Recently, Ink & Elm sent me a few of their backgrounds (free of charge) to try out with my food photography. I have used their product in the past and had posted about them in another article here on the blog, Food Props and Styling Resources for Photographers. The past few backdrops I have used were hit-and-miss, but I think that they have made some great improvements.

They sent me two backdrops: one with a wood print, and one with a bokeh print. They were able to print the “wood” image on a vinyl that had less nylon texture to it, which can be one of the complaints about nylon backdrops (if you get too close-up or the light hits it just right you can see the texture). However, this particular backdrop was much more smooth and I did not notice the same texture as in the other backdrops. (I haven’t used the bokeh one, yet, but when I do I’ll be sure to post here on the blog.)

I do a lot of my food photographs back-lit, and you can see in the photos that it sometimes lights the backdrop up a little more than it would if it were actual wood. These backdrops have a LOT of pros, such as easy cleanup, easy to transport and store, and they look pretty darn good. Here’s a gallery of some images I took over the last few days using this backdrop: