Food Photography Backdrop Making

Let's talk about the other most important actor in food photography that complements the style of photography. Photography backdrop, the backdrop you photograph is very important to create the style of your photo. I think every food photographer should have their own collection of backdrops (unless they want to depend on a stylist!). The good news is that you can make most of these floors at home with just a few materials. You can find wooden rustic floors, which are a must for every food photographer, from a secondhand shop near you, or you can buy them from shops that sell them online. What you need to pay attention to here is to avoid unnecessarily large backdrops made of heavy materials, considering that you will be carrying your backdrops with you during the shooting. Generally, backdrops of 50cm x 70cm or 70cm x 100cm will always do the job. I can almost hear you asking, "Well, where can we find those colorful backgrounds we see in your photographs?" Here you will paint those colorful backgrounds! What you need to pay attention to when using colored backgrounds is to keep the attention on the food in the photo and not to go too extreme with the colors in order not to tire the eyes, but I must add that there is no written rule about this. Everything you use in your photography determines your style, and you are always free to create your style with your own unique choices! The first thing you need for painting backdrops is a raw background. I use MDF plates as the floor because they are both light and durable. You can easily find and buy MDF plates, which are not too thick, in the dimensions I mentioned above, on the internet. Apart from the floor, what you need is ground putty before painting or fast-drying decorative cement mortar for a textured floor, two or three water-based matte acrylic paints in different shades that complement each other (you need to be very careful that your paint is 100% matte because you never want a shining background in your photographs) and Finally, a paintbrush, a paint roller and a piece of sponge.

Now I will tell you how to make your fund step by step;

1. Step;If you want a textured floor, first plaster your MDF floor with decorative cement. Decorative cement mixtures can be purchased ready-made in liquid form or in powder form to be mixed with water. If you do not want to pollute the environment too much, I recommend you to find the ready-made liquid form, and no matter which one you use, do not forget to take precautions to protect places such as newspaper paper or old cardboard boxes under your backdrop before starting the flooring process. Apply the cement mixture to the MDF with a thick brush, wait for five to ten minutes, and then create textures on your background as you wish with random brush strokes. It is enjoyable to do this process, but I recommend that you avoid getting carried away and overdoing it. After the brush strokes, let the floor dry overnight to set.

2. Step;

Method 1: First paint the dried floor with a light tone and let it dry. Then apply the second, darker tone, and after waiting for a while before the paint dries completely, wipe the dark tone in the desired areas with a slightly damp sponge and remove the light tone underneath, thus adding movement and color transitions to the background.

Method 2: Pour paint in two or three different complementary shades side by side on the floor at different intervals and mix the tones together with sponge strokes. If you hit the sponge too much on the same place, you may end up with a single color that is a mixture of three colors, which will disrupt the tone transition that we aim for. Therefore, it is a good idea to apply the sponge strokes in a controlled manner in order not to lose tone diversity.

Step 3; If you do not want your floor to be wiped to get dirty and leak with each shot, fix the completely dried background with a transparent matte varnish. Your dried floor is now ready for use! You can produce different alternatives by painting both sides of MDF floors and use them as both floor and background. You can reuse the floors that are bored or damaged in some way by applying different treatments with new paints.