Need some advice about backgrounds, mostly for product & food photography

abelcoto · Jun 4, 2022

I have been doing some research on backgrounds.
I want a grey background, for use with gels.

I am going to paint a mdf (1m x 1,8 m) in middle grey, in one side, and was thinkig in painting also the other side, but i don't know if i should choose a lighter grey, or a darker one.

Would be more useful to have a middle grey and a darker one?

In a darker one, you would have richer, deeper, more saturated colour, when using gelled lights, no?

Or that only depends in the light intensity falling into the background (power steps used in the strobes) & the distance?

Light greys could also be nice if want a more pastel / lighter color, depending what you want, i suppose.

I also have a 80 x 100 softbox, that i can use as white background - at least sometimes is used that way, i think, but perhaps is not always the best way, for having a white background.

I could look for some grey mat board / mount board, or hardboard and paint it (cheaper than mdf), in a lighter grey, if i need it , or white or any color. So i would be able to have the mdf with a middle grey and a darker one, but perhaps is not need a darker one, i don't know.

I also thinkig of getting some white paper / cardboard, or something to use as white background, as i understand lee 216 can not be used as background (I have a 7,62 m x 123cm roll).

For black, either turn grey, black, but in a 4 x 4m studio could be harder, or get velvet, that Karl Taylor says is great for black backgrounds.

Gato Amarillo · Jun 4, 2022

A lot of questions. Most of this is stuff you have to work out as you go. 4x4 meters is a pretty small space, but I worked for years in that size room so it can be done.

Start with a basic setup of black, white and gray backgrounds, then add to it as you see a need.

I think MDF will be heavier and probably more expensive than you really need. You might consider foam core or coroplast instead.

On the paint, go with the middle gray and see how it works. Then decide what to do with the other side. I would probably go with flat black, but white is another option, as are shades of gray. Depends on your style and intended outcome.

Lee 216 with a light behind it might be a very effective white background, similar to your softbox. But it could be hard to arrange in a small space or if you have a limited number of lights. It could also work with a white painted wall or flat behind it.

For small backgrounds like product or food poster board is fairly cheap and available in many colors.

For black backgrounds in a small space velvet can work -- but some velvet is shiny, so be careful what you buy. You can also find specialty flocked black background paper or board from photo specialist outlets.

Hope some of that helps.

Gato

A-Marc · Jun 5, 2022

if you paint mdf, paint both sides. one side will create tension and bend the mdf.

abelcoto · Jun 5, 2022

A-Marc said:
if you paint mdf, paint both sides. one side will create tension and bend the mdf.

Thank you

Klaus dk · Jun 5, 2022

I use roller blinds and put them in a box.

A black background gives you the most saturated colour when you use gels on your background lights.

But I wonder if you won't need a sweep or infinity background for product and food?

abelcoto · Jun 9, 2022

Klaus dk said:
I use roller blinds and put them in a box.

A black background gives you the most saturated colour when you use gels on your background lights.

But I wonder if you won't need a sweep or infinity background for product and food?

Thank you. This way of using backgrounds is interesting.

I was thinking of drilling the ceiling, and putting a couple of threaded rods, where to hook a 3m copper tube, to put the paper roll on it, but of course, the commercial designs to hold the background, hold a steel tube or the cardboard core itself, and do not let it rotate, except when you move the chain or whatever is used to lower the background, so if I do not find a way to prevent the roll of paper from rotating, it would be a problem. I think yours is a better solution. I would preffer to not investing in a brackground support, yet XD.

Most people I know who do product photography don't use infinity backgrounds. Most of them use easels and a piece of wood, or methacrylate (depending photo style), or a tripod with a wooden board and opaque methacrylate, on top. Much of this depends the type of photo you want.

Lighting and background, all depends on what you want to photograph, but for example, beer, wine, etc, you put 2 stripboxes on each side of the bottle, and a scrim (in most cases homemade with translum or lee 216), to increase the size of the light source.

And for the background, you can illuminate a background in a traditional way, that is to say a roll of white, black or grey paper, or a mdf board painted in any colour (for product, with a board of 1,2 m wide by 2 m high, it is enough, unless you make a photo with a lot of products). I made myself a kind of box, with wheels, to hold vertically, a mdf board, which I'm going to paint grey (a medium grey, I don't know if I should put a dark grey on the other side too or what to do haha).

You can also put a roll of traslum or lee 216, which is basically a diffusing material, and light through it, to get a white background. For example a rectangular softbox with a sheet of translum in front of it.

You could also use 2 strobes, as if it were a normal background, but through, and I think it would work well.

I wanted a white and a black background, apart from the mdf to have options.

I have been reading about field of view, and it seems, using a calculator, with the camera at 4 m of the background, you have a field dimension of 1,27 m Height, and 0,85 m Width, using a 1,61 crop factor, and a 70 mm lens (like a 100 mm in full frame).

Usually we use a 70-100 mm macro prime lens for product photography (for jewelry would be even 160 mm, i think). So i think with a 1,35 x 11m background is enough, cheaper, and as my room is pretty small, i think a bigger background, perhaps, would require more separation between background and products.

Richard Eskite · Jun 9, 2022

I would stay away from paper seamless backgrounds for still life and food. Too papery a texture. Too easily rippled in storage. Badly affected by moisture or oily materials. Maybe keep a white one around for huge spreads or if you will silhouette a composition.

I much prefer high pressure laminates such as Formica or Wilsonart. Lasts forever, is nearly indestructible, easily cleaned and the back side can be painted, if you're feeling creative. I store mine vertically in a rack but they can also be rolled with care. Hand tools are available for cutting to convenient sizes. I also like Melamine, which is a high pressure laminate applied to MDF. There is a flavor that's 1/4" thick with matte white on one side and matte gray on the other. If you aren't needing a cove, this stuff is great.

Of course, the absolute best backgrounds are those unique highly textured or colorful surfaces we find in the recycling or antique store, so keep your eyes open.

jazja · Jun 9, 2022

A light gray background is probably the best solution. Depending on the lighting, it can be light gray, dark gray or black.
I use translum plastic for the white background. In addition to the white background, you can color it with gel in any color.

abelcoto · Jun 10, 2022

Richard Eskite said:
I would stay away from paper seamless backgrounds for still life and food. Too papery a texture. Too easily rippled in storage. Badly affected by moisture or oily materials. Maybe keep a white one around for huge spreads or if you will silhouette a composition.

Thank you. I have read, that when you overexpose a white background, the texture is not visible. But of course, it is easy for folds, etc, to appear when using paper.

It probably depends a lot on the type of photo, or style,or preferences, and it is interesting to know all the pros and cons, and to know when it is convenient to use one thing or another.

For gray, I prefer, or mdf, or something similar, and paint it, for black, directly velvet, i would say. I want to buy a piece of 1.5 m x 1 m at least, which around here in Spain is about 30-40$.

Richard Eskite said:
I much prefer high pressure laminates such as Formica or Wilsonart. Lasts forever, is nearly indestructible, easily cleaned and the back side can be painted, if you're feeling creative. I store mine vertically in a rack but they can also be rolled with care. Hand tools are available for cutting to convenient sizes. I also like Melamine, which is a high pressure laminate applied to MDF. There is a flavor that's 1/4" thick with matte white on one side and matte gray on the other. If you aren't needing a cove, this stuff is great.

Thank you, I will look at the options you have given me. At the moment I have a 1m x 1.8m mdf, which I will paint grey, and some boards of what I would say is hard board / high density fiberboard or something similar, which I could paint other colors. Is very thin, about 2 mm, and was in the back of a huge closet. I broke it into pieces 1.3 m wide x 1.5 m high or so. It has one side painted white I think, and the one behind it is very smooth. I don't think it's varnished or anything on that side.

