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I love flooring. I especially love how it can create a scene for photos when you shoot at a high angle or overhead and catch just the tiniest bit of it in a shot.
But for years, my floor was brown shag carpet. Not exactly the kind of thing that makes you ooh and ahh over a photo.
Even now, I would have loved to have some rustic concrete or hardwood in my rental studio, but I had to work with the landlord for the most affordable option. And that happened to be boring office carpet.
The solution? Using my favorite surfaces as stand-ins for flooring. And they don’t have to be that big. It just takes a little creativity and movement to capture some fun images and angles.
Let me show you some examples.
I love my 2x3 vinyl surfaces from Poppy Bee Surfaces. Last week, I was photographing artichokes and I really wanted to get a shot on the corner of the live edge table my husband and I made a few years ago. But, again, boring office carpet.
So I set this up:
When shooting overhead I had to adjust myself.
Too high and I catch the edge of the carpet and the rug. Too low and I caught the edge of the surface at the bottom. But zooming in and centering myself with the camera gave me the third and final shot.
Bigger boards take a bit less work, but you still have to capture the right angle. I shot this scene just last week. Laying my 4 x 4 pallet wall surface on the ground allowed me to capture these sangria shots.
And this shot you saw just last week in the email about Changing Your Angle. This is a vertical of the same scene. The chair is set on a sheet of black painted canvas. This is what it looked like before I cropped and edited for the final image on the right.
The cocktail should look familiar, too. This one doesn’t use a surface at all, but a scuffed and worn-out black foam core board.
I hope this inspires you to incorporate some interesting flooring into your shots soon!
