Lighting technique to create desaturated look

<p>Are there any well known lighting techniques for desaturating portraits, or at least to aid with the post production work needed to create a desaturated look? My intention is to shoot a portrait against a white background for cut out.<br>

Many thanks.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>There are plenty of lighting techniques for controlling contrast - the usual way to get a white background which just prints an off-white tone is to light this one stop brighter than the subject. If you want an absolutely featureless white background, then make this two stops brighter or more, but check that flare is not creeping around the edge of the subject from the back. Desaturation is really something else - the classic way to get soft focus and desaturation is to use a vaselene-smeared UV filter, stretched nylon stocking or pukka diffuser filter over the lens. You can still do this, obviously using the saturation control in Photoshop is much easier and allows you to control saturation separately from sharpness!</p>

<p>Definitely separate, in your mind, desaturation from changes in contrast or subject/background separation. You're just a couple of quick mouse clicks away from desaturation in post production. Start with a well-exposed shot and don't compromise that in order to get a head start on something that's <em>so </em>easy after the fact.<br /><br />If your purpose is ti make it easy to cut around your subject, then the key is to have your backdrop lit separately from your subject. You have to get the ratio just right so that your backgrop is <em>just</em>over-exposed, but not so much so that it's overcooking your subject from behind. This usually involved flagging those backdrop lights so that they don't spill onto the subject, or create glare on the lens. Then light your subject to create the look you want there. It can be challenging to achieve this without enough light sources, the right light modifiers, and enough working space to get it all under control. Search on the term "high key" and you'll find many discussions.</p>

<p>I was going to make a joke about being sure to use only highly desaturated lights and then give my straight answer, but I see Matt (as usual) beat me to posting a very good straight answer.</p>

<p>;-)</p>

<p>Tom M</p>

<p>Yes--Tom Mann has it right. Before setting up your flash units, wring them out thoroughly and wave them in the air until they're bone dry.</p>

<p><<Yes--Tom Mann has it right. Before setting up your flash units, wring them out thoroughly and wave them in the air until they're bone dry.>><br>

Pardon me for asking, but what do you think BS postings like yours look like from the point of view of someone making his first posting on photo.net?</p>

<p>As Alex has a straight answer already, I don't think his brains have been scrambled by a little jocularity. I would have suggested wringing out the model's T-shirt--the one with the cutouts--but as you yourself were already in there stretching nylons and smearing vaselene, I felt it better to remain in the background and tend to the lighting. ;-))))))</p>