Using Paper Photography Backdrops

Hello everyone – Amy here from The Blissful Bee! I am so happy to be contributing to Remodelaholic and can’t wait to share some of my home photography/styling tips and tricks. You might remember my last post about how using natural light will give you much better photos. Well, today I am here with a styling tip about using paper photography backdrops. I hope you will be able to use both of these tips to produce a more professional look!

First of all, I didn’t use backdrops for a long time because I kept thinking they were either too expensive or too annoying to set up. Well the good news is, they AREN’T expensive OR difficult to use.  Yay! There are so many ways you can make your own backdrop, like my DIY fabric scraps backdrop that I posted about months ago, but there are also a ton of options online that you can simply purchase.   

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My favorite paper backdrops are found on Amazon. My all time favorite set is the Ella Bella Photography Backdrop 4 roll set. You can purchase ALL 4 backdrops for under $40 (Amazon prices fluctuate a bit). And they are rather large too – 4 feet by 12 feet.

Another backdrop that is popular (and you might have seen it around the blogosphere) is the Weathered Wood roll which is also 4×12 feet and only $8 for the roll. 

I have all 5 of these backdrops and like to switch them out for different projects. I’ve also even gone to the $1 Store and purchased some neutral wrapping paper and used that as a backdrop!  Now that we know where to buy our photography backdrops, I’d like to show you how I set them up in my home. 

As you can see, I simply hang these up with some masking tape. I don’t rip off the tape when I’m done, because it will rip the paper, but I simply fold over the tape to the other side when I’m done. You can even see some of the leftover tape from when I’ve used it in the past. Since the top of the backdrop will never be in the actual photo, it doesn’t matter if I still have leftover masking tape showing.

Once your backdrop is hung, you are ready to shoot your product!  Remember, make sure to set up your backdrop near natural light! See my last post for more info on that.

If I’m shooting multiple projects in one sitting, I will simply layer my backdrops rather than roll them up between shoots. Depending on the project, I might decide to use my first backdrop again, so it’s just easier to keep them all laid out rather than cleaning up and re-setting them up for each project.  NOTE: The brown paper you see below is actually wrapping paper I found at the $1 store. 

Here is the “product shot” up close. 

And here is what the “behind the scenes” look like: 

I have used backdrops for many projects and LOVE them! They really seem to make my life so much easier when it comes to blogging. Since I have a smaller house, I don’t have a studio set up for blogging like some bloggers might. So it’s really great for me to have areas that I can simply set up where ever and whenever I like. I hope todays post is helpful! Looking forward to next time:) If you would like to see some of my latest projects, make sure to check them out here, here and here.