White Seamless Help

Currently have an Alien Bee 800. Also have a Yongnuo YN 560 and I was wondering if I could do the white seamless well with 2 560's and the b800? Or do I "need" some more bee's?

Thanks

In short, yes, it can be done.

It's not exactly easy but certainly can be done with some limitations to the size of the set and shot. Even coverage is the key, not the amount of power.

Having said that, using strobes does make it a lot easier but it also has to do with the modifiers used and the space you have for shooting.

Have a read here:

http://www.zarias.com …ull-length-with-onelight/

If Zach can do it with just one light ands some reflectors you can do it with the kit you have got!

The key is the Bi-fold doors

I think you'll be fine with your setup. I did my first attempt this weekend. I used the tutorial Zach Arias put together as a starting point. Instead of using bi-fold doors I used additional sheets of tileboard ripped down length wise and hinged together.

For flashes I had YN-460's lighting the background and a 430EX as the subject light. I think my background light was good but my subject light could have been a bit stronger. The white isn't perfectly consistent from background to foreground. I think this is more a limitation of my fine tuning than a limitation of my speedlites.

Brian

Thanks everyone for the replies. I have read through Zach's tutorial but I just wanted some more confirmation that it can be done with my gear.

Brian, did you use any modifiers on your speedlights to light the background?

Great photo btw!

Keep in mind that it's impossible to have a perfectly even pure white background and pure white floor under your subject. Physics just won't let that happen if you're going to have a properly exposed subject area.

When you see images (Zack or anyone else) that have pure white under, around and in front of the subject then you know it's been retouched and processed.

There are techniques for getting those areas as white as possible but they can't be pure white.

In Brian's example you can see the gradation beginning just in front of the sweep and it extends all the way in front of the subject, becoming darker as you get further from the background. It's very important to have an accurate white balance or you can end up with a tint like the pink tint in that same shot.

Hardcore -Thanks!
I didn't have any modifiers on the background lighting. Both background lights were on stands angled toward the opposite side of the paper. I tried using both an umbrella and bouncing off the ceiling for the subject light. I think the umbrella worked a bit better.

Robert,
I did take starting white balance reference shot but didn't re-take after changing from umbrella to bouncing off the ceiling. The pics with the correct white balance did come out a bit better. So I think you're absolutely right on the necessity for proper white balance.

This was my first outing doing any actual studio-like work. I made a couple basic exposure mistakes that I think contributed to some of the uneven lighting. I had my shutter too fast (1/200), and either my ISO too low (200) or my subject flash not powerful enough (1/4 zoomed to 35mm).

I read a tip along the way in learning the setup to get each element set then add the next. So get your background lighting just right, then get your subject position, lighting and exposure down. I DIDN'T follow this advice at first and was starting to get really frustrated. Once I went back & got the basics down things went much more smoothly.

Brian

Absolutely Brian,

I just want to make the point that since it's impossible to have everything pure white and have a properly exposed subject.

It's very easy for people the misunderstand that and they spend countless hours trying to achieve what physics just won't let happen.