High-key technique

Just as a quick check: the airy, high-key photos that are very popular with pharmacies and health-related businesses, in which the background is lighter than the subject would be shot by having the ambient/background about one stop higher than the main, correct?

Can you show us some examples?

Linking to:

http://www.robertsonco​llege.com …/files/12765/pa​.768x0.jpg
http://www.shoppers-pharmacy.com …perspharmacy/im​ages/5.jpg
http://compoundingphar​macyinontario.com …2016/02/pharmac​y-tech.jpg
https://thumbs.dreamst​ime.com …cy-drugstore-39463835.jpg

Good samples. On this scale, you're going to rely on the ambient fluorescents for b/g illumination. Start by color-balancing your key with a gel. Then, be ready to flag your subject and relight with the key. Everything else is just exposure balancing between b/g (continuous) and f/g (xenon).

The examples you linked are more about depth of focus and different lighting on subjects than background.
And, as mentioned, flagging the subject to ensure that your lighting is all that is illuminating them.

Hmm, the location is quite small (which might be an advantage as I might be able to use flash for everything):

dmward wrote in post #18290310
The examples you linked are more about depth of focus and different lighting on subjects than background.
And, as mentioned, flagging the subject to ensure that your lighting is all that is illuminating them.

Yeah, looking at some of the high-key shots in this other site: http://www.quadratmedi​a.de …fikdesign_fotog​rafie.html, it does look like a background utterly out of focus does give the impression of lightness.

The lenses for this project are the EF 50mm f/1.8 II, Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm ZE f/2, and the TS-E 24mm f/3.5 L. I'm taking the EF 100mm f/2.8 L macro, but not sure I'll be able to use it, as the place is quite small indeed.

Just remember that your subject's has an inherent brightness relative to white...'white with detail' is about +2EV above the brightness of 'middle gray'.

So then you have to ask yourself if things in the background should be captured BRIGHTER than their inherent brightness...if you want 'middle gray' in the background to be same level as 'middle gray' at the subject position, simply separately illuminate background at SAME BRIGHTNESS!

If your goal is the lose some of the detail in the white, then you want to capture those objects brighter than their inherent brightness, so you separate illuminate the background to that higher level of brightness (e.g. +0.66EV)

I absolutely loathe available light, but there's no way you can illuminate that space with your own flash while preserving the interior appearance of the business and the lighting scheme that is visible to customers. Mixed color temps of the continuous sources do need to be attacked head-on, starting with window light: shoot when the sun sets, and be ready to hang drapes if glare from neon or streets lights infiltrates. If halogen and fluorescent sources are both present, you have additional location-work on your plate.

The two images posted the angle of view is away from the windows into the darker portion of the store.
To get the brighter background you need to be shooting in the opposite direction.
Then set the exposure to over expose the background about 1 EV and light your subject to proper exposure that is below the background exposure. Done.