Help taking picture with a white background

[abbtech]

I just purchased a Canon S5 IS camera and have had good results taking macro photos with it. See the first picture as an example. But when I try to take a picture with this camera of a small item with a white background it looks terrible. Even taking a picture of a white sheet of paper with some writing on it comes out horrible, see the second picture for an example. These pictures were taken using two 500 watt halogen lights bounced off the ceiling.

I have tried doing a white balance to a blank sheet of the same paper, I have tried changing the white balance to halogen (very similar results). I have tried a single 100 watt natural incandescent light bulb source at a close distance. It seems that nothing I do will make white backgrounds look nice crisp and clean.

Any help would be appreciated. I hope I am just missing something simple... :confused:

Larger versions of the images are here:
http://hackedgadgets.com/wp-content/2/fire_alarm_bell_alarm_clock/fire_alarm_bell_alarm_clock_288.JPG
http://hackedgadgets.com/wp-content/2/fire_alarm_bell_alarm_clock/fire_alarm_bell_alarm_clock_379.JPG

More images are in the article that these are from:
http://hackedgadgets.com/2008/01/11/fire-alarm-bell-alarm-clock-worlds-loudest-alarm-clock/


http://hackedgadgets.com/wp-content/2/fire_alarm_bell_alarm_clock/_fire_alarm_bell_alarm_clock_288.JPG

http://hackedgadgets.com/wp-content/2/fire_alarm_bell_alarm_clock/_fire_alarm_bell_alarm_clock_379.JPG

[PacAce]

Try applying exposure compensation. The white sheet of paper is fooling the camera meter. Start off by seeing how it looks when you apply +1 EC. If it's still not bright enough, increase it to just below or at +2 EC and see how that looks. Play with the EC value unti the picture comes out the way you want.

If you're not sure how to get to the EC menu screen, try pressing the Function button. The EC icon is something that looks like +/- without the lightning bolt symbol (which is the FEC for the flash).

[Greg Jones]

The white sheet of paper is following the camera meter.

In the event that your not understanding this part of Leo's statement I thought I would just try to put it in layman term, hope you don't mind Leo.

When your camera sees the bright white color it thinks that it has darken the exposure because there is too much light so it cuts down the brightness of the exposure. Therefor you have to be smarter than the camera and compisate for it doing a +EC to add more exposure.
Same with dark subjects filling the frame but in the oppisite. The camera is seeing too dark so it adds a brighter exposure. Therefor you have to compisate by doing a - EC to darken the exposure.

This happens when the frame is filled with mostly light or dark colors.
Shoot in the snow and you will see the same results.

If you already understood this , sorry ! I don't know your level of expertise.

[Stickman]

Over expose by a stop and watch your results. Like the other guys said, your camera is trying to even things out, which is making your pictures dark.

[PacAce]

In the event that your not understanding this part of Leo's statement I thought I would just try to put it in layman term, hope you don't mind Leo.

When your camera sees the bright white color it thinks that it has darken the exposure because there is too much light so it cuts down the brightness of the exposure. Therefor you have to be smarter than the camera and compisate for it doing a +EC to add more exposure.
Same with dark subjects filling the frame but in the oppisite. The camera is seeing too dark so it adds a brighter exposure. Therefor you have to compisate by doing a - EC to darken the exposure.

This happens when the frame is filled with mostly light or dark colors.
Shoot in the snow and you will see the same results.

If you already understood this , sorry ! I don't know your level of expertise.
Thanks, Greg. I misspelled "fooling" and typed in "following" instead. How that happened, I haven't a clue because my mind knew exactly what I wanted to type in. Seems like my mind as lost motor control of my fingers. :o

[Greg Jones]

Thanks, Greg. I misspelled "fooling" and typed in "following" instead. How that happened, I haven't a clue because my mind knew exactly what I wanted to type in. Seems like my mind as lost motor control of my fingers. :o

LOL Leo, I knew what you meant. I miss spell allot , Brain, fingers, old age, not sure what my problem is but I will use all three excuses.

[b1gdaddy]

I jast blume may kiybaord.

[FlashZebra]

I copied the image of the piece of paper above and looked at the histogram.

The exposure actually looks pretty good, but the contrast is pretty flat.

Nothing even close to white or close to black. It is all there together in the middle.

A bit of post processing to stretch the dynamic range of the image is likely to improve the image a lot more than anything else.

This investigation also revealed that the unevenness of the illumination from the top right corner on the sheet of paper to the bottom left corner is pretty severe. You would want to even out the exposure over the entire page before stretching the contrast in post processing. A black pen would also be a good idea.

Enjoy! Lon

[PacAce]

I copied the image of the piece of paper above and looked at the histogram.

The exposure actually looks pretty good, but the contrast is pretty flat.

Nothing even close to white or close to black. It is all there together in the middle.

A bit of post processing to stretch the dynamic range of the image is likely to improve the image a lot more than anything else.

This investigation also revealed that the unevenness of the illumination from the top right corner on the sheet of paper to the bottom left corner is pretty severe.

Enjoy! Lon
Good point, Lon. And having even lighting on the paper would help, too.

[abbtech]

Thanks for all of the great tips. :) I will try them out in the morning and post the results back here. I am very novice in my experience... Thanks for the simple steps to try. As far as post processing, I have been doing some very basic brightness and contrast modifications. I have gimp but have not done much with it. Is this a decent program to be using and is there a tutorial that you would recommend?

Thanks again!

[Greg Jones]

There are tons of tutorials but I am not sure waht you are asking for. Are you asking for tutorials of what program or level of photography ?
I know you are new here so it would be helpful if you tell a little about your Level and what you are needing. There are some great people on this forum and always willing to help.

[abbtech]

I was looking for some suggestions on some best practices for taking pictures and image editing to enhance image quality. I think I have found some good resources. :)

I also wanted to mention that I followed the suggestions offered here and the pictures turn out very good now!

Thanks

[PacAce]

Glad to hear your pictures are turning out better now.

And welcome to the forum! :D (Sorry I missed welcoming you on your first post :o )

[onedownfiveup]

I just did a photoshoot with a good friend of mine and we used white sheets as the backdrop and on the ground. Went to Target spent $30. Worked out well. I used two external flashes at 1/2 power and 1/250 f5.6 200 ISO. It pretty much showed NO wrinkles in the backdrop if any and worked great.