Tag Archive for: tips

How To Mix And Match Photography Backdrops

Curious about photography backdrops and how to mix them in your food photography work? There are a number of ways you can mix and match backdrops and I hope my ideas will give you a creative boost for your work!

Curious about photography backdrops and how to mix them in your food photography work? There are a number of ways you can mix and match backdrops and I hope my ideas will give you a creative boost for your work!

*This post is sponsored. All opinions are my own.*

Let’s face it, once you start building your backdrop collection you start facing the issue of how to pair them. The options are literally endless however not everything works in every situation.

So I gathered a list of ideas and tips to spark your creative fire, try new combinations, and be comfortable doing so.

While doing so I tested my new food photography backdrops from V-flat. It’s the first time I tried backdrops with a stand or as they call it Duo legs. I was always used to either leaning the backdrop on the wall or clipping it to a stand. However, I found the legs to be very useful, especially since I’m often playing around with my artificial light and I can very easily put the light behind the backdrop if need be. Which is something I wouldn’t be able to do if I lean the backdrop to a wall.

So before we go to the tips and creative ideas, I just wanted to mention that all the photos in this post are made with the V-flat duo boards, and you can see how easy it is to set them up and mix and match them. Not to mention that they don’t curl like vinyl. I love and appreciate my vinyl backdrops, but these boards saved me time in editing (no curly edges in the photos, no-no). 

Without further ado…

Here are my creative ideas and tips in a nutshell:

1. Mixing and matching different colors

2. Mixing and matching smooth and rough textures

3. Mixing and matching patterns vs. no patterns

4. Mixing photography backdrops to create space

5. Mixing photography backdrops to create dynamics

6. Play of light & mixing photography backdrops

7. Mixing and matching backdrops to fit the story

1. Mixing and matching different colors

This is probably the most common technique and while it’s easy to mix two backdrops with similar colors, choosing two different colors can create a lovely feel and mood in your photo.

To really know which two {or more} colors to choose, we need to understand color theory. Since this is such a broad topic, we won’t go too deep. I suggest reading some art books or simply searching for them online and you should get a basic idea.

But whatever you do, always keep the food the star!

Curious about photography backdrops and how to mix them in your food photography work? There are a number of ways you can mix and match backdrops and I hope my ideas will give you a creative boost for your work!
Curious about photography backdrops and how to mix them in your food photography work? There are a number of ways you can mix and match backdrops and I hope my ideas will give you a creative boost for your work!
Even if you don’t have two colorful backdrops you can test this out. Simply edit the colors of the backdrops into another color.

2. Mixing and matching smooth and rough textures

By smooth I mean a texture without a lot of visible bumps whereas by rough I mean a texture that has a very pronounced bump effect or pattern.

You can absolutely mix those two together, however, you need to be careful about a couple of things:

  • carefully choose the colors based on what we discussed in the previous section
  • it’s better to choose food with the opposite texture. Meaning, that if your subject is a very textured salad it might not work on a highly textured backdrop. In this case, you need to place the salad in a way where it has minimal interaction with the textured and more interaction with the smooth backdrop.
Curious about photography backdrops and how to mix them in your food photography work? There are a number of ways you can mix and match backdrops and I hope my ideas will give you a creative boost for your work!

3. Mixing and matching patterns vs. no patterns

This is very similar to the previous creative idea, however in this case the texture is much more pronounced and looks more geometric hence – the pattern.

You need to watch the same things as above {so go ahead and read it if you haven’t yet}.

In comparison to simple but textured backdrops patterns are so much heavier in visual weight. This means that pairing them with highly textured foods is usually not a good idea. Choosing simpler and more uniform subjects is a better way to approach patterned backdrops.

Pairing them with a smoother photography backdrop makes it easier for the eye to process everything happening in the photo, so I encourage you to try it out and see the effect.

4. Mixing photography backdrops to create space

You can think of your backdrops as a vessel to create space. If it’s a flat lay it’s creating a feeling of a table or any other flat surface.

If you combine the two, you can give a sense of a familiar space. We are used to seeing floor and wall interact all around or a countertop and a wall interact in a kitchen.

But you can go even beyond that. Combining more than two photography backdrops is certainly possible. If you take a look at the example photo below, you’ll see how adding that extra backdrop on the left created a mystical feel {almost like whatever is behind is a secret}!