Richard Eskite said:
Of course, the absolute best backgrounds are those unique highly textured or colorful surfaces we find in the recycling or antique store, so keep your eyes open.

Yeah, one of my teachers, did that, he is a product photographer, and usually looks to see if there is anything interesting that has been left behind. I don't have that much space, but you can always use it for a photo and not necessarily save it, unless you have space.

My father gave me some barrels used to make cider, very typical where I live, and I was thinking at some point, to use the barrel to take some pictures with some bottles of cider.

I have also. some wide strips of wood, which I will join to make a wooden board as a prop, for example as a table, or background, depending on how you give the finish.

abelcoto · Jun 10, 2022

jazja said:
A light gray background is probably the best solution. Depending on the lighting, it can be light gray, dark gray or black.
I use translum plastic for the white background. In addition to the white background, you can color it with gel in any color.

Thank you. Yes, I understand what you are saying, if you light it enough, it will go from gray to white, if no light, to black. If you use gels, you can get a pastel color, lighting it more, and more saturated colors, with less light (varying the flash power).

the translum, lighting through it ?. I have lee 216 instead of translum.

Ed Shapiro · Jun 11, 2022

[ATTACH]3168628[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]3168629[/ATTACH] [ATTACH alt="Blue gel on transilluminated Plexiglas cyclorama said:
3168630[/ATTACH]
Blue gel on transilluminated Plexiglas cyclorama

abelcoto, post: 66217555, member: 1688350"]
I have been doing some research on backgrounds.
I want a grey background, for use with gels.

I am going to paint a mdf (1m x 1,8 m) in middle grey, in one side, and was thinkig in painting also the other side, but i don't know if i should choose a lighter grey, or a darker one.

Would be more useful to have a middle grey and a darker one?

In a darker one, you would have richer, deeper, more saturated colour, when using gelled lights, no?

Or that only depends in the light intensity falling into the background (power steps used in the strobes) & the distance?

Light greys could also be nice if want a more pastel / lighter color, depending what you want, i suppose.

I also have a 80 x 100 softbox, that i can use as white background - at least sometimes is used that way, i think, but perhaps is not always the best way, for having a white background.

I could look for some grey mat board / mount board, or hardboard and paint it (cheaper than mdf), in a lighter grey, if i need it , or white or any color. So i would be able to have the mdf with a middle grey and a darker one, but perhaps is not need a darker one, i don't know.

I also thinkig of getting some white paper / cardboard, or something to use as white background, as i understand lee 216 can not be used as background (I have a 7,62 m x 123cm roll).

For black, either turn grey, black, but in a 4 x 4m studio could be harder, or get velvet, that Karl Taylor says is great for black backgrounds.

Background management in food and product work is important. I do quite e a volume of food and beverage work, so here is my approach.

If your layout or concept calls for a solid background there are several approaches. A seamless background paper is a good start. There are several gray times made by my savage that offer various tomes of warm, cool, and neutral gray, I good starting point is one called "Studio gray which can go from very lig to very dark depen on the level of background lighting. This tome also responds well to gelled lights.

There is a major caveat in background lighting, in general. You can light the background with a dedicated background ligh, gelled or otherwise, but the final result as to density and saturation of the background very much depends on what I call unseen secondary light. This is a spill or additional light added to the background from all the otere lights on the set. Your final results as per the background will depend on the distance between the subject and the background, the degree of the spill or unseen bounce light and whether or not you can gobo the background to avoid an unwanted spill, I use the term "unseen" because, especially with flash, the ligh bouncing around the room may not be visible with the modelling lamps in play but will show up in the flash exposure. Unseen secondary light can also influence lighting ratios and contrast. Sometimes the spill and/or stray bounce ligh in the room is sufficient to light the background without any additional background light or lights. You can obtain these gray seamless papers in smaller rolls so you can experiment with your lighting system and gels The density of the gels is yet another factor. I use Roscolux gels- I have a Rosco swatch book with sample colours and each swatch is accompanied by a specification tab as to spectrum and ligh transmission data. Rosco also makes many kinds of diffusion and reflective materials.

