Making a Backdrop for Indoor Plant Photos

When plants are photographed in a room, their surroundings sometimes become “clutter” that detracts from the actual plant.

My always helpful husband came up with a simple way to photograph plants to show them off in the best manner. We purchased two 30” x 40” blank canvases from a craft store. One was painted a flat black and the other beige. He used a roller for these. I won’t go into the pitfalls of spray painting, but he chose the roller method. The flat paint was used so that there would be no reflection, which might ruin the photo, when using a flash.

He also fastened some “eyes” on the back for hanging, but we soon decided that they wouldn’t be used unless we wanted to mutilate our walls with hooks.

Plants always photograph best in natural light, but sometimes you must use a flash, especially when photographing at night.


When you have epis that only bloom at night, you obviously need a source of light. Simply turning on a lamp or some lights in the room will not give you the proper colors of your plant.

This is a really bad photo as there is clutter and not one but two reflections from the flash. I never delete any of my photos, even the bad ones, so they have come in handy as illustrations of what not to do.

Although the background is dark here, the table detracts from the bloom itself. At first glance it is hard to tell just what the subject is.

Same plant, different background




For a large plant, the 30" width is barely enough. This would have to be cropped if used.


The boards can be placed on a table against a wall. When the photographing is complete and you are satisfied with your photos, the boards can be stashed in the back of a closet or behind a large piece of furniture.