my own background. This my first attempt in making one. I am now recording my journey on how I do it.
Of course, it is possible to buy your own rather than making your own. Now that I am spending more time than ever at home I just even to want to make more things at home. It also will save you some money by making your own. To be honest it is not really that time-consuming.
Making background for photography
There are a few points to remember when making your own background. For it to work as a background do remember the background to be matte or rustic. Think of marble surfaces ut matte, not shiny. As you don’t want it to refect any unsightly reflections. It can be in dark colours as well as pale colours.
I use 9mm plywood if you are bass in the UK I order it online from Wickes. It comes in different sizes. I cut them down to 60cm by 60cm. The size depends on your needs but in my opinion that is pretty much the standard. I also got some sample pots of matte paints from Wickes at the same time. Some food photographers use some builders gypsum powder to create textures. Personally I didn’t do it as its more time and money spent. Also, plates of food and cutlery would sit nicely as it would as flat surfaces. What I would like is to add metallic paints in the future so as to create a different effect on the background.
After cutting up the plywood with a wet sponge I then sponge the colours I choose onto the plywood. The wet sponge creates a textured effect on the plywood. Left to dry the background it is ready to use. However, I do find that using background this method is not the easiest of all to clean but it is doable. Itis certainly a much nicer background to use compare to old plastic surface table cloth as a background. See the picture below for my old background.
Thank you for reading and dropping by do have a look at my other blogging posts on photography. Here is one on using Snapseed. Snapseed is an app that is from google and is used for photo manipulation. To adjust those dark lighting and crop pictures.