A coloured background can also be created by transilluminating a Plexiglas cyclorama. You can "flota object on our withe or add colour. You will need to establish a ratio between the man and fill illumination and the ligh illuminating the background.

Black velvet eats light and can be used if you want a total jet-black background. The black seamless paper will require a high volume of light on the background to provide a density and saturation with gelled lights. You may need barn doors, and grids of gobos to isolate the background from any unwanted spill.

My personal favourite background technique for food illustration is suggesting environmental backgrounds with props or using food ingredients for foreground and background composition. I use wood panelling, cutting boards, butcher blocks, bamboo mattes, kitchen tools, or whatever is appropriate for fothe subject or illustrative concept.

Ed Shapiro- Commercial and Portrait Photographer. Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Mads Bjerke · Jun 13, 2022

I use the Colorama PVC back drops.

https://theflashcentre.com/products/colorama-colormatt-100x130cm?_pos=16&_sid=d3d7e22d6&_ss=r

Great, long lasting and come in various colours.

abelcoto · Jun 14, 2022

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation.

I have the studio (4 m x 4,2 m or like) painted gray (similar to a medium gray), except for a black wall, beams and columns in black. The ceiling gray, although visually it almost looks white, as I think I used a lighter gray. I could use some black sheeting of some cheap material or something similar like a cloth or something to put on the ceiling.

Apart from making some small flags, I was thinking of buying 4-5 sheets of expanded polystyrene - 2.4 m high by 1 m wide and about 2 cm thick - and paint them black to block the light from the flashes.

Thanks

Ed Shapiro said:
abelcoto said:

I have been doing some research on backgrounds.
I want a grey background, for use with gels.

I am going to paint a mdf (1m x 1,8 m) in middle grey, in one side, and was thinkig in painting also the other side, but i don't know if i should choose a lighter grey, or a darker one.

Would be more useful to have a middle grey and a darker one?

In a darker one, you would have richer, deeper, more saturated colour, when using gelled lights, no?

Or that only depends in the light intensity falling into the background (power steps used in the strobes) & the distance?

Light greys could also be nice if want a more pastel / lighter color, depending what you want, i suppose.

I also have a 80 x 100 softbox, that i can use as white background - at least sometimes is used that way, i think, but perhaps is not always the best way, for having a white background.

I could look for some grey mat board / mount board, or hardboard and paint it (cheaper than mdf), in a lighter grey, if i need it , or white or any color. So i would be able to have the mdf with a middle grey and a darker one, but perhaps is not need a darker one, i don't know.

I also thinkig of getting some white paper / cardboard, or something to use as white background, as i understand lee 216 can not be used as background (I have a 7,62 m x 123cm roll).

For black, either turn grey, black, but in a 4 x 4m studio could be harder, or get velvet, that Karl Taylor says is great for black backgrounds.

Click to expand...

Background management in food and product work is important. I do quite e a volume of food and beverage work, so here is my approach.

If your layout or concept calls for a solid background there are several approaches. A seamless background paper is a good start. There are several gray times made by my savage that offer various tomes of warm, cool, and neutral gray, I good starting point is one called "Studio gray which can go from very lig to very dark depen on the level of background lighting. This tome also responds well to gelled lights.

There is a major caveat in background lighting, in general. You can light the background with a dedicated background ligh, gelled or otherwise, but the final result as to density and saturation of the background very much depends on what I call unseen secondary light. This is a spill or additional light added to the background from all the otere lights on the set. Your final results as per the background will depend on the distance between the subject and the background, the degree of the spill or unseen bounce light and whether or not you can gobo the background to avoid an unwanted spill, I use the term "unseen" because, especially with flash, the ligh bouncing around the room may not be visible with the modelling lamps in play but will show up in the flash exposure. Unseen secondary light can also influence lighting ratios and contrast. Sometimes the spill and/or stray bounce ligh in the room is sufficient to light the background without any additional background light or lights. You can obtain these gray seamless papers in smaller rolls so you can experiment with your lighting system and gels The density of the gels is yet another factor. I use Roscolux gels- I have a Rosco swatch book with sample colours and each swatch is accompanied by a specification tab as to spectrum and ligh transmission data. Rosco also makes many kinds of diffusion and reflective materials.

