White Backgrounds - DPChallenge Forums

02/16/2008 11:10:30 PM · #1

I see people like

idnic using white backgrounds all the time, and I so rarely get the opportunity to do so. But this lady came to me this week wanting some images for her web site. So I thought now would be a good time to try out a white background.

I used three lights. A hair light (which wasn't really needed). A strobe on my white paper backdrop to blow out the background. And a strobe to camera right with a large 5' softbox to light the lady. See what you think:

None of these are edited. And so some of them may need a touch of PS to finish getting the background completely white. But straight out of Lightroom I thought they turned out pretty good.

fotomann_forever

02/16/2008 11:15:29 PM · #2

Your lighting is excellent, but I agree, the hairlight was definitely unnecessary.

Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D

02/17/2008 09:41:26 AM · #3

Thanks

Bernard_Marx for your comment on this image:

I happen to like that shot a lot too. Her reaction?!? She thought it looked "freaky", "too weird".

I reviewed the images with her, at my computer, right after shooting them and was marking only the ones that she liked for keeping. I had a couple of images taken from this angle and it took a bit of talking for me to convince her to keep "at least one of them". I'm glad to see someone else liked it too! :-)

iamkmaniam

Nikon D200

02/17/2008 10:14:46 AM · #4

The Lighting on the subject is very good, however the background is not white, if thats what you were are going for (high key). I would remove the hair light and use that light to shine on the background. The subject should be about 6 to 8 feet off the background and the background lighting 2 stops above (brighter) the subject lighting. You lighting is falling off and going gray , a nice job if that was intended however you specified you wanted a white background. The model poses are also nice as well as the camera angels.

Noel_ZH

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM

02/17/2008 10:45:00 AM · #5

David,

That set worked nicely, good job. I also agree that that angle is a keeper.

Cheers

Noel

Quasimojo

Canon EOS-30D

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

02/17/2008 11:06:40 AM · #6

Originally posted by Noel_ZH:

That set worked nicely, good job. I also agree that that angle is a keeper.

I really like that one as well - it really stands out because of the perspective. If your client wants those photos for a fitness website then that angle shot really conveys authority for some reason and I think would work well as a webpage/commercial image.

N

Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D

02/17/2008 11:16:47 AM · #7

Originally posted by iamkmaniam:

I wasn't going for "high key" (where even the subject is very light). Just a white background. And yes, in my original post, I mentioned that some of these may need a little bit of PS work to get the background to go the rest of the way white (these were all just straight out of Lightroom with no editing whatsoever).

I had initially set up the hair light (as I always do). I didn't have much time to think because I was late due to the snow (2 hour drive time) and she arrived while I was still setting things up. Only after I began shooting did I realize it was pretty much pointless. And so I agree, I should have turned it around and pointed it at the background.

Still... with only one strobe hitting the background, I thought they turned out pretty good. The background is "mostly white" in "most of the pictures" so only a small amount of editing work will be needed.

iamkmaniam

Nikon D200

02/17/2008 11:31:19 AM · #8

Originally posted by dwterry:

Originally posted by iamkmaniam:
The Lighting on the subject is very good, however the background is not white, if thats what you were are going for (high key). I would remove the hair light and use that light to shine on the background. The subject should be about 6 to 8 feet off the background and the background lighting 2 stops above (brighter) the subject lighting. You lighting is falling off and going gray , a nice job if that was intended however you specified you wanted a white background. The model poses are also nice as well as the camera angels.

I wasn't going for "high key" (where even the subject is very light). Just a white background. And yes, in my original post, I mentioned that some of these may need a little bit of PS work to get the background to go the rest of the way white (these were all just straight out of Lightroom with no editing whatsoever).

I had initially set up the hair light (as I always do). I didn't have much time to think because I was late due to the snow (2 hour drive time) and she arrived while I was still setting things up. Only after I began shooting did I realize it was pretty much pointless. And so I agree, I should have turned it around and pointed it at the background.

Still... with only one strobe hitting the background, I thought they turned out pretty good. The background is "mostly white" in "most of the pictures" so only a small amount of editing work will be needed.

I guess it was my misunderstanding. The shoot as a whole is very nice I like the model's poses and the angles the subject lighting is perfect. Nice work

fotomann_forever

02/17/2008 11:39:26 AM · #9

For what it's worth, "high key" portraits tend to be low contrast images with somewhat (or totally) flat lighting with most of the tonal range represented on the right side of the histogram.. While we have come to accept brightly lit subjects with white backgrounds as a high key look, it's not true high key.

Most portrait photographers would have a hard time selling true high key images to clients, as they want ontrast and bright colors.

iamkmaniam

Nikon D200

Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D

02/17/2008 07:51:44 PM · #10

Originally posted by fotomann_forever:

You can this is the digital age. People now look at the histrogram to see what the image "Looks like" I mostly agree with the above statement with the addition of high key images are mostly shadowless.

If I can play devil's advocate for a minute. The original assignment was to make a "White Background" considering that we are shooting digital you can see that the background is not white. Why rely on photoshop tho "fix" the problem instead of fixing the lights?

I think the images are really good. I am just curious as why many photographers of today relay on PS fix problems that can be easily fixed in camera.