Bright white background for portraits?

Hi!

I'm just about to begin shooting portraits (b&w only). My question:

When I want the background to be bright white, what's the best

solution to achieve this? I've seen that some photographers place

their models in front of giant white softboxes. What about just

hanging a white blanket behind the model and brighten it up with a

flash from the back (that the order would be

camera->model->blanket->flash)? How to meter this flash with a

flashmeter? Does it have to be as strong as the mainlight flash?

Regards

Peter

Normally, when I want a pure white background, I'll shoot the subject against either

white seamless or a plain white wall (depending on where I am, mainly). I then light

the background at two stops over the main light on the subject. This ensures a good

pure white without overdoing it. Also, once I have my lights in place, I like to put a

large flat in place to flag the background light to keep it from hitting the subject. I'd

think trying to light through something like a

blanket would be much more trouble than it's worth, particularly if you don't have

powerful studio flashes at your disposal with multiple power packs (you may or may

not - I don't know). In any case, once you get something set up, just experiment and

figure out what works best for you.

Give us a clue as to your approach, budget and available equipment. Creating a solid white background is more complex than any other solid tonality (grey/black) or a gradation. Try a search of Photo.net's archives. I'm sure it's been covered... t

I almost always set up the lights for model and background separately. With a strong studio flash you can turn almost any background into white (grey +3 stops equals white), but basically David has said it already, white background +2 stops will do. I normally take a striplight or two or a couple of small softboxes for the background and the model placed some feet away so that he/she won`t be affected by bg lights and i am totally free with the model`s light... Good luck then!

Greets Joe