A coloured background can also be created by transilluminating a Plexiglas cyclorama. You can "flota object on our withe or add colour. You will need to establish a ratio between the man and fill illumination and the ligh illuminating the background.

Black velvet eats light and can be used if you want a total jet-black background. The black seamless paper will require a high volume of light on the background to provide a density and saturation with gelled lights. You may need barn doors, and grids of gobos to isolate the background from any unwanted spill.

My personal favourite background technique for food illustration is suggesting environmental backgrounds with props or using food ingredients for foreground and background composition. I use wood panelling, cutting boards, butcher blocks, bamboo mattes, kitchen tools, or whatever is appropriate for fothe subject or illustrative concept.

Ed Shapiro- Commercial and Portrait Photographer. Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Gato Amarillo · Jun 14, 2022

abelcoto said:
...
Apart from making some small flags, I was thinking of buying 4-5 sheets of expanded polystyrene - 2.4 m high by 1 m wide and about 2 cm thick - and paint them black to block the light from the flashes.

I have used a lot of this. I paint one side black, leave the other white. So it can go as block or reflector depending on which way I turn it.

Gato

Jean Lestrale · Jun 14, 2022

"depending what you want, i suppose..."

Isn't that always the case ?

Ed Shapiro · Jun 14, 2022

abelcoto said:
Thank you very much for your detailed explanation.

I have the studio (4 m x 4,2 m or like) painted gray (similar to a medium gray), except for a black wall, beams and columns in black. The ceiling gray, although visually it almost looks white, as I think I used a lighter gray. I could use some black sheeting of some cheap material or something similar like a cloth or something to put on the ceiling.

Apart from making some small flags, I was thinking of buying 4-5 sheets of expanded polystyrene - 2.4 m high by 1 m wide and about 2 cm thick - and paint them black to block the light from the flashes.

Thanks

Ed Shapiro said:

abelcoto said:

I have been doing some research on backgrounds.
I want a grey background, for use with gels.

I am going to paint a mdf (1m x 1,8 m) in middle grey, in one side, and was thinkig in painting also the other side, but i don't know if i should choose a lighter grey, or a darker one.

Would be more useful to have a middle grey and a darker one?

In a darker one, you would have richer, deeper, more saturated colour, when using gelled lights, no?

Or that only depends in the light intensity falling into the background (power steps used in the strobes) & the distance?

Light greys could also be nice if want a more pastel / lighter color, depending what you want, i suppose.

I also have a 80 x 100 softbox, that i can use as white background - at least sometimes is used that way, i think, but perhaps is not always the best way, for having a white background.

I could look for some grey mat board / mount board, or hardboard and paint it (cheaper than mdf), in a lighter grey, if i need it , or white or any color. So i would be able to have the mdf with a middle grey and a darker one, but perhaps is not need a darker one, i don't know.

I also thinkig of getting some white paper / cardboard, or something to use as white background, as i understand lee 216 can not be used as background (I have a 7,62 m x 123cm roll).

For black, either turn grey, black, but in a 4 x 4m studio could be harder, or get velvet, that Karl Taylor says is great for black backgrounds.

Click to expand...

Background management in food and product work is important. I do quite e a volume of food and beverage work, so here is my approach.

If your layout or concept calls for a solid background there are several approaches. A seamless background paper is a good start. There are several gray times made by my savage that offer various tomes of warm, cool, and neutral gray, I good starting point is one called "Studio gray which can go from very lig to very dark depen on the level of background lighting. This tome also responds well to gelled lights.

