lighting white seamless

I've been struggling to light white seamless paper for full length

people shots in a way that there's no separation between

background - which I overexpose a few stops - and the white the

models are standing on. I'm using umbrellas for the background

and these umbrellas are casting a slight shadow line on the

floor white. If I take down the exposure on the background a

notch, it helps, but then the white background is not as pure

white as I would like it to be.

 

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

Rick

Photoshop it. Whenever you add more lights, you add more possible shadow lines. I believe that you would have to create an enormous light tent around these people otherwise.

Bounce the light into the background without using the brollies at all. Use B I G bounce panels (e.g 4 x8' styrofoam panels) and you should get the effect of a giant soft box without the shadows. You may find that you need a 3rd bounce panel / light unit comming from the top just in front of your subject but lighting only the BG.

Light your set from above first. Most people start lighting from the sides and

then end up fighting this problem, so start with a large light above your set,

and then add your side lights. I like the idea of bouncing each of the lights

into a "Vee" of large flats rather than using umbrellas. At this point you are

probably seeing why full time professionals use two or three 2400 watt-

second packs and studios with high ceilings.

 

If what you really want is a completely dropped out background then folow

Timber's advice about using Photoshop to knock out the areas surrounding

your subjects..

Lots of light on the BG any way you cut it and 12 - 14 ft overhead clearances

First of all, thank you to all of you for your posts. But I was still

wondering:

 

1. Even with large lights that light the background BEHIND the

subject, wouldn't I end up w. a shadow IN FRONT of the subject?

Since the subject is a few stops under the background?

 

2. With all this light bounching around, can I still create a

somewhat interesting lighting on the subject? I would not want

the lighting on the subject to be flat...

 

Rick

But I was still wondering:

 

1. Even with large lights that light the background BEHIND the subject, wouldn't I end up w. a shadow IN FRONT of the subject? Since the subject is a few stops under the background?

 

YES but this is lit as a completely seperate area in the composition.

 

2. With all this light bounching around, can I still create a somewhat interesting lighting on the subject? I would not want the lighting on the subject to be flat...

 

Following to the above regards the seamless - modelling can be achieved as well by unbalancing the forground lighting that falls directly on the subject.

Rick- I had to shoot a couple of swing dancers doing a jump against a pure-white seamless. I got the background perfectly even and white by mounting a flash head almost directly above the subjects. I have open beams in my studio, and I was able to do this by simply screwing a 1/4" x 20 mounting stud into a beam and mounting the head on that. Other than that, you could use a boom.

 

Also, note that if you are overexposing a white background by several stops, you may create other problems for yourself. The worst is bleed, which is when the ultra-bright light reflects through the lens and cuts down the contrast of the subject. That might be helping to create the "flat lighting" effect on the subject that you are trying to avoid. So much overexposure can also be contributing to the shadow problem you are describing. I find that I should use no more than a one-stop overexposure on a white backdrop. That will kick the tone of the BG into zone 10 or so, which is enough to read as perfect white. Anything more is overkill, and again, can cause major problems.

If the BG light is directly over the subjects, then there will be at most a small pool of shadow under them. Feather the foreground lights to blend with this, and you might be able to achieve an almost perfectly even white BG while keeping the vast majority of BG light off the subject. A lot will depend on the type of reflector you have on the BG light. Just a little bit of difference between what you have and what you need can make the task almost impossible. I used a 60 degree reflector, and the flash head had a continuously-variable range, which helped me get the exposure perfect. My studio ceiling isn't extremely high, just a bit over eight feet, plus the depth between the beams.

 

Best of luck. -BC-