White Background

I recently shot this photo hoping to achieve a fairly brighter white background without having to use a flash on my backdrop (white paper), which I have yet to perfect and usually end up with hot spots all around the subject. It turned out more gray than white, and I have been trying to brighten it but it always looks fake or is very tedious (with my limited knowledge of PS and masks), and I have quite a few more from this shoot to adjust. Is there any easy way to brighten the background? Or does anyone have any suggestions for a lighting set up that would still give me a bright white without having to flash on it? For this shot, I had one light shining on the left side of the backdrop, one main light with a diffuser, and a fill light shooting through a white umbrella.

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portraitsbytracy wrote in post #3092968
I recently shot this photo hoping to achieve a fairly brighter white background without having to use a flash on my backdrop (white paper), which I have yet to perfect and usually end up with hot spots all around the subject. It turned out more gray than white, and I have been trying to brighten it but it always looks fake or is very tedious (with my limited knowledge of PS and masks), and I have quite a few more from this shoot to adjust. Is there any easy way to brighten the background? Or does anyone have any suggestions for a lighting set up that would still give me a bright white without having to flash on it? For this shot, I had one light shining on the left side of the backdrop, one main light with a diffuser, and a fill light shooting through a white umbrella.

You need more light on your backdrop if you are going to use a white chair, white clothing, light skin tones, etc.

If you had more contrast between the chair and the backdrop it would be easier to adjust with masks.

EDIT-Actually it wasn't as bad as I thought:
Add a curves layer adjustment, click the middle eyedropper (grey) and click the background.
Add a levels adjustment layer and move the white triangle to the left to brighten up the shot.
Add a color balance adjustment layer to remove a yellow cast (I moved the yellow/blue slider to the blue side (+13)
Flatten the layers
Sharpen

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Thank you, that looks great! I've never really played around much with curves & levels, normally just touch up contrast and saturation a bit. That really makes a difference. Is there a quick way to apply the same adjustments to multiple photos? I have a few from this shoot that all look relatively the same. Why would I have such a blue cast to my photos? Is my white balance incorrectly set? I'm not sure how to light the background brighter without getting into a high-key situation, just point two lights on it without flashing them? Sorry for all the ??'s!

portraitsbytracy wrote in post #3093210
Thank you, that looks great! I've never really played around much with curves & levels, normally just touch up contrast and saturation a bit. That really makes a difference. Is there a quick way to apply the same adjustments to multiple photos? I have a few from this shoot that all look relatively the same.

Yes there is. Layers can be copied from one photo to another. Off the top of my head though I don't remember how.

Most likely your WB is off. You could set a custom WB by shooting your white background only and then use that as your custom WB. See your camera manual on how to set that up. Don't forget to cahnge it back to another setting when you are done. You could also shoot RAW.

The background should be 2 stops brighter if I recall correctly for it to appear as if there is no background (completely white).

Don't appologize for good questions.

Thank you for all the info! I have about 10 different poses of this little girl in the same outfit and background that I'm putting together in a gallery for the family to order, so I just want to make sure they're all adjusted the same. I have a Rebel XT, and had the WB set to flash, still not real familiar with how to set a custom one...will have to read the manual I guess. Does it have to be changed every time I change the backdrop color? I shot some of her with a black background that turned out fine. I know the background should be 2-stops brighter for a high key shot, but I was trying to avoid that since I can't quite master it without getting spill on the back of the subject. Plus with toddlers moving around my studio, it's hard to get them to sit in one exact spot where the lighting is best.

portraitsbytracy wrote in post #3095761
Thank you for all the info! I have about 10 different poses of this little girl in the same outfit and background that I'm putting together in a gallery for the family to order, so I just want to make sure they're all adjusted the same. I have a Rebel XT, and had the WB set to flash, still not real familiar with how to set a custom one...will have to read the manual I guess. Does it have to be changed every time I change the backdrop color? I shot some of her with a black background that turned out fine. I know the background should be 2-stops brighter for a high key shot, but I was trying to avoid that since I can't quite master it without getting spill on the back of the subject. Plus with toddlers moving around my studio, it's hard to get them to sit in one exact spot where the lighting is best.

For custom on the XT you take a picture of something neutral in your lighting conditions. Then you set that picture as the WB. Check the manual though. You shouldn't need to change it for each backdrop since the lighting is the same.

FYI adobe light room is an excelent tool for applying the same settings and adjustments to muliple photos. but even if you stick with photoshop you can acheve very nice repeatable easy work flow by using actions.

I don't understand, do you want a real white background like this or more like Mike did his? You seem to first say that you want a white background but then it seemed you said you don't want a real high key picture. Now this takes a few minutes longer to do and if you had a hundred pictures to do you wouldn't want to do it this way but if you like this I can tell you how to do this fairly easy. Also you wanted to know how to duplicate layers from one picture to another, if it's an adjustment layer you just drag the layer from the layer palette and drop it on the other picture.

Mark

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Thanks for the suggestions, I guess I wanted to try to achieve a white background without attempting a high key shot like I have been doing, as it doesn't turn out very well for me. I like what you have done, which I can do in PS too, but it's very time consuming. I was really looking more for what In2photos did with his adjustment for me. Thank you!