There is a major caveat in background lighting, in general. You can light the background with a dedicated background ligh, gelled or otherwise, but the final result as to density and saturation of the background very much depends on what I call unseen secondary light. This is a spill or additional light added to the background from all the otere lights on the set. Your final results as per the background will depend on the distance between the subject and the background, the degree of the spill or unseen bounce light and whether or not you can gobo the background to avoid an unwanted spill, I use the term "unseen" because, especially with flash, the ligh bouncing around the room may not be visible with the modelling lamps in play but will show up in the flash exposure. Unseen secondary light can also influence lighting ratios and contrast. Sometimes the spill and/or stray bounce ligh in the room is sufficient to light the background without any additional background light or lights. You can obtain these gray seamless papers in smaller rolls so you can experiment with your lighting system and gels The density of the gels is yet another factor. I use Roscolux gels- I have a Rosco swatch book with sample colours and each swatch is accompanied by a specification tab as to spectrum and ligh transmission data. Rosco also makes many kinds of diffusion and reflective materials.

A coloured background can also be created by transilluminating a Plexiglas cyclorama. You can "flota object on our withe or add colour. You will need to establish a ratio between the man and fill illumination and the ligh illuminating the background.

Black velvet eats light and can be used if you want a total jet-black background. The black seamless paper will require a high volume of light on the background to provide a density and saturation with gelled lights. You may need barn doors, and grids of gobos to isolate the background from any unwanted spill.

My personal favourite background technique for food illustration is suggesting environmental backgrounds with props or using food ingredients for foreground and background composition. I use wood panelling, cutting boards, butcher blocks, bamboo mattes, kitchen tools, or whatever is appropriate for fothe subject or illustrative concept.

Ed Shapiro- Commercial and Portrait Photographer. Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Click to expand...

You might want to consider FOAM-COR boards for painting backgrounds and making reflectors and flags. It is inexpensive, fairly strong, cuts easily with a sharp matte knife and is ligh weight. Here in North America, I come is 4x8 foot sheets and is also sold in smaller sizes in art-supply and craft stories. Income in white, and black and you can stretch crushed aluminum foil over it for reflector construction.

Ed Shapiro- Commercial and Portrait Photographer. Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Richard Eskite · Jun 15, 2022

Good suggestion on the fomecore board. There is an even more durable product called Gator Foam which is much more sturdy, although more expensive. I use it for making hinged flats and such.

abelcoto · Jun 17, 2022

Ed Shapiro said:
abelcoto said:

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation.

I have the studio (4 m x 4,2 m or like) painted gray (similar to a medium gray), except for a black wall, beams and columns in black. The ceiling gray, although visually it almost looks white, as I think I used a lighter gray. I could use some black sheeting of some cheap material or something similar like a cloth or something to put on the ceiling.

Apart from making some small flags, I was thinking of buying 4-5 sheets of expanded polystyrene - 2.4 m high by 1 m wide and about 2 cm thick - and paint them black to block the light from the flashes.

Thanks

Ed Shapiro said:

abelcoto said:

I have been doing some research on backgrounds.
I want a grey background, for use with gels.

I am going to paint a mdf (1m x 1,8 m) in middle grey, in one side, and was thinkig in painting also the other side, but i don't know if i should choose a lighter grey, or a darker one.

Would be more useful to have a middle grey and a darker one?

In a darker one, you would have richer, deeper, more saturated colour, when using gelled lights, no?

Or that only depends in the light intensity falling into the background (power steps used in the strobes) & the distance?

Light greys could also be nice if want a more pastel / lighter color, depending what you want, i suppose.

I also have a 80 x 100 softbox, that i can use as white background - at least sometimes is used that way, i think, but perhaps is not always the best way, for having a white background.

I could look for some grey mat board / mount board, or hardboard and paint it (cheaper than mdf), in a lighter grey, if i need it , or white or any color. So i would be able to have the mdf with a middle grey and a darker one, but perhaps is not need a darker one, i don't know.

