White Out

[Keltic Ice Man]

I went past a "studio" photographer in a supermarket the other day. The sort where they do kids photos and noticed they had 2 lights, one with a softbox and one with an umbrella.

Unfortunately at the time they were taking a shot of a very tiny baby, so both lights were pointing to the child and the background of the pic would be the seat the child was in. I say unfortunately as i would have liked to see them do a child of say 6 year old so I could see how they got a nice skin tone and got the background sheet to show no creases.

Any thoughts as to how you achieve this with 2 lights?

 

[cherryrig]

One light postioned to hit the background and then the other light aimed at the subject.

So use the softbox for the subjct and then normal light to hit the background. Google "high key photography"

 

[Chappers]

You really need a decent background if you don't want creases.The pop up lastolites are fine (but fun to fold away). Decent background paper also helps but you need to suspend it properly. If you are using a white sheet, then it needs to a reasonable distance from the subject so any creases are out of focus, plus you need to light it fairly flatley.

To get it white you need to have about 1 1/2 to 2 stops more exposure on the background than on the main subject. Don't overpower the background as it starts effecting the main subject.

 

[kungfukid]

whos been shopping at asda then
seen them myself......
I thought the BG was whte pvc (reflective) to help bounce the light.

 

[Keltic Ice Man]

You spotted them in Asda as well - I thought it was a white sheet, but maybe i'm wrong. Kungfukid - I might have a portable studio set up in a local school building soon, I'll pm you if I pull it off.

I reckon you need 3 lights if using a cloth background, which is why I was asking. As getting the 2 stops consistent on the background I would find difficult with 1 light.

 

[W.Smith]

To get [the background] white you need to have about 1 1/2 to 2 stops more exposure on the background than on the main subject. Don't overpower the background as it starts effecting the main subject.

I think 2 stops is not enough to get it really white. You need 3, imo. But it is true you can have too much background light, which would blow out and 'eat' into your subject.
Changing the distance from light source to background can take care of that. Or partially cutting the background light could too, of course.

 

[John Harding]

It's just a matter of balance.
A cloth background will need more overexposure than a clean paper or vinyl one to get the shadow areas caused by the creases overexposed, the problem with that is that the higher level of overexposure on the areas not in shadow will direct more light forward on to the subject, which will degrade fine detail (especially the hair)

The trick is either to use a minimum of overexposure on the background (say half a stop) and light it very evenly OR to use more (say 2 stops) and have the subject much further from the background, so that the reflected light has lost a lot of power before it gets to the subject.

BTW, white backgrounds are not necessarily high key. High key is the absence of dark tones. White backgrounds are just white backgrounds

 

[Garry Edwards]

It's just a matter of balance.
A cloth background will need more overexposure than a clean paper or vinyl one to get the shadow areas caused by the creases overexposed, the problem with that is that the higher level of overexposure on the areas not in shadow will direct more light forward on to the subject, which will degrade fine detail (especially the hair)

The trick is either to use a minimum of overexposure on the background (say half a stop) and light it very evenly OR to use more (say 2 stops) and have the subject much further from the background, so that the reflected light has lost a lot of power before it gets to the subject.

With a cloth background, you can also place the light behind it so it shines through. Use the largest softbox you can for this, to get it as even as possible. An umbrella will also work, although not quite as well