Head to toe white background

I saw a tutorial on white backgrounds once that recommended white tile board from home depot or Lowes. It gives a nice reflective smooth look. They only used 1 softbox on the model and 2 background lights. I wish I could find the link back for you. It was very informative. are you getting a blown out white background with only 1 stop above the main light? Most people say to go 2 stops above.

ahh here it is. Zach Arias

http://www.zarias.com/?cat=13

Thanks for that link Andrew, I will look it up. I find that with fair haired models at about 6 to 7 feet from the background, I generally get an unacceptable level of burnout around the hair if I use more than 1 stop difference between the background and foreground. I am limited to about 10 feet max between model and background due to studio size limitations (its 22 foot feet long). While the background is not technically burnt out at 1 stop, I find with even lighting and 1 stop it still "appears" white. On inspection in photoshop though its RGB is not 255/255/255 but a few points off.

If you are using an incident type meter and a white background the light illuminating the background really should be any greater than about 1/2 stop brighter than your key light on your subject.

If you only have one light for the background , do you have the ceiling height and a way to rig the light so that you can light the background from above rather than from one side or the other?

OP: "Background meters f11. One medium softbox or octobox at 45 degrees in front of and pointing at the model and metered to f8"

Ellis: "If you are using an incident type meter and a white background the light illuminating the background really should be any greater than about 1/2 stop brighter than your key light on your subject."

F8 to F11 (plus the 1/2 EV from the key) is at least a full stop brighter. He's stated that the reflective light from the BG is producing too strong of a hair light w/ a difference greater than that.

Ellis "If you only have one light for the background , do you have the ceiling height and a way to rig the light so that you can light the background from above rather than from one side or the other?"

Also, lighting from above will cause the light to fall off more towards the feet, and increase the problem he's having. If anything, he may want to try to stagger the left and right heights of his _two_ background lights he's stated he's using.

Hi, guys! This is my first post on the forum, but I've been a professional shooter (including 17 years in a portrait studio environment) since the late sixties.

Here's the drill from a film shooter's point of view. (I do not yet shoot digital, so there may be a slight variation in the exposure balance between back ground and subject with digital. If so adjust.)

Anyhow. The classic and absolutely accurate balance between subject and pure white background on film is 2 stops more exposure on the background than the subject, period! This gives a pure white with no distracting detail. (Meter this with a flash meter with the subject metered in incident mode and the background in reflective mode and remember that you can turn a pure black paper background into pure white if you throw enough light at it compared to the light on the subject!)

If you used a soft focus filter with much diffusion it would bleed light into the hair and face, so only a very slight diffusion (usually one layer of white nylon netting) was ever used on high key portraits.

For you digital shooters, if you introduce a soft filter function in Photoshop, does it bleed the tones?

The problem you are having with the darker area near the feet can be solved in at least two ways. First, light the background with umbrellas (black cloth backed so you don't get flare into the lens) for evenness and have those high enough that you can tilt them downward slightly. That way you get more of a bounce back effect onto the lower part of the background and out on the floor.

If you can afford it, four background lights, two on each side high and low) are the best way to achieve absolutely even illumination.

The other component is to use a reflective surface, especially for the floor so that you are utilizing the angle of incidence/angle of reflectance values that actually multiply the brightness. In my own studio, we built the background out of smooth linoleum turned upside down and then finished with white epoxy paint. The floor had great wearing values so we only had to mop it down about twice a month and repainted it only once every four months or so due to scuffing. Your vinyl floor should work the same way.

Finally, you are also having a lot of vertical light fall off with only a medium soft box (even with small kids) so either back it up for more light spread and increase the power on that light, or invest in a much larger soft box. Right now, you aren't illuminating the lower legs and feet (and therefore the floor area) from the main light.

Good luck with the adventure. Light is the whole thing!!!!

Tim Ludwig