DIY: Mini Photo Studio

In a tiny apartment, I'm always looking for ways to photograph food, make-up, calligraphy samples, and flowers without having a distracting background. Our apartment has white walls and dark wood floors which makes for contrasting backgrounds for images and much of the space is taken up by furniture, the TV, side tables and cords. Finding a spot to take crisp photos against an all-white background is next to impossible and I'm always photoshopping out light switches and the heating vent. 

The easiest solution I've found (that's transportable, easy to dismantle and doesn't require a large cardboard box) is a roll of butcher paper! All you need is a roll of butcher paper (I got mine for ~$30 on Amazon) and some furniture or tape. I used a dining room chair to lay the roll on, placed it in front of a really bright window and rolled out enough paper to accommodate the foreground of the photo. If you need to take taller photos (vertical outfit photos included), you can cut a sheet of butcher paper and tape it up to the wall to provide a big backdrop!

I love how simple this is and what great photos I get as a result! I was able to take a ton of new product photos for my calligraphy shop this weekend that all have a very uniform and very bright look! No more shooting on the duvet cover!

If you're looking for something a bit more like a light box, I think that this is a fantastic and easy idea. It takes a cardboard box, some scissors or a knife, butcher or white paper and tape. It'd be fantastic for photographing smaller items for a shop!