I am commonly asked – by annoyed photographers – what materials they should be using to accomplish a crisp, sparkling, pure white photography background.
Sorry to say, that would be the incorrect question to ask! It really isn’t the background material that offers you the sterile white that you are looking for.
It is actually the source of the light!
Here is the situation…you put up a clean white bed sheet or a roll of white paper – and you position your model in front of it.
You set up a light source or – even more than one, and light your model. All is looking fine. You think you have got a satisfactorily lit model and a nice white backdrop.
Now, you take the photograph.
Worriedly, you hurry to the photo lab if you are shooting film or to your computer if you are shooting digital. You look at the finished photo and ta daaa!
Your model is flawlessly lit, but the background is a dull gray color. Not the clean, untainted white you saw inside the viewfinder!
Seem typical? If you have been having a hard time getting high key photography…And you have been getting that dull gray color (no matter what materials you employ) here is the way to repair the situation!
All light has a certain fall off aspect.
With that I mean that the further away the light is from a subject matter, the dimmer it is. As a result, meaning… if you have a specific amount of light hitting your model, and you are using that SAME light to light your backdrop, your light is further away from your backdrop than from your model. Consequently, it is going to be somewhat dimmer by the time it gets to your background substance.
Wow! That is a mouthful. Simply stated…
The reason you are creating that gray color is because there’s more light hitting your model than is hitting the photography background.
To get your backdrop be a real, flawless white…merely hit it with MORE light than you will be using on your model!
Appears obvious as soon as you comprehend it, but this is a major sticking point for many photographers.
The amount of “over-exposure” you should have for the background depends upon the color of the backdrop substance. If it is already white, you could get by with using sufficient extra light to get an over-exposure in the region of half an f-stop. Possibly even one full f-stop.
If the material you are starting with is gray…that is OK too! Simply hit it with approximately 2 ½ stops (give or take) more brightness than you might be using for the model.
Here is one that could blow some minds…what if your photography background material is really a pure black piece of canvas – or black paper?
It doesn’t make any difference! Zap it with 5, 6 or perhaps even 7 additional stops worth of illumination (more than you’re using for the main model) and you’ll once again have a nice clean white background.
This can be a LOT of illumination and I wouldn’t suggest starting out using a black backdrop. When you begin closer to white in the beginning, it’s a lot simpler and easier. Nevertheless, attempt it! It’s a fun experiment and will educate you a lot on the subject of light!
The point being – by means of enough light, you can get a nice white photography background no matter what type or color substance you start with.
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For some more photography background information, check out this video:
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