I am frequently asked – by frustrated photographers – what materials they ought to be using to get a crisp, spotless, pure white photography background.
Sorry to say, that is the wrong question to raise! It in fact, is not the backdrop material that will give you the sparkling white you might be looking for.
It is actually the amount of light!
Here’s the situation…you put up a sparkling white bed sheet or a piece of white paper – and you put your model in front of it.
You set up a light source or two and light your model. All is looking good. You think you have got a perfectly lit model and a pleasant white background.
Next, you take the photo.
Worriedly, you hurry to the photo lab if you are shooting film or to a computer if you are shooting digital. You see the finished photo and ta daaa!
Your model is impeccably lit, but the backdrop is really a dull gray color. Not the sterile, untainted white you saw in the viewfinder!
Sound familiar? If you’ve been having a hard time making high key photographs…And you’ve been creating that dingy gray color (no matter what materials you employ) here’s how to repair the situation!
All light has a certain fall off issue.
With that I mean that the further away light is from a subject, the dimmer it is. As a result, that means… when you’ve got a specific amount of light hitting your model, and you’re using that SAME light to light your background, your light is further away from the background than from the model. As a result, it is going to be somewhat dimmer by the time it gets to your backdrop material.
Wow! That’s a mouthful. In other words…
The reason you are making that gray color is because there is more light hitting your model than is hitting the photography background.
To get your background be an untainted, flawless white…merely hit it with MORE light than you are using for your model!
Appears obvious when you finally comprehend it, but this is a major sticking point for many photographers.
The total amount of “over-exposure” that is required on the backdrop is dependent upon the color of the background material. If it is already white, you could probably get by with using sufficient added light to have an over-exposure of approximately half an f-stop. Possibly even one full f-stop.
If the fabric you are beginning with is gray…that is okay as well! Simply strike it with in the region of 2 ½ stops (give or take) more illumination than you might be using on the model.
Here’s one which will blow a large number of minds…what if your photography background stuff is a pure black piece of material – or black paper?
It does not matter! Zap it with 5, 6 or maybe even 7 additional stops worth of illumination (more than you are using on the primary model) and you will again have a pleasant sterile white set.
This is a BUNCH of illumination and I would not advocate starting out using a black set. If you begin closer to white at first, it is a lot easier. Nevertheless, take a crack at it! It is a amusing experiment and will educate you a lot concerning light!
The point being – by means of an adequate amount of light, you can get a pleasant white photography background no matter what type or color material you begin with.
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For some more photography background information, check out this video: