A Portable And Inexpensive Seamless Background System

A Portable And Inexpensive Seamless Background System

Do you use a sweep in your portrait or large product photography? Sure a roll of paper several yards in length is necessary for photographing people and large products, but what about food and small products? Walking into a bakery or the back of a kitchen with two C stands and a large roll of paper is not going to work in the often small kitchen shooting environments. Whether I am shooting a bakery's new product line or a confectionery's holiday catalog, I need a lightweight sweep system that I can quickly set up on a table. Here is a portable and inexpensive system that I have developed.


simple_small_product_sweep_sweep_vs_no_sweep2

If you have never used a sweep to create a seamless background take a look at the above picture. On the left is a cupcake on a foam board background with no sweep. Can you see the seam created where the two pieces of foam board meet? The image on the right has no seam. This seamless white background in caused by a poster board sweep. Here is what goes into the system.


simple_small_product_sweep_setup2


For this set-up, you will need two pieces of white foam board, two A clamps, two right angle metal brackets, a piece of flexible white poster board, and tape.

Use the clamps to attach the poster board to the vertical piece of the metal bracket. Place the second piece of foam board over the horizontal bracket. The result will be two pieces of foam board that meet at a 90 degree angle. If your boards begin to tip backward, adjust the positioning of your clamps so that the two pieces of foam board will stand freely.

To get rid of the seam created where the two boards meet, tape the top of the poster board to the vertical board. Attach the poster board high enough so that you can create the sweeping curve shape seen above. Place your subject on the bottom of this curve.

By shooting on a seamless background, you won't have to spend time in Photoshop retouching out the seam. If you are shooting one or two, retouching the seam isn't too bad. When shooting a dozen or more products on white, shooting on a seamless background will save you a lot of time.

If your client wants something a little more creative than just white, this set up works with fabric as well! Here is an example using a place mat.


simple_small_product_sweep_cloth


Want to learn more about food photography? For more tips, tricks, and tutorials, check out issues 1-8 of photographing FOOD!

If you're passionate about taking your photography to the next level but aren't sure where to dive in, check out the Well-Rounded Photographer tutorial where you can learn eight different genres of photography in one place. If you purchase it now, or any of our other tutorials, you can save a 15% by using "ARTICLE" at checkout. 

Log in or register to post comments
6 Comments

Nice one Taylor, really pushing to get some more styled food photography into my portfolio and your tips and tricks are simple and really easy to duplicate on a budget. Thanks!

Fantastic.

wow!

I look forward to your tips every week! Awesome one!

I often uses this technique while doing for smaller product shoot. When come to bigger one, a big sheet of paper is required. If working near by the window, having the cloth covered to get a nice diffuse. As what the above image shown as well.

This is a good idea. I also have some styrene from a sign shop. They often have small pieces of scrap styrene in their waste bins. The styrene is whte and is very easy to clean and more durable than poster board. It comes in similar thickness to poster board.