Achieving The White Background Effect

Not sure it is the same thing as described above, but it is scotchlite and white. Try product #3870, which is reflective sheeting. Although it seems to be limited to 48inches wide, which would require seems between pieces and I could not find cost. This material is normally used to make road signs (like speed limit signs)

Interesting question here.. lots of people want to use photoshop to fix a problem that could be easily corrected with the camera

When you set these ties on your white survace, the first step, obviously, will be to have an ample amount of light coming onto the ties from at least two directions... three could be even better.

As someone suggested already, make sure your white balance is adjusted correctly for the light sources.

Metering this scene is the key to the exposure you want in the end. If you are using full evaluative metering, chances are that your overall image will result in underexposure. If you can't meter on a gray card for proper exposure in a scene like this, you should probably overexpose your meter reading by one stop since the white background is dominant and it also reflects twice as much of the light as it should for a proper exposure. When your camera compensates for the extra light reflected from the white, the result will be an underexposed photo.

I have to take photos of parts for the company I work for. I use three 3200K floods with white paper background. With PhotoShop I select the polygonal lasso. Zoom in to 200 or 300% and outline your ties with this. You left click on corners when you have to make a turn. After the tie is outlined select the move tool. Next under "file" select new. Set your size and resolution to be the same as your tie photo. You can set the background color to white. Reselect your tie photo. Click on the outlined tie and drag it into the new file that you created. You will now have your tie with a perfect white backgroung. You can then crop, flatten and save as a jpg. Hope this helps. Also I have never sent a reply in a forum so I hope I did this correct. I use a Minolta Dimage 7hi at work and just purchased a Canon Powershot A80 for home.

I have had this problem in past as well. The white is not coming out as white because the background is underexposed. Maybe it is white balance but if so,other colors would not look right either.

Dustin Cannon
www.cannonphoto.net