I mentioned in my previous post that I started creating my own photography backgrounds after being inspired by this course from Denise Love at 2LO.
Since then I have been plastering and painting, dabbing and wiping, making all kinds of mess and having LOADS of fun.
Best of all, at the end there are these amazing background boards I can use in my photography – completely unique and not like any thing else out there. These have proper depth and texture, with crevices and hollows, delicious texture detail that looks really effective in an image.
In the above two shots I have used the same board but processed it for quite different looks in the final image.
With my first set of boards I set up a couple of still life shots and used them as backgrounds and you can view them all in a slideshow at the bottom of the post.
I feel really inspired to shoot with these boards, they are a different effect to what I normally use and its pushing me in different creative directions.
Do you make your own backgrounds? What techniques and elements do you use? Any recommendations of things for me to try?
Learning to See Light 
Your backgrounds look stunning.
You know, after all that Photoshop Artistry, it hadn’t occurred to me to make _physical_ backgrounds (no space, anyway) – but of course then the light is always perfect for your objects…
And you’re starting to develop a very distinctive style. I likes.
Thanks! It came as a great surprise to me that I could make this kind of thing, when it comes to painting/drawing I have NO skill whatsoever. But apparently slapping on some plaster very messily and smudging paint on with a baby wipe is something I can do LOL
Im interested in your comment about my style, while I have been doing food for a year or so now, a lot of it has been learning, and feels like a lot of flailing around while doing that.
I’ve been doing some technical advanced food study and its definately making me see and shoot in a different way, part of the reason the backgrounds became such a thing, because I wanted something *different* – something uniquely mine – to be present in the images. And yet I am shooting way outside my usual comfort zone!
These are really nice backgrounds are you using the Velvet lensbaby velvet 85 to shoot?
No canon 17-55 its a 2.8 lens tho