first time doing a blown out white background, let me know what you think

this was my first time really utilizing the equipment i picked up off of craigslist a little while ago. I know the background isnt fully blown out (need another flash behind the backdrop), but what do you think about this image?

Did you lasso tool around her? It's painfully obvious around her hair. Try backlighting your subject to decrease the harshness of the light, 3-point lighting is much stronger in any situation you want to decrease shadows.

Looks good else where, well lit for the most part and relatively sharp. Look into some cheap ways to do lighting, it sounds like you have more than adequate tools, it's just comprehension and application from here.

natums wrote in post #11520817
Did you lasso tool around her? It's painfully obvious around her hair. Try backlighting your subject to decrease the harshness of the light, 3-point lighting is much stronger in any situation you want to decrease shadows.

Looks good else where, well lit for the most part and relatively sharp. Look into some cheap ways to do lighting, it sounds like you have more than adequate tools, it's just comprehension and application from here.

thanks natums, yes i did lasso around her to make they background a new layer and brighten it up a bit. im still fairly new at PS, and dont really know how to do it better and cut off some of her hair.

i had one flash shooting through the background from behind is that what you mean by backliginting? the effect i was wanting with the front lights made me overpower the back light. i couldnt really stop them down either since there is only 2 settings on the lights; full and half power

you could also try curves in PP if you select the background as the white, it will turn white and that is done with out any layers.

This gives you some very good advice opn how to "clean up" a white background:

http://www.zarias.com …s-questions-part-1-video/

If you want more, the whole text tutorial starts here:

http://www.zarias.com …torial-part-1-gear-space/

natums wrote in post #11520817
Did you lasso tool around her? It's painfully obvious around her hair.

How is it supposed to be done, so that the background would be white and she would look natural (because her hair, indeed, is a dead giveaway that the lasso tool was used)?

Do her skin tones look a bit greenish?

I do a lot of table top product photography with pure white backgrounds (or "highlight dropouts" as we called it in the old days of paste-up production...lol) I can tell you from years of direct experience, getting really natural looking pure white backgrounds is (usually) a time consuming and detail oriented process. Mainly because getting the table top surface truly bright enough to blowout causes my products to be drastically overexposed. On the flip side, the skills I've developed in product retouching are quite valuable in putting other subjects onto pure white backgrounds - such as people and large products like cars - whether they were actually shot on white or not.

Shooting on a lighted table surface - meaning a transluscent acrylic surface with lights underneath shooting up - can really make things easier. Personally I don't often do this as I feel it affects the natural chiaroscuro of directional lighting. Good masking software can also be extremely helpful and sometimes all you need.

Beyond that, here's how I do it...

• I shoot in RAW and try to get the image as close to "right" in camera to start with (duh)
  
• My initial background exposure work is done in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw)
  
• My first (overall) moves to blowout the background are made with various combinations of the Tone Curve, Effects / Post Crop Vignetting and Targeted Adjustment Tool - which ones and to what degree all depends on the image
  
• I also use the Adjustment Brush to brighten specific areas
  
• I then open the image in Photoshop at maximum resolution, in Adobe RGB or Pro Photo color space and 16-Bits/Channel, to preserve the maximum possible image information
  
• In Photoshop, I usually work in RBG color mode, but occasionally switch to LAB color (which IMO preserves color integrity better when using the dodge/burn tool)
  
• My first move in PS is simply erasing (to pure white) any artifacts around my primary subject (such as vignetting in the corners, lens contaminants, dirt on the white surface, etc.) This is a pretty fast, down-n-dirty process with the Eraser tool or Freehand Lasso (Just be careful not to erase any of your subject)
  
• Now I'm ready to start working the details
  
• For products with fairly well defined edges, I use a combination of the Magic Lasso and Freehand Lasso to select the 'white' background right up to the exact edge of the product
  
• Next I use the Refine Edge function to clean up the selection (usually set to something like: Smoothness=25, Feather=0.5pxl, Contrast=25)
  
• At this point I have a decision to make: I can just hit the Delete key and erase everything that is selected, turning the background pure white - OR - if there are subtle shadows from the products that I want to preserve, I have more work to do...
  
• To preserve subtle but realistic surface shadows, I Invert the selection (so the products are now selected, not the white background) and create a new layer from the selection - this gives me just the products on a new layer, aligned precisely with the original layer, and with a 'transparent' background
  
• Now I go back to the original layer, and use a combination of the Dodge, Eraser and occasionally the Clone tools to cleanup the surface shadows and get rid of any remaining "grayness" or artifacts in the background
  

MindlessConsumer wrote in post #11524640
How is it supposed to be done, so that the background would be white and she would look natural (because her hair, indeed, is a dead giveaway that the lasso tool was used)?

I come from a film background and I don't have a lot of experience in photo. But in the (admittedly few) occasions I have used green screen, you want to minimize the cutting frame by frame so you light the background separately from the subject to create a drastically well lit backdrop, and a more natural appearing light on the subject.

I know that all the techniques don't directly apply but I am sure that if you focus on lighting and try enough different home done rigs and practice shots, you can get a completely white background and a natural looking subject without an ounce of photoshopping. Prep, time, and practice is key to getting the best out of any controlled shooting condition.

natums wrote in post #11526021
I know that all the techniques don't directly apply but I am sure that if you focus on lighting and try enough different home done rigs and practice shots, you can get a completely white background and a natural looking subject without an ounce of photoshopping. Prep, time, and practice is key to getting the best out of any controlled shooting condition.

Sage advice!!!

I use 5 strobes and still have trouble blowing out my backgrounds sometimes. Probably because it also helps to have plenty of depth to shoot with (so you can really isolate the subject and background lighting) and I'm in a pretty small home studio.

I used to work with a photog in Tulsa who had a huge warehouse studio with a full 20' tall x 20' deep x 40' long cyclorama, and LOTS of very powerful lights. He didn't have any problems getting pure white backgrounds.

I'm seeing green too.