Creating a Pure White Background in Studio

Colorful backgrounds and backgrounds with patterns have a special place in photography. They help in adding to the mood and character of the photograph. But that doesn’t mean that plain white backgrounds are boring and useless. They too have their importance, especially when you want to draw all the attention to the subject. In this video, photographer Gavin Hoey from Adorama takes you through all the considerations you need to make to get spotless, clean white backgrounds:

Having a white fabric makes getting a pure white background so much easier. However, you need to make sure that it’s stretched and lit well. Otherwise, you’ll need to invest a lot of time in post.

As Hoey demonstrates in the video, the key to getting a perfect white background is to light the subject and the white fabric separately. You can start off by using flash to light up the background. Adjust its power until it appears pure white. Once that’s done, you can go on to add another light to light the subject properly. Just ensure that the metering for the background and for the subject is the same.

In case there are certain areas on the background that still appear wrinkled, you can use Photoshop to get rid of them. It’s a simple process like Hoey demonstrates in the video.

If you’ve been struggling to get a pure white background for your product shoot or high-end portraits, you’ll find this method useful. Be sure to check out the video in full.

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One response to “Creating a Pure White Background in Studio”

  1. dynamic says:

    Thank you for sharing this article.. One of the best tips

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