white on white

[danny_bird]

i have to shoot some very white trousers on a white background (digitally) - other than

comping exposures can anyone suggest a good way to keep the background white without

blowing out the trousers or the trousers clean without greying the background? what

lighting plot/modifiers would you use? - its a flat, overhead shot..

 

many thanks...

[stwrtertbsratbs5]

Light them separately.

[danny_bird]

how would you control spill?

[stephen gale uk]

Controlling the spill is going to depend on the type of light you intend to use. Controlling spill from softbox can be hard work. Many softboxes have a lip around the edge of the box intended to control the spill. Directional lighting is a little easier.<P>

The other obvious answer is to make sure there is a decent distance between the subject and the background. The effect of any spill onto the background will then be greatly reduced. <P>

However the key here is going to be separating the lighting for foreground and background.

[danny_bird]

as i said though the problem is they have to be shot flat from above which makes

seperation difficult!

[garry edwards]

You shoot them on a light box, or a product shooting table lit from below. If you don't have one you just need a sheet of frosted acrylic supported on trestles, and with a light below

[danny_bird]

thanks garry, unfortunately i didnt have enough ceiling height do do that - next time

presuming i did, wouldnt theexposure sufficient to clean out the surround burn out the edgs

of the trousers?

 

thanks again

d

[garry edwards]

Danny, you need very little height for this technique - granted you can't lay the product on the floor but the shooting table/acrylic sheet only needs to be far enough off the floor to allow a light to be placed beneath and to spread enough - or if space is that tight you could place a white bounce on the floor.

 

Yes, correct exposure is a must - but it's doable - I do it all the time.

[danny_bird]

they actually wanted a shadow - i guess this would but thelightbox method in question, can

you suggest a basic lightong plot - ie nu,ber of lights/type of modifiers, this kind of shot is

something i always struggle with - thanks for following the thread garry..

 

thanks again

D

[scott_walton2]

You could easily suspend the trousers about 5' from your white background and do a multi exposure... one for the background, one for the trousers. By keeping the trousers away from the background, you won't have the problem of spillage or edge bleed and you can even add extra highlights by using strip lights on the edge of the trouser. With you just shooting them digitally anyway, shoot the trousers on a background that gives you seperation but not color cast (slate grey Savage paper) and then in PS use your magnetic lasso with a decent edge contrast setting to select the product, copy and paste to a white background.

[brooks short]

Clients often want a everything. In this case they seem to want white trousers on a white background with a shadow.

 

The way to do this is to shoot on a contrasting background that is darker (grey paper or formica) or lighter (a light box)than the white trousers. Expose for the trousers. You might obtain a shadow that's usable if you're shooting on a darker bkgd, but you'll still have to strip the trousers out of the background and you'll probably have to enhance the shadow or make an entirely new one.

 

There's no getting around the fact that there's going to be some PhotoShop work involved for this shoot.

[john_allan]

At the risk of stating the obvious - you couldn't see white on white. So you have to create shadows. Particularly on the edges to separate from the background. Try a black reflector (or reflectors) to model the subject a bit.

 

John Allan