If you’re into product or food photography, or if you like to shoot still life photos, you know that one of the ingredients for a good shot is a proper background. By repeating from shot to shot, the background can become part of a photographer’s recognizable style.
Light and homogeneous surfaces as well as textured ones are used for taking pictures: vintage wooden tables, various fabrics as well as surfaces made of real or artificial marble, bricks, and even asphalt are used.
So how do you find a good background? Well, if you already have a “textured” table in your apartment or studio (but it’s still not so easy and pleasant to scrub off the aftereffects of a saturated food shooting). Photographers often use real or specially made pieces of various materials, but all that wealth has to be stored somewhere and is quite inconvenient to transport.
Read the instructions on how you can make a photo studio backdrop with minimal monetary costs with your own hands. Such backdrops are almost weightless, easy to move, and (importantly) very easy to clean.
Method 1: Photo printing on foam board
Printing on foam board is widely used in photography. Such prints are often hung on the wall – they are inexpensive, yet bright, lightweight, and durable. What if we used this technology for our task?
Step 1:
Find a source image. You can use anything: a plastered wall, old wallpaper, painted old boards in a shabby chic style, a brick wall, marble… You just need to take a picture of the surface you like or buy one from a professional on Heroshot.io.
Step 2:
Where to print. Find a photo center, photo lab, or print shop and print it.
Step 3:
Choose your parameters. The thickness of the foam board should be at least 5 mm. Choose matte printing (glossy surface will give unnecessary glare and reflection, which is not suitable for our purpose at all).
Step 4:
Check the result. Backgrounds made this way are most often great. And yet, some prints can look unnatural. Don’t get upset – just flip them to the other side.
Method 2. Vinyl wallpaper/background
These are available in every possible color and texture, from wood to granite – you just need to do a good search in the wallpaper department of a construction supermarket. The print is made on a vinyl canvas that can easily be rolled up and placed in a corner/storage.
Method 3. Self-adhesive film
If you’re not too lazy to work with your hands, you can create a stylish background yourself. You will need the same foam board and self-adhesive tape.
Materials:
- self-adhesive film;
- Binding cardboard;
- Dry, clean rags;
- ruler;
- pencil;
- office knife.
Step 1:
Draw a shape of the required size on cardboard. Draw the same size shape on the foil. Cut out the shapes with a box cutter using a ruler.
Step 2:
Separate the protective layer of the film from the paper. Gently press the decorative side of the film onto the base with the adhesive side and press down with the palm of your hand. Use one hand to continue peeling the paper from the film, and the other hand to smooth out the pattern, using a clean, dry cloth.
Step 3:
After gluing, check to see if there are any bubbles on the surface. If the film is glued unevenly or creases appear, you can quickly re-glue it. But after an hour, it will be impossible to separate the film from the substrate.
That’s it. The stylish background is ready for your photo experiments.
