Please Share Your "On-White" Photography Techniques

[darrenhester]

I've been experimenting recently with "on-white" photography. Here's a few shots I took this weekend using my 20D with 50mm lens, tripod, florecent lighting and white poster board. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out but I have a hard time getting consistant results.

If you guys have any links to good tutorials, books or other tips on taking photographs like this I'd appreciate it. So far I'm just using the trial and error technique. Getting the correct exposure it tricky for me. If I get the background pure white it tends to over-expose the image. If the background is to dark I end up spending lots of time in photoshop tweaking the brightness/contrast/levels/curves.


http://dhester.smugmug.com/photos/313412876_yBbgs-M.jpg

http://dhester.smugmug.com/photos/313412873_yqfHo-S.jpg

http://dhester.smugmug.com/photos/313412872_5YB85-S.jpg

http://dhester.smugmug.com/photos/313412891_sZFs2-S.jpg

Thanks!

[SloYerRoll]

Sorry I don't have time to post more. I'm sure someone else will. But if you do a Google search for "High Key" photography. You may yield better results than using the other term.

You can definitely get this right out of camera so minimal pp will be required on your shots.

HTH
-Jon

[Richard]

Hi Darren,

You might start by looking at a tutorial (http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1077012) Andy posted here on Dgrin a while back. Lots of other good tutorials can be found by clicking on the Tutorials link on the main Dgrin navigation bar.

Hope this helps.

[darrenhester]

Hi Darren,

You might start by looking at a tutorial (http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1077012) Andy posted here on Dgrin a while back. Lots of other good tutorials can be found by clicking on the Tutorials link on the main Dgrin navigation bar.

Hope this helps.


Thanks for the quick reply Richard! Great tutorial. I'll try your technique today ;-)

[darrenhester]

Sorry I don't have time to post more. I'm sure someone else will. But if you do a Google search for "High Key" photography. You may yield better results than using the other term.

You can definitely get this right out of camera so minimal pp will be required on your shots.

HTH
-Jon


Thanks Jon, "High Key" did indeed return lots of good links on google. Just didn't know what to search for. Appreciate your help.

[Andy]

Bump up the exposure comp (if shooting in aperture or shutter priority). Or simply overexpose, if shooting manual.

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/65309255_BtpqW-L.jpg


http://www.smugmug.com/photos/257858359_ArAZw-L.jpg

[darrenhester]

Bump up the exposure comp (if shooting in aperture or shutter priority). Or simply overexpose, if shooting manual.


Thanks Andy. I'll give that a try.

[gchappel]

I have begun shooting a lot of portrait work with white background/ hilight technique. I find the lastolite hilite background to be really nice. It folds up small, and makes this easy and fast. Still learning how to do it the old fashion way. Here is an article that explains it very well.
http://www.zarias.com/?p=71
Zack Arias does some amazing stuff, and he has an excellent article on shooting and metering on white seamless. Hope this helps.
Gary

[pathfinder]

Excellent info on shooting the white background in the previous post's link

[darrenhester]

I have begun shooting a lot of portrait work with white background/ hilight technique. I find the lastolite hilite background to be really nice. It folds up small, and makes this easy and fast. Still learning how to do it the old fashion way. Here is an article that explains it very well.
http://www.zarias.com/?p=71
Zack Arias does some amazing stuff, and he has an excellent article on shooting and metering on white seamless. Hope this helps.
Gary


Thanks for sharing the article. Zack looks like the master of this technique. I wish I had a basement I could convert into a studio like his! I got some great ideas from his tutorial.

[pathfinder]

Darren,

Zack uses an opaque background lit from the front. You can also use a translucent background, lit from behind. The secret is to keep the subject far enough in front of the background to achieve lighting seperation. For small subjects, like flowers, grapes, etc, this might be even easier to do....

Think of a larger light tent,perhaps.

[Scott_Quier]

Not quite a "white" background ... this was shot in-situ using a reflector behind subject for background (D'oh) and a white diffuser above to soften the very harsh sunlight.

http://LoveNLaughter.smugmug.com/photos/159548135_GchWm-L.jpg

[darrenhester]

Not quite a "white" background ... this was shot in-situ using a reflector behind subject for background (D'oh) and a white diffuser above to soften the very harsh sunlight.


Impressive image Scott. Thanks for sharing your technique ;-)

[darrenhester]

Thanks for all the tips! I've learned a lot. I created a make-shift lighting table and it actually works fairly well. Here's a few more isolated images I made. Not the most artistic photos. Just trying out different techniques. Let me know what you think.

http://dhester.smugmug.com/photos/315675570_77wqb-M.jpg

http://dhester.smugmug.com/photos/315675569_wAiy4-M.jpg

http://dhester.smugmug.com/photos/315675573_kUHAZ-M.jpg

These didn't require much PP. I adjusted the levels in photoshop to eliminate the background ( light gray to pure white ). Still tweaking my lighting to find the optimal placement. I'll keep working at it.

Appreciate all the help!