Before you choose a backdrop for your next photoshoot thinks about the space you want to create and what backdrops you can use and how many to make the viewer feel like they are in that space.

Curious about photography backdrops and how to mix them in your food photography work? There are a number of ways you can mix and match backdrops and I hope my ideas will give you a creative boost for your work!
Curious about photography backdrops and how to mix them in your food photography work? There are a number of ways you can mix and match backdrops and I hope my ideas will give you a creative boost for your work!

5. Mixing photography backdrops to create dynamics

Let’s talk more about the space we are creating with backdrops. Placing backdrops at certain angles can create beautiful diagonals and adds another dimension to a photo.

It’s very easy to get stuck in placing one backdrop behind another and set up that line between them to be perfectly horizontal. It’s just very logical. However, once you start to think about the backdrops as not only how they look, but how they can add to the flow in the composition, you’ll start to see that it can have a massive effect on how your photos look.

Think creating diagonals, triangles, placing one backdrop on top of another… the options are endless!

Curious about photography backdrops and how to mix them in your food photography work? There are a number of ways you can mix and match backdrops and I hope my ideas will give you a creative boost for your work!
Curious about photography backdrops and how to mix them in your food photography work? There are a number of ways you can mix and match backdrops and I hope my ideas will give you a creative boost for your work!

6. Play of light & mixing photography backdrops

Playing with light is one of the most exciting things about food photography if you ask me. I often like to play with hard light and shadows to create an interesting effect in my photos.

However, there is something crucial that can make or break a photo with a shadow play, when you are mixing different backdrops at the same time. Adding strong shadows to an already busy backdrop can become distracting very easily. That’s why I prefer having a strong shadow effect on the less busy backdrop. Just like you can see in the photo below.

Curious about photography backdrops and how to mix them in your food photography work? There are a number of ways you can mix and match backdrops and I hope my ideas will give you a creative boost for your work!

7. Mixing and matching backdrops to fit the story

It goes without saying (although I’m saying it right now) that anything you put inside the scene needs to match the story you are telling. 

Including photography backdrops! Imagine those white tiles in the photo below to be black. 

Do you see how that would not fit the story of early morning breakfast? The photo would lose its freshness. 

And imagine if I used a green backdrop below and a purple one in the back. While the color combination might somehow work, the story would be completely crushed.

Never stop exploring photography backdrops and their combinations

Hope you enjoyed these tips and ideas for combining different backdrops. Now let’s roll up the sleeves and go practice, because practice makes perfect, as they say.

One thing you should never stop is trusting your own feeling and explore new options.

Let me know in the comments what are some of your favorite photography backdrop combinations!

Critiquing Your Food Photos (+ My Own)

Learn how easy it is critiquing your food photos and watch me critique mine and see what improvements I could have done to improve them.

I'm back with a few of my old photos, which I'm not too happy about. In general, I like the look of them, but there's a lot that could be improved. You can watch it right here below.

Hi everyone, I’m back with a few of my old photos, which I’m not too happy about. In general, I like the look of them, but there’s a lot that could be improved. You can watch it right here below.

And if you know me, you know how I like talking about reading your images, which is also something I dive into with my Food To Frame students a lot more.

Knowing what mistakes you made in your photos is the ultimate key to success. If you never go back and review your old photos, you’re missing out on so much growth! Seriously, after reading these and watching the video, go over your photos and find a few you’re not happy about and try to pinpoint those areas where it’s lacking. Things that you could change to tell your food story much better or make your dish stand out.

The three key components of critiquing your food photos are:

1. Looking at what is the distraction in the photo

Think of distractions like procrastination. When you’re procrastinating, you’re trying to do everything else but your task, right? It’s very similar here. Distractions are everything that makes it difficult to see the main subject because you’re focusing on everything else. This could be a subject that’s too bold, it might be poor editing, or the light not being there.

If you pinpoint the distractions, you’re already halfway there!

2. Checking out the placement of your main subject and all the supporting elements

Placement is crucial in photography. When you’re reading your images, make sure to check whether the position of your elements makes sense. Both in terms of its position in relation to the frame and to the other elements in the photo.

3. Thinking of solutions

This might be the hardest one.

Okay, you know what’s wrong with your photo, but how do you know how to fix that?

It might take some trial and error, but in general, I’d start with the opposite.

