White Background is not so white

[petitesbijoux]

<p><img src="http://www.familyandkidsdigest.com/photoexample.htm" alt="" /><br>

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong here? I like the skin tones so I don't think I need to adjust my temperature in the camera, or do I? I am taking a studio portrait on a white backdrop with 2 lights with shoot through umbrellas. The background is not pure white in the photograph, but is in real life. In these examples you can easily see which one was post-processed to get the result I wanted.</p>

<p><img src="file:///Users/bijoudesign/Desktop/tillman.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[howard_m]

<p>no photos but my hunch is that you're getting enough light falloff from the strobe output to render the white 'not so white'</p>

<p>have you considered additional cross-lighting the background w/ 2 lights to raise the luminence of the bg ?</p>

[john tonai]

<p>Nicole,</p>

<p>No Images.</p>

<p>But did you use both lights to light the subject. If so, that's your problem. White backgrounds are actually not completely white and need to be slightly overexposed to be completely white in a photo. Also, there is some light fall-off if you have the light metered correctly at the subject. The resulting underexposure makes the background whitish instead of white.</p>

<p>You need to light the background separately from the subject.</p>

[petitesbijoux]

<p>John, Yes, I did. So if the baby's head is right next to the white background (resting on it), I will just need to do a little post-processing? Also, I posted another question with photos this time. Is there a way to delete the first one?</p>

[petitesbijoux]

<p>Howard, No I haven't. I am fairly new at this. Thanks for the advice!</p>