Help with lighting white seamless background

Hi all

Been taking some shots with white seamless paper and am having problems with a hot spot being too blown out and overexposed. I'm metering pretty precisely and I have moved the background light back as far as possible to spread the light more. I cannot place the light directly behind the standing model as I wouldn't be able to hide it well enough so the light is off to one side at 45 degrees or so (perhaps a bit more). I just can't seem for the life of me to get an even distibution over the seamless.

My question is: What (if any) modifiers do you use on your background light if trying to white the background evenly out in this case? Or if a modifier isn't the answer, then how's the best way for me to proceed?

I AM getting results but they are requiring what I feel is a little tooo much PS work and I am noticing loss of detail around the edge of the subject. I'd like to get it better out of the camera.

Any suggestions or advice are welcome, or if I need to provide further info please let me know.

Thanks
Danny

i use two lights, place them on both sides of the model, thats how i get a white background with my seamless.

I use 10x24' muslins, but just the same...

I use two lights to light my background. B800's, to be exact. I generally set them to about 1/4 power, depending on what my main lights and camera are set at. It differs.

Anyway, I put each about 6' or so from the backdrop, on either side, just at the edge of the fabric. One of them up high, around 8-10' (12' ceilings, mind you) and pointed roughly at the middle of the half that it's on and about three feet down from the top, if you get my drift. The other is down low, a couple feet off the floor on a backlight stand. This points up and in the opposite place as the other. Each light has a set of barn doors on them to keep the light from spilling onto my subject.

Then, just put your subject far enough ahead of those (closer to the camera) so that the light isn't on them.

This generally lights it evenly, and with no hotspots.

bouncing off ceiling iff possible helps alot. anything to avoid harsh light will help in the hot spot area. I struggle with it also

Guys, thanks for the advice - there are some ideas there that i will try. I have two lights available to me so will test that and hadn't thought of bouncing my background light! Thanks again.
Danny

feather it, have 2 lights pointed to the center at 45º then feather them to the opposite corner. If you have a hand held meter it really helps. changing the distance from the background may be neccessary

Yup I have a meter, been doing my best with it. When you say feather to the opposite corner what do you mean - sorry I didnt grasp that straight away - hard to explain in words sometimes I know! Looks like putting two lights on it is the way forward....

position them 45º from the background and pointed to the center. make sure they are flooded all the way (broad spectrum if adjustable), then move the center of the light towards the far corner of the seamless from where they are positioned.

By doing this you avoid the hot spots caused by the brightest area of the light being combined in the center

I found this very useful...

http://www.istockphoto​.com …php?threadid=44​793&page=1

Ah,gotcha! Never cross the streams LOL (soz, couldnt resist the Ghostbusters reference)!

Seriously that all makes good sense now and is totally logical. Thanks again! Maybe next time I'll pluck up the courage and post some results....