I don’t think I’ve ever shared this before. This is my most used surface for shooting food photos. Can you guess what it is?
The marble surface is a very easy and forgiven background that you can shoot many kinds of stuff with: fresh vegetables and fruits, pies and tarts, breakfast, even non-food things like cosmetics, etc… But unfortunately the real thing is too expensive if you want a table sized surface, and too heavy to move around. So I use this instead:
Haha, now you know I don’t have a real marble kitchen counter! Although I may get a real thing one day, right now, I’m glad I have found a roll of this adhesive film for less than 10$. I carefully taped it onto a piece of foam board that is at least 18” wide, (you know foam boards are my friends:-).Then you have it, a lightweight faux marble surface for food photography! You can wet it like normal marble, and put it behind a couch to hide it away. Can you even tell it is not real marble from my pictures below?
All these pictures are shot with iPhone 6 Plus and edited using VSCO.
This particular adhesive film works very well since its light reflective surface resembles the marble material. I’ve tried another faux wood version, although the print is perfect, the surface is too shining compared to real wood.
To make this faux marble background, it does take a little bit patience and practice, the part you need to slowly tape down the film to avoid big air bubbles. Mine is not perfect actually. But you cannot really tell from my photos, can you?
I have many other DIYs and tools for photography I want to share with you, like how to make and use a DIY reflector, or What I do to “soften” the light.
The biggest secret is out: my most used food shooting background is a $15 DIY faux marble surface!
I think it’s only fair you share at least one secret with me too. Leave yours in the comment below.
xo, Qi
The exact gray marble adhesive film I used to create this photography surface:
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