As we grew the blog, I needed to elevate our photography mis en scene. Since you eat with all your other senses before you taste food, our photos needed to look good. Eventually, we bought some backgrounds. I love them, but I could not justify their cost when I wanted to change them out. So I made these DIY food photography boards; some with wallpaper and some with paint. I love them.
Early on, I made a light box. I would place the food in a box and light it up. Our honey glazed salmon was one of the first in the box. But this was too restricting and everything around the food was white and uninteresting. Then I made a free standing light box so I could mimic natural light in different places around the house. This is what I use in all of our recent photography (and I also upgraded to studio lights). Using this light box, I went back to many early photos and upgraded their looks.
But I needed to set the scene for our food. Our furniture was limited, our rentals didn’t always have the nicest kitchens, and even when we did, they weren’t necessarily photogenic. Then we bought backgrounds from the Little Ladle Co. I love the shop and I love the boards so much. We use them all the time, even in our YouTube videos!
We have six backgrounds (inclusive of double sided boards) we can mix and match with each other. They are so well made, but they’re heavy. And they were expensive to justify a continued purchase. Since buying these, companies like Replica Surfaces popped up. They offer light and portable backgrounds. However, those boards are more expensive than the boards we bought. You can’t find boards for less than $70. So I decided to attempt to make some myself.
DIY Food Photography Boards
I made three boards in two different styles: wallpaper and painted. Prices were as of October/November 2022.
Sticky Wallpaper Food Photography Boards
My wallpaper board is a double-sided board with different patterns on each side. For this board, we wanted a marble look in different tile variations. One side is a herringbone tile and the other is a hexagon tile. This board took less than an hour to make.
Total Cost: $68.71 (two sided board)
- Wooden boards from Home Depot: $7.71 (each)
- Herringbone marble Wallpaper: $34
- Hexagon marble tile Wallpaper: $27
Textured Food Photography Boards
The two painted boards are single-sided. There are layers of spackling, paint, and a sealer. This one took three days to make: one day for each layer to be applied and then dried.
Total Cost: $52.42 ($26.21 per board)
- Wooden boards from Home Depot: $7.71 (each)
- Spackle: $8
- Spackle knife: $6
- “Antigua” (blue) Paint Sample: $5.50
- “Glazed Maple (earth/brown) Paint Sample: $5.50
- 2-pack Sponges: $6
- Sealant: $6
