Friday, November 1, 2013

Inspiration Nation//Stunning Photo Backdrops for $0

Sometimes I pretend to wear my photography princess crown and just twist around ideas for different cool-looking backdrops in my head. I've smacked my lips at all those beautiful food recipes with such gorgeous backdrops, not to forget, Foodgawker makes it worse for my amateur mind. Add to that fact, I'm super-thrifty and you get this...
Most of the time you need to make do with what you have; so these gorgeous photo backdrops were born from empty pizza boxes and some "laying haywire" pillowcases.
Your read that right.
This is so ridiculously easy, but as ridiculously flexible and versatile to suit different moods too! More tips at the end of the post!

You'll start by collecting an empty pizza box(es), and variety of pillowcases/cushion covers (feel free to go wild with patterns and colors, solid colors are awesome too!). Next get a roll of masking tape, double-sided tape and scissors and that's it.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1.Begin by ironing out any creases on your pillowcases.

2.If you fully lay open the pizza box, you can map it into halves (the top lid and the bottom base). On one half, place one pillowcase and tape over the extra fabric (using masking tape) onto the other side to secure.
3.Take the second pillowcase (a matching one from a set or another entirely different one) and tape it like in (1) onto the other half. 
In the middle where the two pillowcases meet, secure them to the middle edge of the box using double-sided tape.

3. Make sure you pull the fabric taut over the whole surface area. This is in fact the most important step!
4. Have the completely open and stretched out pizza box stand up both half-sides making an angle in between. And you should have a free standing photo-background. No support whatsoever required!
I did one pillowcase on one half, a pretty floral and a red palette-d pillowcase on the other half.
Keep these props handy for quick photography sessions to add instant glamour!
Have these stand somewhere across a window but not directly in front so that you get beautifully diffused light gliding over your photo subject!
Remember lighter colors bounce off light. Depending on the time of the day, you may want to substitute lighter background for darker ones if it's dark, or choose one darker and lighter for either side like I did!
See how it makes different facets of the subject glint? 
If you have more time at hand or you are a more of a stitch-chic you may want to sew a removable cover for each side. That's not me, really, but I bet my mum would be up for it so that she'll have to avoid taping them everytime!
My suggestion would be to collect a few bunch of pizza boxes or other similar sorts over time and designate a backdrop fabric for each box!
A con though is that you can only use for maybe smaller -medium sized subjects . It's relative to your thinking though!
Here's the really amazing part besides the customization. You can even use giftwrap or fat quarters apart from thrifty pillow covers. Other than that, use retired tees that are too small/big are also a great idea!

The above picture shows how you can even blur up the backdrop for a more subtle addition to your picture when you want more focus on your subject!
Have a fabulous week ahead and I hope this post helped those of you who were stumped about expensive photo backdrops! (You can also check out my epic DIY gallery here! <3)

If it did, please share and pin it to let other pals join in the fun!

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Ready to wear your photography crown yet?
.............................
Lots of love and loadza hugs,
xoxo Nash

6 comments:

  1. I really liked this as I always struggle to get a nice backdrop so thank you , I should try this out .

    Beverly | Beverlysbit.blogspot.com

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  2. Glad to know you'll give it a try Beverly! I know you'll rock it! :)

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  3. I will definitely going to give this idea a try. This is really cool and easy to make. And I guess another great thing about this project is that it is really inexpensive.
    PrintMyBanners.ca

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  4. I love it when DIYs are really thrifty too! :) Thanks Jelly :)

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  5. I can't believe I only recently found out about your blog. 30 seconds of peeking around and I LOVE it! I just KNOW you will be a popular DIY blogger one day!
    Keep blogging, and salams!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment made my entire week! Thank you so much!

      Delete


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