I also thinkig of getting some white paper / cardboard, or something to use as white background, as i understand lee 216 can not be used as background (I have a 7,62 m x 123cm roll).

For black, either turn grey, black, but in a 4 x 4m studio could be harder, or get velvet, that Karl Taylor says is great for black backgrounds.

Click to expand...

Background management in food and product work is important. I do quite e a volume of food and beverage work, so here is my approach.

If your layout or concept calls for a solid background there are several approaches. A seamless background paper is a good start. There are several gray times made by my savage that offer various tomes of warm, cool, and neutral gray, I good starting point is one called "Studio gray which can go from very lig to very dark depen on the level of background lighting. This tome also responds well to gelled lights.

There is a major caveat in background lighting, in general. You can light the background with a dedicated background ligh, gelled or otherwise, but the final result as to density and saturation of the background very much depends on what I call unseen secondary light. This is a spill or additional light added to the background from all the otere lights on the set. Your final results as per the background will depend on the distance between the subject and the background, the degree of the spill or unseen bounce light and whether or not you can gobo the background to avoid an unwanted spill, I use the term "unseen" because, especially with flash, the ligh bouncing around the room may not be visible with the modelling lamps in play but will show up in the flash exposure. Unseen secondary light can also influence lighting ratios and contrast. Sometimes the spill and/or stray bounce ligh in the room is sufficient to light the background without any additional background light or lights. You can obtain these gray seamless papers in smaller rolls so you can experiment with your lighting system and gels The density of the gels is yet another factor. I use Roscolux gels- I have a Rosco swatch book with sample colours and each swatch is accompanied by a specification tab as to spectrum and ligh transmission data. Rosco also makes many kinds of diffusion and reflective materials.

A coloured background can also be created by transilluminating a Plexiglas cyclorama. You can "flota object on our withe or add colour. You will need to establish a ratio between the man and fill illumination and the ligh illuminating the background.

Black velvet eats light and can be used if you want a total jet-black background. The black seamless paper will require a high volume of light on the background to provide a density and saturation with gelled lights. You may need barn doors, and grids of gobos to isolate the background from any unwanted spill.

My personal favourite background technique for food illustration is suggesting environmental backgrounds with props or using food ingredients for foreground and background composition. I use wood panelling, cutting boards, butcher blocks, bamboo mattes, kitchen tools, or whatever is appropriate for fothe subject or illustrative concept.

Ed Shapiro- Commercial and Portrait Photographer. Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

You might want to consider FOAM-COR boards for painting backgrounds and making reflectors and flags. It is inexpensive, fairly strong, cuts easily with a sharp matte knife and is ligh weight. Here in North America, I come is 4x8 foot sheets and is also sold in smaller sizes in art-supply and craft stories. Income in white, and black and you can stretch crushed aluminum foil over it for reflector construction.

Ed Shapiro- Commercial and Portrait Photographer. Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Thank you, i think we have here in spain those same boards, i will google a bit and see what sizes i can find and price.

abelcoto · Jun 17, 2022

Richard Eskite said:
Good suggestion on the fomecore board. There is an even more durable product called Gator Foam which is much more sturdy, although more expensive. I use it for making hinged flats and such.

Here, most foam boards have a hard cardboard or similar exterior with foam inside, mostly in white and black, from 2 mm to 5 mm i think, but i will take a look in google for types of foam boards that i could buy in spain, online or local. It seems i can get Gator Foam online in europe.

I was thinking of using expanded polystyrene, because i think here is cheaper, and found in bigger sizes, but perhaps is much less durable.

Richard Eskite · Jun 17, 2022

We have an insulation product here in the US that is styrofoam with a silver foil layer laminated onto one side. That makes a first rate fill card. There is also some mylar bubble packaging used sometimes in food shippments that make a good fill. I use all kinds of recycled shiny stuff as reflectors.

Need some advice about backgrounds, mostly for product & food photography

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