GLAM UP YOUR NYE WITH A DIY PHOTO BACKDROP
In the age of social media, if you go to a party and don’t take a selfie — did it really happen? ¶ This New Year’s Eve, take your Snapchat/Instagram/Facebook game up a notch with the addition of a fun, festive DIY photo backdrop and capture the last, f leeting moments of 2018 as you wait for the ball to drop with family and friends. ¶ Trust us, it’s a thing. ¶ Joy Cho, founder of the Los Angeles-based design and lifestyle blog Oh Joy!, said she sees the popularity of photo backdrops at parties and events as an evolution of trendy photo booths combined with increasingly powerful phone cameras and the rising influence of all things Instagrammable. ¶ “People realized all they needed was a small section of their home or apartment and they have an automatic photo booth,” Cho said. “Then you take the pictures on your phones.” ¶ #NYE19! ¶ Easy for Cho to say, but what about the rest of us with crafting abilities that lean more toward macaroni necklaces and Pinterest strings of Projects We Have No Intention of Ever Making? ¶ “It doesn’t have to be super complicated,” Cho said. “You can make it as detailed or as simple as you want. … It’s based on your budget and your comfort level with crafting.”
Choose the space
“It just has to be an area that is big enough to hold a few people in a photo,” Cho said.
Provide some props
Cho favors disco balls. “I mean really, you can never go wrong with a disco ball,” Cho said, “especially
on New Year’s Eve. People can use them as props for posing. … A lot of times people feel weird taking a photo, so props are a little bit of an ice breaker.” Not a fan of disco? Cho also favors paper honeycomb balls as photo props. “You can get them at any party store. They come in a ton of colors … and sizes from tiny, tiny to super large. Get
whatever size makes sense for your space.”
Don’t sweat the lighting
Create the backdrop in a room that already has good lighting. “If you can stand in the room and it looks good to your eye, the camera will probably pick up the same
look,” Cho said. “I prefer that over using the flash on your phone because people tend to look caught off guard when you use flash photography.”
And don’t go too crazy
“I think there is so much pressure for everything to look perfect.
… If you want to create a beautiful backdrop for a party and can spare 15, 20 or 30 minutes, depending on how complicated you want it to be, then do it. … If the thought of creating it doesn’t make you happy, it’s not going to take away from your party. Your guests are still going to have a good time. It’s kind of the icing on the cake.”