When you take product photos you need to have a neutral background, which doesn’t compete with your product. The easiest way is to use a white wall, or any other dull colour, for example grey or beige will work fine as well.
The problem is, for small business owners taking their pictures at home or in their own studios (like me), to find that neutral backdrop. Sometimes that ideal wall doesn’t have the proper light. Or it does but you need to move many things around to accommodate your photo set. Furniture, decoration… it’s not that common to have an empty wall waiting for your nice photo shooting, right?
Well, I had exactly that problem while taking pictures of my bags. I didn’t manage to find the perfect spot, with the right light without having to reallocate half of my living room.
That’s why I had the idea, better say “the need”, to create my own backdrops so I could use them in my studio, on top of a table, or even on the floor.
That way I have everything I need at hand and I can set my photo shooting elements pretty quickly.
There are many options, but the one which works for me, and it’s super easy to make, is a wood backdrop.
I made mine with wooden frieze panels. Since they hooked to each other, it’ll take you just a few minutes to mount it.
You just need to cut them to the length you need. As an idea, I cut mine at 120cm. Once mounted I glued a couple of wood strips at the back, so it gives more stability and helps to keep all the pieces in place.
If you don’t want to buy any material you could also use recycled wood. Reusing remnants could be a good solution. It might be a bit trickier to mount them and glue them together but definitely it’s a valid option. And zero waste!
In my case, I made two backdrops, so I can use one for the base and the other one for the back of the photo if I need to.
I left one with a natural finish, I just applied a protector layer to avoid it gets dirty easily. And I painted the second one white. That’s the one which replaces the white wall.
It provides a lot of light to the photos, and the lines between the different elements creates some texture, which looks even nicer than a plain background. At least I like it a lot.
These panels are also great for flatlays photos. You just need to place it on the floor and arrange your elements on top.
In the pictures I took for the last bag I just launched, the Midi bag, you can see how it looks. In some of the photos I used the two backdrops. In some others, like the flatlay, I only needed one of them.
I hope this idea might be helpful. It’s an easy and quick DIY project, using cheap materials, or even recycling. Simply have fun!