How to get the high-contrast white background effect?

Oops, sorry that was the wrong picture...this is the one I mean:

Can you post an unaltered image so we can see what the actual lighting & exposure looks like? My guess is that you're not throwing enough light on the background, but I'd like to see for sure.

Also, you're in full manual mode on the camera, correct?

Yeah, you simply need more background light. If it's B&W only, depending on the background material (paper?), you could even through some lighting behind the BG and let it diffuse through.

If you're getting a color cast in the BG, you're probably not exposing it enough, otherwise you would get a neutral white from the light, not something the light is bouncing off of. Just increase your lighting ration between subject and BG. Like a lot of photographers, I always set up my background and exposure before I move to the subject anyway.

Not enough light on the background. In the image you show here the gray looks about like a zone V or zone VI medium gray. You want it to be at least 2-3 stops brighter to wash out to pure white, so that means more light. Exposure time (=shutter speed) is not relevant unless you are relying on ambient light as well as your softboxes, as long as you are shooting at or slower than your camera's maximum sync speed. Be sure, as someone else advised, that your camera is on manual exposure control as well.

Your softboxes, while adequate for a single-person headshot, may not be large or powerful enough to generate enough spill to light the background properly, especially if there is some distance between model and background.

Short answer is, light the background separately. Maybe you could try one softbox on the model--very close, just outside the image frame--as key, a reflector or two for fill, and your second light, with or witthout softbox, lighting up the background.

Yes, I'm allowing the camera to choose the shutter speed aperture automatically. Which of these should I be setting manually?

Also, the reflectors (aimed at the background) are positioned about three feet off the floor about 1-2 feet from the (paper) background. Is that a good distance/height?

Sorry but I don't have a copy of the unaltered image available right now.

Your question about the background light positioning should be something you can determine for yourself. You want the background evenly illuminated, and about 3 stops greater than the subject lighting.

Think of it this way. If you meter reads that the subject should be shot at f/8, then your meter should tell you that every section of the background that is visible in the shot is at f/22 (some people might say f/16). You'll also need to keep the subject sufficiently far away from the background that it doesn't light the subject. That's probably about 6-12 feet away.

Joseph - probably the biggest part of your problem is your underexposing your shots. If the background is white, it will affect the metering, and your camera will try to reduce it to middle gray (or at least it will have partial impact, depending on metering modes).

Either go fully manual, or adjust your exposure compensation. Or meter off a gray card. Anything but letting the camera do it itself.

I thought it might be the case because your model look a little dark, but in B&W I couldn't be certain.

this probably wont help you, but i thought i'd share my "po man's studio lighting" with you.

this has been tweaked a little though. my moniter is a poor man's also...

not white enough huh.

It's easy to achieve high-contrast when you know the trick. For the whitest white, you must light the background independently from the subject. Reflectors will not make it. Meter them to be 1/2 stop overexposure compared to the main subject. To avoid spill from the background to the subject, you must ensure enough separation between the subject and the background.

I have not attempted it with a portrait (because although I'm a Mac user, I confess I don't like that style for portraits... although constant exposure to Apple ads will eventually win me over... I guess), but I have done it for objects.
Anyway, I recently did a shoot as a logo for my podcast, see the result below. It could have been a face instead of an old camera. The principle remains: two sets of light.

--ben

Its not "high-contrast," its "high key." you have to get enought light on the white backdrop to raise it to a white just short of blowing it out / overexposing it. Thats high-key lighting. You meter incident then open up to your white point. That exposure increase depends on your digital camera (or film), and there is a big difference. Color neg could be 6 stops. Digital could be 3.5 stops. Shoot and use your eyes?

Paul

There is one easy way to do this, if you have space, and I've done it.

Put lights BEHIND the backdrop. You need at least 2 in my experience, to light up the backdrop behind the model. But they need to be a little distance from the backdrop, else you get a spotty effect even with softbox or umbrellas.

Then put a light on the model.

This works, but you need space!

The problem with the previous recommendations that I've found in practical experience is that when you light up the backdrop from the front to get that pure white feeling, you over-light the model now matter how you try to protect her from it.

I'm an amateur and my pro friends thought I was a lunatic doing this (lighting from the back), but it works!

I've seen this done using off-camera flash pointed at the background, and behind the model so he/she isn't illuminated by the flash. The process, if I recall correctly, was this:

Meter the scene to get an approximate shutter speed and aperture.

Position the flash (or flashes), behind the subject, pointed at the background.

Calculate the aperture required for the background to be 2-3 stops above middle gray.

At that aperture, adjust shutter speed to properly expose the subject.

I think that's it, not terribly complicated. However, it's not a technique I use, so I may have forgotten something. It's fairly important to keep sufficient distance between the flash and the background (or use enough flash units) to achieve even background lighting, if that's what you're going for. Also, to keep the background exposure in the same ballpark as the subject exposure.

I think what Michael Sebastian meant when he said to insure your camera is set on manual is that both your shutter speed and aperture should be manually selected. Don't let the camera make any decisions for you. If you're shooting digital, that also applies to your white balance. You might also do a few test shots using a black-white-gray "target." That's how I do it, anyway. And frankly, when you say you bought a "white backdrop," that makes me think of a cloth backdrop...and I've never been satisfied with white cloth as a backdrop. I use white seamless paper, which comes in 6- or 9-foot wide rolls. No wrinkles or creases to trap light and make weird shadows and stuff. And shooting on white seamless (I use Arctic White), it really doesn't matter if you blow out the background. Not to me, anyway. It's pure white anyway, and there's nothing to see on it. Other than that, I can't really advise you, not knowing the power of your lights. But I'm thinking a 24-inch softbox isn't big enough, either.