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View Full Version : What a nightmare - white shirts on white backgrounds


Redr8
21st of January 2010 (Thu), 06:39
As the title suggests....white shirts on white backgrounds. That's what I encountered on my first "paid" shoot the other day. It ended up being on location at a business, and was essentially just a portrait shoot for all the company execs. Anyway, I was assured they had a suitable location for the photoshoot which ended up being the conference room that was lit by a mixture of blue'ish, whiteish and yellowish flouro tubes. The assured white background was a white board (as in glossy surface type for writing on). Needless to say I was thankful I took some portable background (a 40"' x 60" white card) and some lighting (nothing real good mind you - some 100W constant lamps with a good white light)

What they wanted me to achieve was a crystal white background for each shot....which was very hard to achieve and contrast slightly against their white company business shirts while keeping their faces some what normal. In the end what I did was try and bounce the flash more on to the front of them, and partially aim the lamps at the background, and let the background get a few shades of grey in to it just to contrast a little.

So to the experts / pros.....how on earth would you have achieved this.

Gatorboy
22nd of January 2010 (Fri), 05:23
Unfortunately you didn't have the right equipment for the job.

Here is a great writeup by Zack Arias
http://www.zarias.com/?p=77

Redr8
23rd of January 2010 (Sat), 04:50
Thanks for the link Gatorboy - that is an awesome write up. You're right though, I didn't have the right gear, but charged accordingly. ;) Am looking into getting some more appropriate stuff at the moment. They are happy with the result which I think is the main goal.

asysin2leads
27th of January 2010 (Wed), 21:21
Unfortunately you didn't have the right equipment for the job.

Here is a great writeup by Zack Arias
http://www.zarias.com/?p=77

Dave, thanks for the link. I've seen several other blogs about shooting white, but this is probably the best explained. Thanks.

bobbyz
29th of January 2010 (Fri), 21:34
Shooting white on white.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=818140

drew
14th of May 2011 (Sat), 19:46
I love that Zach Arias article! He's got it down