Still life Lighting

[Pricer]

Howdie all,

Ive been trying a few still life shots and i havn't been able to achive a complete white background on my shots,

they look white on the camera but when i look at them on my laptop they come out in a slightly washey gray colour. :bang:

Im using a normal desktop lamp to light the subject and have been playing around with the exposure//pushing stops and nothing seems to be working.

any ideas?

cheers
Pricer

 

[Garry Edwards]

The background needs to be overexposed relative to the subject. In other words, it needs to be brighter than the subject, which means that it needs to be lit seperately so that the light on the background can be controlled separately to the light on the subject. If you don't do this then the background will receive less light because it's further away from the light than the subject is.

Still life lighting is much more demanding than most other types of lighting and requires a fair bit of both knowledge and equipment. But it's well worth the effort!

Some people will probably tell you how to get it 'right' on the computer. That's a quick fix to a specific problem but the real answer is to get the lighting right in the first place.

Please see this post, which is one of many on the same subject

 

[Pricer]

excelent, thanks

 

[Paulmack]

How does it work then when say for instance you are doing a portrait shot with the subject laying down?
I understand that with additional lighting to light the background you can overexpose by 1 stop and light the subject accordingly with another light, but what about the white area around the subject? How would you light this bit to get it white white not flaring on the subject or overexposing the subject?

 

[Garry Edwards]

How does it work then when say for instance you are doing a portrait shot with the subject laying down?
I understand that with additional lighting to light the background you can overexpose by 1 stop and light the subject accordingly with another light, but what about the white area around the subject? How would you light this bit to get it white white not flaring on the subject or overexposing the subject?

Well, most people just 'improve' it on computer - but the proper, quick and easy way is to shoot the model on an underlit acrylic surface

 

[Paulmack]

Ah ok so its PP work only then!

I just thought there was another secret little lighting method that was unknown to me.
So all the pics you see of the little kids either sitting or lying down on a white background will have had the bottom bit painted in photoshop and the background done via lighting?