Help. Feathers with a pure white background or?
May 1, 2020
Thank you for looking and thinking about this.
I have a new commission for a hospital where they want several different 30x60 inch prints each consisting of a bunch of feathers. They came to me because they like what I have on my website, featherfolio which are large composites of individual feather photographs all on black backgrounds. To fit with the hospital decor, they would like white backgrounds.
I need to, if it is even possible, to get the detail and contrast that are in the black background photos to be in photos of feathers with pure white backgrounds. The downy parts of the feathers are so intricate and fine that they wash out with everything I have tried. There are three possibilities I am asking about: suggestions for photo and lighting techniques or, if that is impossible, photoshop techniques.
The third possibility is a light grey background. The background, whatever the color, needs to be totally consistent and I can get that with a pure black or washed out white using lighting. Maybe there is a way to get a totally consistent neutral or lighter grey?
I really appreciate your thoughts and experience.
I use a camera with a macro lense (and sometimes extension rings) on a fixed stand and my old hotlights. I have tried mounting the feather from laying on the paper to three feet from the white paper, white glass, or clear glass or just mounted hanging in space. I light in as many different ways as I can think of but the feathers are always somewhat washed out when the background is overexposed. If I underexpose and then brighten the background in photoshop, the fine feather filaments always pick up some of the background color.
I was on this forum over 10 years ago and just rejoined.
Chris
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