DIY Hand Painted Backdrop

7 December

I had this blog from like a decade and had never actually thought of having some kind of a formal or semi formal setup for taking my food pictures before the lockdown started. During lockdown I stumbled upon many fantastic home chefs who created magic in their food pictures too by the virtue of amazing props and backdrops. That was the start of the inspiration and I had finally decided after much deliberation to invest in a good backdrop. 

The first backdrop I got was in the month of April and now I own about 10+ professional backdrops. After using them for over 8 months I could understand which backdrops work for me and what kind of texture I love to work with. I thought of trying my hand at making some DIY backdrops myself because - I could end up saving some bucks, have the customizations I want in color and textures and also because the whole process of creating a backdrop from scratch is super fun!

So I thought before diving into the DIY process here are a few tips for the beginners who are just starting on their formal food photography journey. Now when you start looking for food photography backdrops you always face a couple of basic questions like-

- Where to start looking for a backdrop?

- Which are the reliable and cost effective backdrop providers?

- What kind of backdrops should I buy material wise?

- Which color/texture should I go for.

- Which size would be the best

1. Where 

While there are zillion more questions I had, these were some of the generic ones I feel. The answer to the first question is obviously Google. Pre-lockdown (in India) when I started my search there and there were these two names I got against which there were glowing reviews and a host of celebrity patrons - The Madras Prop Store and the Varai Prop Store.  This was way back in the month of April. After a little R&D I chose Madras over Varai as the former had an online order option back then.  But let me put a disclaimer, both of them are pretty pricy. No doubt about the quality they offer but when you are just starting out on your journey of investing on good backdrops you don't want to burn right through your pockets before you are convinced that your photography skills can justify the investment.

During the lockdown a plethora of businesses came up which offers quality backdrops at more affordable prices. A few of my personal favorites are India Prop Store and Bla Bla Props. I have used their professional backdrops in many of my food photos which you can checkout on my Instagram page. 

2. Material

A good food photography background can be made out of anything even some craft paper that you have lying in some corner of your home, cushion covers, any fabric or even your home floors and furniture. However, if you are planning on using the backdrop over and over again then I would recommend to stick to surfaces that are durable, stain-proof and waterproof at least.

Avoid reflective surfaces for food photography, as it may lead to bright spots or ugly reflections on your photograph. 

Now when I looked up the backdrops it had various categorizations as in - Painted, printed and wooden backdrops. That is basically the broad segmentation of backdrop categories. 

• Hand Painted : Each of these backdrops are painted by hand to give the textures. Something like what we are going to do in this blog later. They have the best textures and colors and feel really premium. Quite pricy.

• Printed : These are high quality printed backdrops. They come in canvas, vinyl and poly fabric. These are the ones which beginners can use, usually are much cheaper than the hand painted and wooden ones. Canvas printed ones have best quality while poly fabrics are not that great but does the job.

• Wooden Backdrops : Wooden food photography backdrops are a great choice as they provide pleasing colors, grain, texture and could be either rustic or chic. You can barely go wrong with a wooden backdrop. But they are the most pricy ones. 

3. Size

For food photography, one doesn't really need huge backdrops like portrait photography. Anywhere around 2ft x 3ft is a good size for a good food photography premise. Both flatlay (using with camera angles from above the food) or when the camera is level with the food can be handled well. 

4. Color

The background should always compliment your food and not overpower it.  Background colors that are neutral, desaturated and not very flashy goes very well with any kind of food. So the first few colors you could try and add to your kitty are black/grey, white and maybe a warm shade of blue. Shades like yellow, red, pink are a little more difficult to contrast with the food and props than the neutral colors. At times instead of plain black color, you can go for shaded black color or one that has a vignette look (decreased brightness around its edges). 

Now coming to the process of making a DIY hand painted backdrop at home. This is a project which is very close to my heart and I would like to share with all you folks.

Materials Required:

Base 

• A cardboard/ MDF board - 2 ft x 3 ft
• Scissor / sharp cutter - 1 (only needed if using cardboard)
• Wide Masking tape - 1

Base Texture

• White cement /Plaster of Paris - 1 cup
• Fevicol - 1 tbsp to 2 tbsp
• Mixing bowl - 1
• Mixing spoon - 1 (I used an old butter knife)
• Jointing Spatula - 1 ( I used a square cut out of same cardboard)
• Water 
• Paint Brush - 1
• Newspapers - a whole bunch of newspapers to prevent staining your workplace
• Tissue paper / old cloth - 1 ( for wiping off any unwanted splotches)

First Coat

• White primer/ Enamel paint - 200 ml tin
• Paint brush - 1
• Gloves - a pair

• Newspapers - a whole bunch of newspapers to prevent staining your workplace
• Tissue paper / old cloth - 1 ( for wiping off any unwanted splotches)

Final Coat

• Acrylic color - Black and white

• A palate/ mixing bowl 2 (for colours) - 1
• Kitchen sponge - 1
• Newspapers - a whole bunch of newspapers to prevent staining your workplace
• Tissue paper / old cloth - 1 ( for wiping off any unwanted splotches)
• Transparent Artists fixative spray/ transparent varnish (Optional) - 1 bottle

1. Start by cutting the cardboard/MDF board in a size of 2 ft x 3ft

Tip: You can go for MDF board if you get them, it will ensure a more durable backdrop. However cardboards also work well. In the photograph you cannot understand the difference of the material.

Note: I used one side of a IKEA packing box for this background

2. To prevent an irregular edge, especially when you are using cardboard, I used a wide masking tape around the edges to make them smooth.

