White bg: light from front vs back?

Hey everyone,

So far, I've been doing a bunch of studio shots in my living room with white seamless paper. I dedicate 2 lights in the front of the paper to blow it out just enough, then 1-2 lights for the model. I've heard of others lighting the seamless paper from behind . What are the advantages/disadvantag​es to doing this? Would it cause more or less flare?

If there were no differences, I'd like to light from behind just to have the area around the model to be more spacious.

I want to start out with a statement.....I do not do this for a living. I am in the same boat as you with having to work out of the living room or perhaps the den.

I had the same problem as you with trying to free up some space for the "subjects" while blowing out the white background. I elected to boom my strobes (then grid if/as needed) so that I could clear out the floor space around them but still keep the strobes basically in the same place. If your creative and can do metal work, my I suggest you make your own "arm" from 18 to 24 inches that will hold your strobe + reflector + grid/barn doors (hint: shouldn't be very much weight). I came up with a generation 1 arm for a shoot a couple of months ago and it only made me think of 20 different ways that I could make things work better. However, couple of small boom arms would do the same thing and I also could use them for other things. I made my own parts due to the next to no time that I needed them and didn't want to spend a fortune on arms and shipping if the concept was flawed.

Next, case: would a small stand with a strobe work from behind your subjects? Gridded I would think would be acceptable too.

I don't think that blasting the paper from behind would do what you want it to (but I could very much be wrong), however, something like white ripstop would light up quite nicely from behind as it is not "that" good at stopping light vs. paper. I don't think you would have enough power from any stobe to adequately light through paper to get the "look" anyone would want.....I believe it's Lastolite makes a thin product you aim a couple of strobes into that lights up a screen from behind and you can even buy a nice white foreground too.....FOR A FORTUNE!!

That's my two cents. I hope the real pros will chime in. This is a really good basic lighting question we all need to get down.

Bob E.

The problem with lighting paper from behind is that if there are any imperfections (grain or creases) in the paper they will be illuminated. Also it takes more power to make a white paper drop white from behind than from in front. With a nylon cloth drop you can do backlit white, but the downside is that you need enough space behind the drop for the light to spread enough to cover the drop. So that technique is harder to pull off in a home studio where space is limited.

Safetybob wrote in post #16282254
I want to start out with a statement.....I do not do this for a living. I am in the same boat as you with having to work out of the living room or perhaps the den.

I had the same problem as you with trying to free up some space for the "subjects" while blowing out the white background. I elected to boom my strobes (then grid if/as needed) so that I could clear out the floor space around them but still keep the strobes basically in the same place. If your creative and can do metal work, my I suggest you make your own "arm" from 18 to 24 inches that will hold your strobe + reflector + grid/barn doors (hint: shouldn't be very much weight). I came up with a generation 1 arm for a shoot a couple of months ago and it only made me think of 20 different ways that I could make things work better. However, couple of small boom arms would do the same thing and I also could use them for other things. I made my own parts due to the next to no time that I needed them and didn't want to spend a fortune on arms and shipping if the concept was flawed.

Next, case: would a small stand with a strobe work from behind your subjects? Gridded I would think would be acceptable too.

I don't think that blasting the paper from behind would do what you want it to (but I could very much be wrong), however, something like white ripstop would light up quite nicely from behind as it is not "that" good at stopping light vs. paper. I don't think you would have enough power from any stobe to adequately light through paper to get the "look" anyone would want.....I believe it's Lastolite makes a thin product you aim a couple of strobes into that lights up a screen from behind and you can even buy a nice white foreground too.....FOR A FORTUNE!!

That's my two cents. I hope the real pros will chime in. This is a really good basic lighting question we all need to get down.

Bob E.

I've thought about booming the lights but I only have one boom arm and I use it for the subject. I'm also not very good at metal work haha. Regarding the small stand behind the subject, I've tried that, and I didn't like it. I do a lot of full body shots also and the stand on the floor shows. I use alien bee strobes so they're a lot bigger than a speedlight. If the model turns side ways, they can't hide the strobe at all :P.

gonzogolf wrote in post #16282312
The problem with lighting paper from behind is that if there are any imperfections (grain or creases) in the paper they will be illuminated. Also it takes more power to make a white paper drop white from behind than from in front. With a nylon cloth drop you can do backlit white, but the downside is that you need enough space behind the drop for the light to spread enough to cover the drop. So that technique is harder to pull off in a home studio where space is limited.

I wish my garage was clean and clear of crap. It's big enough to use as a studio if it was empty. My family likes to use it as a liviing room... with a pool table, TV, couches, etc. ugh. haha.

fashionrider wrote in post #16282413
I wish my garage was clean and clear of crap.

Well, get to work

Either method will work. As mentioned it comes down to space.
Also, for lit through, as Gonzo pointed out, nylon or other translucent material is better than paper.

Here are two examples; the headshot was bouncing the light off the background. The background was about 8 feet behind the model.

The second shot is a small product shot. White background was created using translucent material (zip disk) behind product which was on plexiglass.

I do not believe the issue of paper imperfections showing with shoot-thru light on the backdrop is a real issue, particularly if you properly maintain more distance between subject and backdrop. This shot was made with shoot-thru gelled light through black seamless, during a commercial lighting workshop as my own exercise.

Wilt, I think its sharpening or something before uploading, but the image doesn't look sharp. Also, there are two lighter spots on the light part of the background just to the right of the bottle. They look like they could be thin spots in the paper.

dmward wrote in post #16284555
Wilt, I think its sharpening or something before uploading, but the image doesn't look sharp. Also, there are two lighter spots on the light part of the background just to the right of the bottle. They look like they could be thin spots in the paper.

Both are apparently artifact of my scanning from an Ilfochrome print. I just looked at the originaly 645 format transparency and neither blur nor light spots on background are evident at all. The original shows also much better shadow detail, like in the base of the glass of wine and the set area to the right of the wine bottle. I have the original in an exhibition mount, and did not want to destroy the mount in order to remove the transparency for direct scanning, so I scanned a print. The print looks fine for sharpness, too, although the Ilfochrome print does suffer the contrast gain and loss of shadow detail that it is famous for.