Here at Luke Photography, it is time to start building new sets and painting new backgrounds for the upcoming senior portrait season. This year, I've decided to add a few new grungy backgrounds to the options that I have for senior pictures. One background is authentically weathered and beaten down, the other had to appear that way.
I visited a salvage yard that sells old architectural parts that are taken from buildings that are slated for demolition or major renovation, and purchased couple of pairs of old exterior shutters that are 8 feet tall. Years of sun exposure and weather have cracked, peeled and faded the paint, and they had a beautiful patina on them. All it took was a wire brush to scrape off the loose paint, and they were good to go.
I acquired five fiberglass interior doors in the past 6 months. Didn't pay a dime for them. Three were being thrown out, and I rescued them before they hit the dumpster. The last two doors were near the curb in my neighborhood on trash day. Score. Now I had to make them look as old as the shutters, without waiting 80 years. Yeah, I'm a little impatient.