3. Now to create the texture base on the backdrop.  Take a mixing bowl and add about a cup of white cement, 1 tbsp of fevicol and a little water. We need a dense consistency just like the picture below. It should not be too dry otherwise it will fall off easily post drying.

Tip 1: Keep adding water little by little, so that the mixture doesn't become too liquid. If it becomes too runny then add more white cement to balance it.

Tip 2: You can use gesso if you want to avoid the hassle of creating a base mixture from scratch.

4. Once you have the base texture ready you need to work fast as it will start to dry very fast. First you spread newspaper on the work area ( you don't want the white cement to mess up with your working surface, I forgot to put the paper hence ended up messing my floor!). Place the prepared cardboard on top of the newspaper.  Now put a little mixture on the cardboard and start spreading it with the spatula. You can go any direction as we want an uneven texture on the backdrop. Let those edges and bumps be there as they give a very nice textured look to the cardboard.

Keep repeating the process - take a little mixture and spread on the board. You need to cover the board once and then if you have any mixture left you can keep touching up all the areas you want.

Tip: Work fast with white cement! Don't worry about the spatula strokes, we do not need a uniform surface.

Note : Since I didn't have a steel spatula I just cut off a square of the cardboard and used it as a spatula.

5. Once you have covered the cardboard completely, now you need to add the final texture. For this its best advised yo use your fingers. I wanted to give an uneven peak look all over the surface. Hence I spread all 5 fingers and just kept roughly tapping all over the surface. Refer to the picture below. However at this stage you can practically give any kind of shape to the surface. 

Tip: Work fast with your fingers, as the white cement will start to dry out 

6. Now let the white cement mixture dry off completely. Preferably keep it outside in the sun to dry. Depending on the outside temperature and humidity, the surface will take anything between 2 hr to 3 hr to dry out completely under the sun. 

Tip: Keep checking at regular intervals for its readiness. When the surface turns completely white and you can not feel any dampness, the base is ready.

7. Now its the turn to put the first coat.  Spread a lot of newspaper below and put the cardboard on it. Many people directly put the acrylic colors at this stage. But I wanted to ensure the surface is waterproof so at this stage I recommend you use a primer/ enamel paint to coat the whole surface. I used a white primer. Use a paint brush with big rough bristles to coat the surface. Again you don't need to paint meticulously. It is okay to do random brush strokes as long as you cover the surface. 

I gave like a two layer coat of paint. And then again let it dry under the sun. This will take a lot of time. So be patient. It took about 5-6 hours for me.

Tip : The paint takes time to dry, so don't hurry with the next step.

Note: Please have a gloves on if you want to avoid getting your hands messy. Primers are not that easy to get off your hands. But if you still accidently put primer on your hand use a nail polish remover to wipe off the paint from your hands. Please note soap and water would not take the primer off. So nail polish remover it is!

8. Now it is the time to apply the second coat that is the acrylic paint coat. Spread newspapers below the cardboard. Now on a paint palate or a plate add 5 drops of black + 1 drop of white paint. Mix it with a painting brush. We will consider this as color 1 : and it will be a dark gray shade.  

Cut the kitchen sponge into a square. Now dip the sponge into the color one half way through and then start dabbing it on the cardboard. Dip the sponge into the color and repeat till entire cardboard is covered.

Give two to three coating of the color to have a good coverage.

9. Once the complete cardboard is covered with color 1, keep it to dry overnight.

10. Now next morning we start with the next color shade. This will become the accent colour. So now take about 4 drops of white + 2 drops of black and make color 2: a light grey variation of color 1. Now take a sponge square again and dab the color 2 more around the center of the cardboard and a little towards the edges. 

11. Now again make color 1 (as mentioned above) and dab it with a sponge around the corners and the edges of the board to create a vignette effect. After this you can go on improvising depending on how you want the final look to be.

Let it dry out completely for a couple of hours.

Tip : You can also dab a little gold color here and there to create a rusted metallic look

12. As a final step to secure the colors of the backdrop coat or spray it with transparent varnish. I used camlin Artist's fixative spray. This acts as a weathercoat on the colors and keeps them lively for long.

This is an optional but recommended step. Store the backdrops in a place away from direct sun light.

I have used the background in the first picture in this post ( Onion stem). And also in the Tea infused Crème caramel post background. So you can see the same background works wonderfully well vertically or horizontally.

Just to give you an idea of how much this would cost approximately.  -

1. Cardboard - Rs 0 / MDF - depends on size 
2. White cement / POP - Rs 20/ kg (Available at hardware store)
3. Fevicol - 45 gm - Rs. 20
4. Enamel paint - 200 ml - Rs 75 (Available at hardware store)
5. Enamel paint brush - Rs 10 (Available at hardware store)
6. Flat Brush - Set of 4 - Rs 140 (Available at stationary store/ online stores like Amazon)
7. White & Black paint - Rs 200 - Rs 300 ( a full set of 12 colors would come at this price)
8. Kitchen Sponge - Rs 0 - Rs 12
9. Masking tape - Rs 20
10. Cardboard spatula - Rs 0

This whole project would cost something around Rs 500-600 if you are starting from scratch. But it cost me only the price of the sponge Rs 12 as I had all the other things handy at home. Compared to about Rs.1000 to Rs 2000 that you pay for any professional background (mdf) this is way cheaper and you can definitely do the comparative math yourself.

And remember apart from the cardboard/MDF everything is reusable! So basically once you get these stuffs you can make more than one backdrops.