Need help getting a perfect white background.

[microman23]

How can I make the background more white like I see in some photos, or are they cut out?
I have a small soft box lighting the mask and a reflective umbrella on the background.

Any suggestions?



http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2003/2036227379_3916fa2645.jpg?v=0

[onedownfiveup]

Are you shooting through the umbrella for the background?

Try using no umbrella.

[DocFrankenstein]

Basically - put more light on the background. Increase the power of the background light.

[TTk]

Less light on the mask would have cut down on your hotspots and as said before, more light on backdrop, through brolly instead of reflective..

[microman23]

ok I will try.

Should I use 2 lights for the background??

[acrephoto]

With a background that small one light will suffice. If possible position the mask on a table and then place the background light in the center of the backdrop but down behind the table. Turn the power up and it'll go completely white. Just be careful that the background doesn't relect all the light forward and blow out your image, move the subject further out from the backgorund if this happens.

[microman23]

how far should the subject be from the background? I had it bout 2 feet.

[TMR Design]

Hi microman23,

It's not just that you need more light, but that you need the right amount of light. In order to achieve a white background with no detail you have to hit the background with 8 times (or 3 stops) the amount of light that falls on the subject.

Doing this will require you to create the greatest distance you can between subject and background for proper isolation. I would suggest at least 4 feet and you may need more. Remember, if you're hitting the background with 8 times the light falling on the subject then there will be significant light being reflected from the background into the subject area. If you can't isolate the subject from the background area you could get flare and a 'foglike' halo surrounding the subject.

Assuming you can isolate subject from background then the process is simple. Set up your subject and meter for the taking aperture. Let's say you determine that to properly expose your subject you need to shoot at f/8 (incident). That means that you need a reflective reading from your backgound of f/22. Less than f/22 will show gradations to gray and more than f/22 and you'll be clipping and blowing out the background, which is not necessary.

See if that helps you out.

[MT Stringer]

I've had good luck shooting stuff in my light tent and getting the background white (or very near it). My tent consists of a PVC frame with a white sheet draped over it. I have three desk lamps to illuminate it.

I shoot my pictures in RAW format. Then using Digital Photo Professional, I adjust the white balance to that of the background and it usually comes out pretty white.

Here are a couple of examples. Not perfect but pretty close.
Mike

[In2Photos]

I've had good luck shooting stuff in my light tent and getting the background white (or very near it). My tent consists of a PVC frame with a white sheet draped over it. I have three desk lamps to illuminate it.

I shoot my pictures in RAW format. Then using Digital Photo Professional, I adjust the white balance to that of the background and it usually comes out pretty white.

Here are a couple of examples. Not perfect but pretty close.
Mike
Now try sticking a person in your light tent. ;)

[MT Stringer]

I think if I increased the size of the tent, the Burgermeister would fit. Move it away from the background a little and mount it on some sorta rear stand, it would prolly work.
Mike

[Cyrus]

more light seems to work better for me, in fact i can make black backdrop look perfectly black better with more light whereas i originally thought less light would work better - interesting.

[Unity Gain]

Should I use 2 lights for the background??

yes, 2 lights with just reflectors...no umbrellas or anything
Do a meter reading and overexpose it by about 1/2 stop

[bmynbr]

I am not the best at this, but in photoshop if you select a color range, and pick the white, then you can adjust the brightness of it to make it nice and white.
Heres a pic, hope it helps.
Dave

[TMR Design]

Why is it that everyone wants to fix in photoshop what can be done precisely in camera with a little bit of knowledge and a light meter. No guesswork and the background can be white, black or any shade of gray in between.

Seems like a no brainer to me but so many want to guess, adjust, guess adjust.

[Atomic79]

Pretty good thread on topic.

OneLightWorkshopForum (http://www.onelightworkshop.com/forum/showthread.php?t=460&page=2)

[Unity Gain]

Why is it that everyone wants to fix in photoshop what can be done precisely in camera with a little bit of knowledge and a light meter. No guesswork and the background can be white, black or any shade of gray in between.

Seems like a no brainer to me but so many want to guess, adjust, guess adjust.

I am sooo with ya man :-) I agree