[How To Guide] DIY Food Photography Background in under $20 – Part 2

Heyy there! I’m back with another DIY Food Photography Background tutorial, complete with step-by-step pictures! Can you sense my excitement? I hope you’re excited too! 🙂

Two months ago, I wrote a detailed blog post about making your own food photography backgrounds at home, something I’ve found to be easy, enjoyable and extremely cost effective! That was part 1 of this DIY Food Photography Background Tutorial series. I really enjoyed putting it together and was glad to find that you, Dear Reader, found it helpful too. Thus, I decided to do a Part 2!

Part 1 of this series was all about dark, dusky backgrounds for those moody shots that we all love on Instagram. So, for this edition, I thought it would be fitting to do a light background; not the usual white, but a chic, warm pink that is so versatile with food, and especially great for trendy flat-lays with a relaxed, romantic vibe! Here, I present to you, my new favourite food photography background – Pretty In Pink.

Before we go into the how-to guide, I suggest you read Part 1 of this series (here’s the link again) as it has all the juice about the setup you need to follow, types of tools and materials you could use, and tips and tricks.

Now that you’re all set, let’s get right to it!

Pretty In Pink

A pretty pale pink background that oozes a calming, warm vibe, just perfect for spring/summer food photography!

Tools:

• Acrylic Paints – crisp white – ‘Titanium White’; soft baby pink – ‘Light Rose’; and warm pink – ‘Venetian Rose’
• 2 ft * 3 ft foot Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF)
• Foam roller in a medium size, paint brushes, and lots of scrunched up old newspaper for painting
• Rags
• Disposable plate to use as a palette for mixing paints
• A bowl of water
• Disposable spoons
• Matte varnish for acrylic paints

Method:

• Using a damp sponge wipe, clean the surface of the MDF board and wipe it down with dry tissue to ensure no wetness remains.
• Squeeze 3 tablespoons of Light Rose and a few drops of Titanium White paints on to the disposable plate and dilute with 2 tablespoons of water. Using a foam roller, paint two coats on to the board. This will form the base coat. Leave to dry for 10-15 minutes.

• Squeeze 2 tablespoons of Venetian Rose on to the disposable plate and mix with 1/2 tablespoon of Titanium White. Dilute with a tablespoon of water. Dip old newspaper, scrunched up into a ball, in the paint and lightly dab in different spots. Using another scrunched up newspaper ball, lightly dab on the fresh paint, softly spreading it and patting it down till you achieve a splashy effect. Repeat this technique all over the board.

•  At this point, I found the board to be too pink for my liking. I wanted something far subtler. Add 2 drops of Light Rose and 1/2 tablespoon of white to the existing mix of Venetian Rose and dilute with a bit of water until you achieve a pale warm tone. Go over the board, in a similar way with crumpled paper, dabbing in places where the pink is overwhelming.
• Add 1/2 tablespoon Venetian Rose and 2 tablespoons of Titanium White to the disposable plate palette. Mix and dilute. This shade should be a warm white, something that won’t stand out on the board, but will blend right in with the pinks.
• Follow the same technique with crumpled paper, but refrain from going all over the board. For subtle, natural colour transition, limit the use of warm white, dabbing here and there and patting down to meld the colours together.
• If there are places where the white stands out too much, you could lightly go over it with a bit of Venetian Rose mixed with Titanium White to make the colour transitions more natural.
• When you’re happy with how the colours have blended together and the resulting splashy look, leave the background to dry overnight or for 2 days.
• Using a wide paint brush, paint a coat of diluted matte varnish on to the dried background. Leave to dry overnight.

Voila! Your version of Pretty In Pink is ready to be styled and photographed on! 🙂

Full Disclosure: This background is beautiful and lends a warm, comfy tone to photography. As you can see in the images above, different angles and times of photography can impact the tone of pink in your image. The shades will look different on camera, depending on what time of day you shoot or your angles and perspectives; embrace it and use this to your advantage.

Thank you so much for sticking around till the end of this post. I hope this How-To Guide helps you create the food photography (or multipurpose) background of your dreams. Let your creativity run wild – choose colours that make you happy and suit your style and go crazy!

And when you’re done, send me a picture of your background! I’d love to see it 🙂 ❤

Would you like to Pin This post for later? Here you go!

Psst… If you’d like to, you could come check me out on Pinterest! I pin a tonne of fun stuff – chocolate, lots of dessert, easy weeknight recipes; home decor, etc.!

Also, for regular updates on what’s happening in The Foodscape kitchen, follow me on Instagram at @thefoodscape! You’ll love all the deliciousness there, I promise! ❤

 

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