Dramatic Food photography

I love photography with great contrast. What better way to describe it then to call it dramatic photography. I’ve seen so many different styles of photography out there and having some close food blogger friends I know what it’s like when it comes to photography props. They aren’t very budget friendly and the downside to buying ready to use props is it kinda puts boundaries on your own artistic imagination. You use what you get and most likely wouldn’t alter a purchased prop to your taste because you just spend a whopping $60 on a piece of board that you wouldn’t want to ruin if something was to go wrong. So my creative food and product photographers… Do I have a treat for you..!! 😀 😀

Cost and Time

This background prop cost me under $5 total and took under 20 minutes to make. Who can say no to that?!! Here’s a bonus believe it or not their is No previous artistic experience needed just your mind set and 20 minutes of your time. . You won’t even be using a paintbrush. 😀

What you’ll need

4 mixing cups (I used paper cups)

Acrylic paint ( orange , blue, white, black.. Any acrylic paint will work.. )

Some water

2-3 pieces of recycled squares from a kitchen towel

1 Black foam board (from the dollar store)

Instructions

First mix all your colors. I chose to go with dark gray, copper-grayish, deep blue, and you will also need a lighter gray to add more depth because the darker gray will blend in to much with the black poster board. Once all your colors are mixed take a spoon of water and add to each color. Just enough to make the paint runny. (my paints came in a thicker consistency.. so depending on your paints you might not need to do this step) Dip your towel squares into the paint and start by dabbing the colors onto the edges of the poster board working your way around. You should be cleaning off as much paint as possible onto the poster board each time before dipping it in paint again. Kinda like using your makeup sponge 😀 😀 . Once your done with all your edges you can add a bit to the center if you want. Check out the video below to see how I made mine.. 😀 😀

Reality

Here’s a picture with no editing to show you what it looks like in reality. 😀

Yep edges curled and all. lol… BIG TIP.. The less paint the less curled edges. OH funny thing while doing my photo shoot I taped off the edges flat but, eventually the tape came off and I actually kinda of like the curled edges more because it gives the pictures even more depth.. 😀