Gang, I want to share a little secret here, which should hopefully give you some inspiration and also save you some money; I'm talking backgrounds in this post, backgrounds for food photography.

Whether you shoot your food from directly above, or from a much lower angle, you always have to take into consideration the background you shoot against, be it the table ( with or without table cloth/ mat/ or whatever the food sits on ), or be it the wall in front of you.

Pictures of food on a white plate on a plain kitchen table are BORING ! and pictures of food on a white plate on a plain kitchen table under a (yellow-orange) incandescent light ( with the WB set on ? ) are just WRONG !!

How you choose and light the background can make or destroy an image; sometimes the background itself can be so interesting that it actually becomes the hero of the image - here is an example from one of my pictures.

Having said this, I have found it can be quite challenging to always sort out the perfect background for my food photography - and it definitely can become expensive.

If I'm on assignment I usually go and hire props and background from a prop shop and " build " the fee into the costs included in my quotation - and actually, depending on the specific job, it might even not be my responsibility to do this, if a food/prop stylist is also involved in the project.

But if I am shooting for a personal project, i.e. this very same blog, I tend to minimize my costs as much as I can; that's why, as a general piece of advice, I always recommend to buy some of the props and to find smart ways to " transform " them and use 'em again - or you can re-sell them if they're yours. And among all props, a table surface is something you'll always need - you just can't do without it.

So, and here comes the tip, you can invest little money and buy 2-3 wooden or metal surfaces like the ones in the picture, and put your creativity to good use; I bought those from Bunnings Wharehouse , all three of them for under $ 150.00, and I painted them myself; I applied multiple layers of paint and then I used a bit of sandpaper to reveal hints of the colour underneath. The paint I used are just sample pots of water based paint, worth $ 6.50 each.

If you just take a look at some of my previous posts you'll notice how I have, each time, re-invented these homemade backdrops so that they would suit a specific food subject.

Other " secret " places where you can find interesting and cheap materials for backgrounds are â?¦.

You ask me and I'll whisper it in your ear !

Dario Milano, professional food photographer - Sydney

Posted in Food, Photography, techniques

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