Help getting a perfect white background

IanAshworth

IanAshworth

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Ian
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Hi,

I'm looking for some help with some product photos I am trying to do. I am trying to get a white background but although it is showing as blown on the image display, is still coming out a bit grey.

Is this a case of adjusting whitebalance? If so how do I get the perfect white balance?

I'm trying to get the image as perfect as possible as ideally I don't want to do any photoshop.

What are your thoughts?


PurpleBracelet by IanAshworth, on Flickr

Thanks, Ian
 
Hi

You might want to try and increase exposure compensation, maybe +1stop to begin with.


Andy
 
I would try to put the object on a glass or Perspex surface covered with white material a light under that and expose +1/2 stop more than the main lighting which should blow out the background if not up the back light some more until it dose
 
paulminus273 said:
I would try to put the object on a glass or Perspex surface covered with white material a light under that and expose +1/2 stop more than the main lighting which should blow out the background if not up the back light some more until it dose
Click to expand...

The background is showing as completely blown out on the histogram display, that's why I expected it to show up white instead of grey.
 
I would blow it a bit more, I can see refections/shadows on the background so the main light must be more than the back light which to me means the back light is not enough.
 
paulminus273 said:
I would blow it a bit more, I can see refections/shadows on the background so the main light must be more than the back light which to me means the back light is not enough.
Click to expand...

Cool, I'll give that a go. At the moment it is just on white acrylic, there is no light underneath so I will try that. Thanks

corbystock said:
What do the blinkies say ?
Click to expand...

What are blinkies? Sorry if I'm being dense, I'm very new to this.
 
Think I have improved on it. It's still not perfect but it's OK for what I will use it for.

I had previously set the custom white balance and that image had been deleted from the memory card. I'm not sure if that caused the issue but resetting the white balance has given an improvement.

You can't really tell on this forum background but it doesn't stand out half as much against a true white background.




Thanks to everyone in the thread
 
Hi Ian, you can set your camera so that when you look through the images you have just taken the image will blink on & off where it is blown out. I don't have a Canon but i'm sure someone will tell you where it is on your camera.
 
corbystock said:
Hi Ian, you can set your camera so that when you look through the images you have just taken the image will blink on & off where it is blown out. I don't have a Canon but i'm sure someone will tell you where it is on your camera.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I found how to do that. It was doing it (blinking) for the first image, that's why I was confused. Guess I just had a bodged white balance.
 
use dodge on ps, set to highlites and about 5 to 10% and go from there.
your first attempt looks bettert, the 2nd has a hint of pink to the white.
heres a quick edit.
5455199109_be3044d575.jpg
 
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Aww Scott, I wish you hadn't done that - I was happy with my last attempt. Now I'm not :'(

I do like it with the pure white background you have done but I would prefer not to use any photoshop as it's too time consuming for what I'm after.

It's good to know how to do it though, thanks :thumbs:
 
the only to get pure white out of camera is to have 1/2+ stop more light coming thourgh the back than your main light
 
IanAshworth said:
Aww Scott, I wish you hadn't done that - I was happy with my last attempt. Now I'm not :'(

I do like it with the pure white background you have done but I would prefer not to use any photoshop as it's too time consuming for what I'm after.

It's good to know how to do it though, thanks :thumbs:
Click to expand...

I have just bought one of those colourright pro White balance correction tools, they are a fantastic product check the video out on the Internet.
 
paulminus273 said:
the only to get pure white out of camera is to have 1/2+ stop more light coming thourgh the back than your main light
Click to expand...

That is interesting to know. I did try lighting from behind but because the product is a see-through plastic, it looks a lot different with light coming through it.

macca221155 said:
I have just bought one of those colourright pro White balance correction tools, they are a fantastic product check the video out on the Internet.
Click to expand...

I'll check that out, cheers
 
because the product is a see-through plastic the main light put a colour cast onto the background so if you can’t get the balance between to two lights you will have to pp it one way or another depending on which software you have there are lots of options
 
Couple of comments. It's impossible to get pure white when the subject is actually on the background itself. In theory.

No backgroud is ever pure white, so you have to over expose it slightly to make it blow, which is what you would do with a light table with the lights underneath. However, even if you have got a light table that often doesn't look very natural and you can bodge it pretty effectively by a) using the brightest white background you can lay your hands on, b) pushing the exposure right to the brink, and c) then pushing it over the edge with a tweak of extra contrast in picture styles.

And BTW, with blinkies the subject is not necessarily over exposed - it's a warning that they are about to blow. Blinkies are generated off the JPEG histogram so are subject to pictures styles. The contrast setting makes quite a big difference to when they kick in. Bit of trial and error needed and you will find the tipping point when the background will blow, but the main subject will still hold ;)
 
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