Let’s say you realized your photo is too dark. The solution is obvious, right? Go with the opposite and make it lighter.

With some mistakes, it might be a bit tricky and the solution will not be so straightforward.

Let’s say your photo angle is wrong for that dish. How can you fix that? There aren’t just two possible angles to shoot from, so you actually need to think about the dish and the angle at which it looks the best. In case you ever encounter that problem, I actually have a guide on camera angles ready.

In these cases, you need to dive deeper into critiquing your food photos and learn more about the subject. And what I also find useful is checking out photos of other photographers which might give you the solution.

Make sure to also read How To Read Food Photos To Improve Your Food Photography + A Case Study! to learn more in-depth photo reading techniques.

Splashes In Drink Photography

Splashes in drink photography are so much fun right? In my opinion, they brighten up photos of drinks and just make them exciting to look at.

Splashes in drink photography are so much fun right? In my opinion, they brighten up photos of drinks and just make them exciting to look at.

Splashes are not the easiest and the cleanest things to do. They are, however, amazingly beautiful. While most things as food photographers we can control, there’s no way you can entirely predict how the splashes are going to turn out. Making splashes just a tiny bit more challenging. Mainly because most of the time you need to repeat them over and over again to get that perfect shot.

Let’s discuss a few things we need to do before taking the final photo and some tips that will make your life easier when you make splash shots.

1. Take a photo without splashes

The most important thing that you shouldn’t forget is to take a photo before any action is happening. I take two photos, one with a glass still empty, and one with a full glass but no action. This way I have two clean photos to work with in post-processing. Don’t take me by the word but I’d say all my splash photos are composites because there’s just no way you’ll get that perfect shot on the first try.

If you do, you should do a happy dance, for sure!

2. Prevent the glass from slipping

Okay, so the next thing you need is to attach the glass to the backdrop. I just use my son’s playdough. We have so much playdough in the house. You can of course use anything that sticks the glass to the backdrop. Make sure it’s a small amount, something you can edit out in the post-processing.

3. Prep the towels

Next, you need towels. Large towels. Trust me, I’ve had big floods happening! You need to be prepared.

And you need replacement fluid. When you do splashes the fluid from the glass will eventually get very minimal, so you need to add more. I like to prepare a large jug of whatever I’m shooting. And since I’m going to be wasting so much fluid, I use colored water, whenever possible. Just so I don’t waste actual drinks.

Splashes in drink photography are so much fun right? In my opinion, they brighten up photos of drinks and just make them exciting to look at.

4. Something relatively heavy to throw in

And then next, you need to think about what you’ll be throwing in the drink to make that perfect splash. If it’s some fruit that would actually be a part of the drink, then just use that. If you only want a splash, like I’ll be doing here, then pick something that will create a nice big splash. The heavier thing you pick, the more pronounced the splash will be.

I like to use things that are similar in color to the drink or something transparent like a large ice cube. Basically something heavy enough, but not something that would break the glass if it fell on the rim.

5. Fast shutter speed

What we want to make sure of is to shoot at a very fast shutter speed. I’m using a speedlight, so for me, this will mean I need to set my flash power to low power, to get that fast shutter speed. The shutter speed on my camera is set to X, ISO to X, and aperture to X.

When you’re shooting in natural light, you can’t really use a fast shutter speed like with a speedlight or a strobe, unless you’re shooting in a harsh light situation. In anything diffused, I strive to use a shutter speed of at least 1/500s or preferably faster for drinks to get that sharp splashes.

Splashes in drink photography are so much fun right? In my opinion, they brighten up photos of drinks and just make them exciting to look at.

6. Use manual focus

It’s also very important to use manual focus, so it stays the same in all the photos.

7. Use custom white balance

Also I’d steer away from using auto white balance, because you can combining images with different white balances could be a pain.

Basically, all the settings should be exactly the same for each photo you take, even the non-action ones that you take in the beginning. I have those ready and now let’s do a couple of splash shots and see what we end up with.

Splashes in drink photography are so much fun right? In my opinion, they brighten up photos of drinks and just make them exciting to look at.

7. Take some test shots

Before really going in with setting up your scene, make sure all your settings are okay. I like to do some test splashes to be sure my focus is in the right place and that my shutter speed is fast enough.

If you’re the video type (who isn’t?) I also have a short video explainign these tips and showing some bts of my splash photo.