Creating Clean White Backgrounds
Discover Karl’s foolproof system for getting white right.
How to achieve clean white backgrounds: it’s a question every photographer needs to ask. This class has all the answers.
The crisp white backgrounds you see in professional images seem simple enough to create. After all, it’s just white, right?
Wrong! Achieving the perfect white background is harder than you think. There are very specific lighting techniques you need to master in order to get those results. Without them, you’ll end up ruining your shots with flare or overexposure.
In this easy-to-follow, step-by-step class, you’ll discover those essential techniques, plus the equipment you need to achieve a clean white background. You’ll also learn how to tell whether the background is overexposed using RGB values.
By the end, you’ll feel fully confident in your ability to get white right every time!
In this class:
- Common problems when trying to create clean white backgrounds
- Lighting setup and necessary modifiers
- Positioning your lights
- Considerations when working in small spaces
- Measuring white values
- Reducing flare
- Key points to consider when introducing a key light
If you enjoy this class, try Packshots: White Background Product Photography and Shadowless Backgrounds for Catalogue-Style Images.
Questions? Please post them in the comments section below.
Comments
karl you amazing i love this course so much !
Thank you Sagiv.
Hi dear Karl
In a small studio
It’s very difficult to take a full-body shot with a white background
The model is only 1.5 meters from the background
The glare was terrific，I had used the mask，Still can’t solve the problem
Whether the key is the distance between the model and the background？
Hi Wei, yes the distance is important otherwise you can’t spread the light on the model. Alternatively you could use something like the Lastolite Hi Lite just be careful not to overexpose or you will light your subject https://www.manfrotto.us/hilite-background-6-x-7
Great video Karl. I will try and use some boards on my next high key shoot 🙂
Can you tell me how to set a pure white background for whole body shoot? Some of the lookbook need a pure white background, from head to toe, also the floor pure white
as well ! Thank you so much.
Hi Karl, I wonder if you show us in the future how to shoot against a softbox ( I mean using the softbox as your background. Thanks
Karl, you can add sub more video. my language not good 🙁
I suppose I can use this same setup for portraits/headshots also where I’m wanting a pure whit background isn’t it.
Also thanks for that I have struggled with this same issue of getting a pure whit background you made it look very simple knowing what to do ……. Thanks.
Yes you can and thank you.
I love these ah ha!! moments.
Karl,
What do you think about making a video going more into depth in creating colored shadows like the video in the link below? I’d love to produce images with this look. Thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyYE_gnk8bc
I found that video very useful, thank you.
Hi Karl, I am just preparing myself and my gear for a consistent corporate head shot (and eventually three-quarter body) session; my plan is to use two speedlights for a PVC white background, each of them diffused by the same size 80-cm octobox centered towards the centre of the image.
I’ll have only speedlights at hand, still don’t know what the light stand-to-background distance will be (it all depends on location), anyway I’ll put the two background lights just behind the model so as not to influence or flare against the other lights (I plan a 103-cm silver reflection umbrella on a boom arm at 45 degrees triedral angle, camera-right; a 90×60-cm softbox as a lateral fill light camera-left; a 90×60-cm silver reflector raised up to 70 cm from the floor as bottom fill light and maybe an additional hair light).
My question is if I can attain the pure white background in the correct way, using two speedlights in softboxes as described above, and what in particular I should pay attention to, besides the aspects that I already absorbed and for which I am very grateful to you.
Hi Bogdan I can’t see any reason why not, I would do a test shot first with just your background lights only though to see the power of the flashes is correct. I’d also use them in manual power mode and just adjust them accordingly.
Karl your teaching is really good and enjoying every minute.
You mentioned that you are shooting straight into Lightroom tethered in this video but not sure how to do that efficiently. Could you give us some tips please and why do you prefer this to Capture One Pro?
Hi Peter, I generally shoot medium format on a Hasselblad and use the proprietary software know as Phocus. In this course we decided to use only 35mm cameras, Lightroom and the more standard lighting modifiers so that the course would have a wider appeal and be more useful to those using similar equipment. Shooting tethered in LR is quite easy as you just need the right USB cable from your camera and then you choose ‘start tethered capture’ in LR. In fact its kind of a workaround as you still need to have a card in the camera as LR just imports it from the card. Capture One would be a better way to go if your camera is compatible.
hello sir,
can you tell what kind of paint you used on cove. is that have matt finish or glossy?
Standard Matt finish pure brilliant white paint for interior walls.
Some really useful tips here on an area that I’ve always found difficult. Not having a studio doesn’t help as I would imagine that once you do it performs a little like your own laboratory where you know your base values better. Anyway, great tips! I may find it in your library here somwhere but it would be useful to see this scenario with speedlights and in a smaller setting. Thanks guys
Hi
Karl
I have watched your clips on your tube and have joined your courses, I just wanted to tell you that you are a brilliant teacher and i’m learning so much from you
Thank you Fardin.