How can I get a white background on product photography

[canon212]

Hello, this is my first post on the forums, but have been reading inputs from others and learned a lot. Thanks!

What I'm trying to achieve is to get a pure white background on my products. I've been trying to change the shutter speed and aperture to get the white background, but every shot I take turns out very warm. (I think it's because I'm using 5400k Fluorescent). Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Camera: Canon 60D - Lens: Canon TS-E 90mm Tilt Shift

Lighting Setup: 2 Fluorescent w/ 6 bulbs on each side of tent, 1 Fluorescent 60W Ring Light on Top of Tent

Camera Settings: 1/60, F9, ISO 200, CWB 18% Grey Card

When I take a picture at F9 aperture, the contrast is perfect on the product, but the background seems a bit red, so I adjust the white balance and shift it 4 steps to the left for more blue. Am I doing this correctly? Now my pictures are not red anymore, but are turning out more blue.

When I raise it to F8 or F7.1, the background turns to white, but my subject is now overexposed and doesn't show the true color. Shooting at ISO 400 with same settings seems to make the subject a bit fuzzy around the edges.

I have included a a picture of the product. Please Help!!!


bluish background - would like to achieve white background




Thanks a bunch!! Ryan

 

[Gary_Scotland]

canon212 wrote:

Hello, this is my first post on the forums, but have been reading inputs from others and learned a lot. Thanks!

What I'm trying to achieve is to get a pure white background on my products. I've been trying to change the shutter speed and aperture to get the white background, but every shot I take turns out very warm. (I think it's because I'm using 5400k Fluorescent). Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Camera: Canon 60D - Lens: Canon TS-E 90mm Tilt Shift

Lighting Setup: 2 Fluorescent w/ 6 bulbs on each side of tent, 1 Fluorescent 60W Ring Light on Top of Tent

Camera Settings: 1/60, F9, ISO 200, CWB 18% Grey Card

When I take a picture at F9 aperture, the contrast is perfect on the product, but the background seems a bit red, so I adjust the white balance and shift it 4 steps to the left for more blue. Am I doing this correctly? Now my pictures are not red anymore, but are turning out more blue.

When I raise it to F8 or F7.1, the background turns to white, but my subject is now overexposed and doesn't show the true color. Shooting at ISO 400 with same settings seems to make the subject a bit fuzzy around the edges.

I have included a a picture of the product. Please Help!!!


bluish background - would like to achieve white background

Thanks a bunch!! Ryan

Hello,

The 'usual' method is to have the 'background' light/s set to about 2 stops brighter than the main light. As you are using 'continuous' light source this is not so easy to achieve as you are not going to have the same control over the lights.

Looking at your image I would suggest that the 'easiest' option for you is to do it during the post processing. Your 'grey' looks reasonably uniform so it wouldn't be a lengthy process to adjust it with your editing software. Select by 'colour' and this should isolate your subject and then just change the 'level' and that should solve things.

Regards,

Gary

--

Loading…

garymurisonphotography.co.uk

 

[Gary_Scotland]

I have just tried a quick edit on your image and it actually just needs the 'levels' changed in the software. It is a little underexposed.
























--

Loading…

garymurisonphotography.co.uk

 

[canon212]

Gary_Scotland wrote:

I have just tried a quick edit on your image and it actually just needs the 'levels' changed in the software. It is a little underexposed.



--
http://garymurisonphotography.co.uk

Hey Gary. Thanks for the input. Appreciate it. Post production shouldn't be too bad with levels. Hopefully I will learn more about a different light set up later. Photography is quite a challenge, but very interesting.




Thanks again.

Ryan

 

[Gary_Scotland]

canon212 wrote:

Gary_Scotland wrote:

I have just tried a quick edit on your image and it actually just needs the 'levels' changed in the software. It is a little underexposed.



--
http://garymurisonphotography.co.uk

Hey Gary. Thanks for the input. Appreciate it. Post production shouldn't be too bad with levels. Hopefully I will learn more about a different light set up later. Photography is quite a challenge, but very interesting.

Thanks again.

Ryan

Hi Ryan,

I think you did a very good job. It was a difficult subject to photograph with the lighting setup (black subject on white background).

To put things 'simply' - the camera can only see shades of 'grey' and if it sees too much 'dark' in an image it will 'overexpose' the image (turning dark colours grey), and if it sees too much white it will 'underexpose' (turning whites into grey). As your image was a little underexposed, it turned the white's into grey. You could try to add some +EV when taking the photo to see if that will give you satisfactory results.

If you have a strobe then I would use that to light the subject and the continuous lights to light the background. If you don't have a flash/light meter, put the strobe into manual and set it to its lowest power setting and take a few photos (keep shutter speed within the camera 'sync' range. (Shutter speed won't effect the exposure when using strobe, but needs to be kept below a certain value or you will experience 'lines' on your photo). Then adjust the strobe power and camera aperture until you find one that balances the whites/darks. Ideally have your ISO at 100.

Light is the number 1 challenge to make any photograph, and I think that it is really good that you are learning to control it now - it will pay off dividends in the end

Regards,

Gary

--

Loading…

garymurisonphotography.co.uk