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photography

How to Make Affordable Photo Backdrops

Wie man günstig tolle Fotohintergründe herstellt

Are you looking for affordable backdrops for your food photography? Then look no further, I will give you tips below how you can make them yourself and this is me talking, a very clumsy person who has problems assembling IKEA furniture. You don’t have to spend much to make beautiful backdrops, believe me, you can make each backdrop easily to your liking and with your preferred color set. Let’s get started!

Wie man günstig tolle Fotohintergründe herstellt#1 What do you need?

  • Get a chipboard, scrap board, or wooden board at least the size of 60cmx80cm. I like to checkout our local wood market, they often have leftovers they give away for free or very little money
  • You will either need a brush or a small paint roller
  • Lacquer or wood color (try to go with neutral colors, such as black, white, grey, brown, etc. However, I also wanted to make a point here by using a bright blue because in my opinion it gives a very fresh look to food as well. You should definitely go for at least two colors and one of them being neutral)
  • Sanding paper  with different strength, I used 60, 320, and 800
  • Optional: an old sponge or white chalk

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How to Set Goals to Improve your Food Photography Faster

wie du schneller besser fotografierst

You would like to improve your food photography faster? Then these tips are for you. Often people are surprised when they hear that I started taking food photography seriously about a year and a half ago. The surprise stems from the idea that developing skills takes a long time. However, if you set goals, you will see that you will develop your skills much quicker. Just as an example, below are pictures from 2018 compared to 2017.

Same recipe of my favorite chocolate chip cookies, above from 2018, below from 2017

Do you see any difference?

This is because I set goals for my picture taking. If you are interested in getting five hands-on tips, head over to Emma on the blog The Food Blog Collective. Emma offers a lot of wonderful tips for new food bloggers, I wrote down my five tips how to improve your food photography with goal setting faster here.

Check out five hands-on photography tips here.

10 Beginners’ Tips for Food Photography

I have been taking pictures for about a year now and my passion for food photography is just beginning. I am definitely not a professional, but I love my camera, which is a Sony Nex7, this is not a DSLR, but a mirrorless camera. Mirrorless cameras are cheaper, easier to handle and perfect for me. So far I have bought one more lens and a tripod, that’s about it. I have often been asked whether I have some tips for beginners of food photography. As stated, I am not an expert, but I would like to present to you some practical tips, which really helped me during my journey. These are my down-to-earth tips. Let’s see:

#1 Take pictures and then take some more

It is so easy to get lost in tutorials and Youtube videos. But if you want to improve your photography, you actually have to take lots and lots of pictures. Period. You will only get better over time and if you practice regularly. Try to set a realistic goal. I, for example, set the goal to take pictures of at least one recipe every Saturday. The idea is that I take pictures of which I can use five for my blog. Sometimes I feel that the pictures will turn out beautifully. This was the case with the blueberry hand pies you see below. It was so much fun taking them! On the other hand, taking pictures of the apple roses cake was a pain. I took four times more pictures than for the pie until I was finally satisfied. Sometimes you may lose your mojo. I most certainly do. But the trick is to stick with it and just continue. You will not be perfect, but praticing regularly is key. On average I take pictures for half an hour. I don’t know why, but usually I get tired after that. If I had set the goal to take pictures for two hours, I probably would have given up. Be realistic setting your goals and then take pictures regularly.

Blueberry Hand Piespeed shutter: 1/100, ISO: 400, aperture: f4.5

recipe: cute blueberry hand pies

Apple Roses Cakeshutter speed: 1/10, ISO: 400, aperture: f5.0

recipe: cake with apple roses

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