Background for easier clipping?

[skuba]

Hi,
I am new to these forum and kinda new in professional photography.
Actually, I take pictures of products to put them on an ecommerce website which I manage.
Most of the time I need to clip the images on photoshop, so I can apply it on a white background, because it looks better on the website.
I have here two lights with one 250w bulb each.
As a background I use one of those gray papers, that I don't the name. That what the guy that I replaced was using.
Is that the best paper for these kind of pictures? How do you call that paper?
Any suggestions that would make my work of taking and clipping images better?

Thanks a lot,

[Scottes]

Try putting a light behind the background paper. This will even the whiteness and help get rid of any shadows that fall on the background. So you get a nice even white. (I've used a small light table for small items. Works great.)

Then, in Photoshop/whatever, magic wand select the white and you'll have just about everything gone from the background. You might have some white or whitish edges that should blend fairly easily, or may require some hand editing.

If this is going onto a website you can try to find translucent paper that's about the same color as the web background. Translucent so the light still brightens it to remove shadows, etc. You may wish to go a shade or two darker than the web color since the light behind it will brighten a bit. If the final color is close to your background color you might not have to do anything beyond the magic wand select.

However, whether white or another color, it's usually a good idea to magic wand the empty background, thus outline the image for the most part, then Feather it for a few pixels, then blend to transparent.


Grrrrr. Four edits to get this simple message correct. Too much coffee.

[mvrekum]

If you want the best for these kind of images, you need a background table. Click this link http://www.foba.ch/eng/tisch/tisch.htm and click on 'studio tables', then you know what I mean.
Or download the Foba catalogue for studio tables http://www.photal.nl/fabrikanten/Foba/%20Foba_Opnametafels_Achtergr.pdf (it's in english)

Martin (3 edits and no coffee :) )

[Vegas Poboy]

It sounds like the paper is just a neutral gray backdrop. Small product shots can be real easy once you have a basic light setup set your lighting to dipose of the shadows or shadows can help increase details. As for the backdrop the gray is good but if you want try using Green or blue paper chroma key is the future and it will make extracting your work easier. First lighting setup & ratios and then everything else shoould fall into place.

[grewal]

Read up about Knockout 2 Photoshop filter, in some posts.
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