When Michael asked me to do a salt shot, I thought, "what can I photograph the salt on that's interesting and makes sense?" Salt—mined—rock—salt of the earth—Hey, I can use my Home Depot slate floor tiles. I bought some that are 12X12 inches and some 5X5 inches. I'm the kind of girl who likes hardware stores so I have fun looking for interesting inexpensive surfaces and props just about anywhere.
And as long as you're taking a shot like this to illustrate a point, take some others for future use.
I love these tiles so much I'm afraid I'll use them too much. Here they are used for a bread shot taken not so long ago.
I stood one tile up in back and blurred the crack line where they met in photoshop.
In the studio I worked at, we would buy the tiles then chip away at the hard edges with hammer and chisel to get rid of the straight lines. Made lots of scraps and only a few really good looking edges.
Taking images for future use is a great tip, Donna. And, I love the idea of using different textured surfaces in photography. I learn so much here. Thanks!
Glad you mentioned that Mel. I took one of the tiles and tossed it out the back door onto the concrete and it broke into some nice pieces of various sizes with beautiful, interesting jagged edges.
Only you could make slate sexy, Donna. 🙂
Get some Blu-Tack so the chunks stay where you put them
though, Pâte à Choux would work too 🙂 The REAL fun comes when you try and find new storing places
all these new backgrounds.
I've been messing around with slate for a while now but this is just wonderful. Great job