As you noticed, your dish looks better with props around it. So you can play with colors, texture and items. Besides your different kinds of crockery it’s always good to have a variety of table cloths or kitchen towels. If you don’t have so many improvise.
I will go in flea market and if I see something interesting I will buy it. It’s cheap and you will use it at some point.
I will give a list of things I use in my photos and they have also other use.
- Table cloths
Not all of them can be used for photography, but sometimes you find one or two that are great to have around. If they are broken and dirty use the clean part. In the first photo, in the background is a piece of an old curtain. In the second one, I have a Christmas table cloth bought special for food photography.
- Kitchen towels
I have lots of kitchen towels and all are different. If you find a set with 2 or more different towels is a must for your collection.
- Pieces of clothes or material
You can see in this photo a piece of a pajama. I used it only a few times and then I cut it in small pieces. One is for my food photography.
- Shawls and handkerchiefs
I got a shawl for my birthday and I love the color. I use it for photography when I don’t wear it (first photo). My mother gave me lots of handkerchiefs in different colors since we have the one time use ones (second photo).
- Old Romanian tablecloths
I have a collection of old big and small handmade traditional Romanian tablecloths. This is an old recipe and those old tablecloths were part of the story.
- Knitted dishcloths
From leftover yarn I knitted dishcloths. I made them simple an in lots of colors. This handmade dishcloths are great with rustic or vintage photography.
- Burlap
I have some pieces of burlap to use for my rustic photos.
- Pants or dress
I use my dresses, skirt or pants for my photography. I am very careful to show just pieces of clothes. As you can see, you can’t tell that I am gone wear them after I take the photo. In the first photo I used an old white dress with small blue flowers and in my second one some pants.
- Bedspread
Sometimes a bedspread can be very helpful. I took this photo in my bedroom, on my bed in natural light.
So, don’t throw anything. You will be surprise how much will help sometimes when you take a photo. I have a box just for this kind of materials.
Keep taking photos!
Cooking Without Limits 
So helpful. I’m really not good at making my photos look pretty, great tips 🌸💚
Happy to help.
Improvise and improvement are almost the same word. creativity and out of the box thinking are features that distinguish us from the mass, helping us shine our very light. well done! #StrictMotivation
Thank you
Hi! Thanks for liking my post and also for your great tips on food photography. I’ll sure try to put them in good use 🙂
You are welcome
Omg! These are great ideas. I also like to use cardstock paper but your ideas keep things looking nice, textured and detailed!
Thank you
Your photos are beautiful! Thanks for sharing these tips! I am going to look at my food photography in a new way.
Thank you
Yes, the background is important and helps to enhance the main object of the photo
Oh, this is wonderful. I really need these tips. Thank you!
You are welcome
Gorgeous photography.
Thank you
Going to give these tips ago!!
Thanks!
You are welcome
Fascinating stuff. And your photos are beautiful.
Thank you
Some absolutely brilliant tips – my food photography is shocking, but you’re is really something quite lovely 🙂
Thank you
Some wonderful ideas here. Thanks 🙂
You are welcome
I appreciate tips on photographing food–always a challenge for me. And thanks for the “like.”
You are welcome
This is such a handy post, generally speaking I’m pretty rubbish with my food photos, but seeing how just a simple piece of fabric can lift the picture is really inspiring. Thanks for sharing!
You are welcome
Thanks for your like of two of my posts!
You are welcome
Thank you for liking my post “Zucchini-carrot loaf”! I read this post and really liked the the tips! Now all I’m missing is a good camera. Any tips on that? 😉
You are welcome. Here a post about cameras:
https://cooking-without-limits.com/2016/08/01/smartphone-compact-camera-or-dslr/
Lovely blog and great photos and tips.. I have loads of different tea towels as we call them in the UK and will use them as a backdrop. Can’t do much about the light as pretty much every day has been dreary since Christmas Day!
Thank you
Quite a resourceful use of a variety of textiles, thanks for sharing!
You are welcome
Wonderful collection of images and information, great article 🙂
Thank you