How to get pure white studio backgrounds

StephenBatey says

RE: How to get pure white studio backgrounds

Spam

06 October 2011 02:26

Chadwick says

RE: How to get pure white studio backgrounds

Bigcol -

You are right that if you light the background "correctly", you will get a nicely exposed image of the background. Fine if your background really is pure white, and certainly the appropriate method for any other colour background.

However, on a white background you will also see everything that isn't pure white as well. Every crease, mark, dust speck, slight shadow.

What Gavin is showing is that for a pure white background (and only for pure white) if you over expose it then you can bleach out all that stuff and get a pure white background, rather than a godd shot of your white background. It's a subtle difference, but Gavin's way means there's no dodging required in Photoshop and you don't need to keep your backdrop in pristine condition.

I'm not disagreeing with anything you say - I just think this is a better way of getting a pure white background.

13 July 2009 19:04

Chadwick says

RE: How to get pure white studio backgrounds

Bugdog -

You would set the white balance to Flash, because the light source is... flash!

You could do this with Speedlites but only if your "studio" is really small. Studio lights like Gavin uses are way more powerful than a flashgun. You will need to be able to set up the Speedlites separately because they will be firing at different power settings.

Yes, the lightmeter is essential. You need to measure the power of the flashes so that you can adjust them to the required output. Without a lightmeter this is very difficult.

13 July 2009 18:56