How to blow out the backdrop in small studio?

5 years 11 months ago #586673 by Fishtaco
So I have a small room that I converted to a studio.  I have a white backdrop and just 2 speed lights and a soft box.  My backgrounds just look like a dirty white.  

How can I get this completely frost white and blown out?  


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5 years 11 months ago #586688 by effron
It would be very easy to blow out in post, even a dirty white exposure via curves or levels eyedropper. However, slow the shutter speed a bit and/or add more light to the backdrop?

Why so serious?
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5 years 11 months ago #586720 by Gammill
Aim one of your speed lights directly at the background, set it higher than the ambient light and you should be good.  


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5 years 11 months ago #586722 by Fishtaco
Is there anyway of doing this with out using one of my 2 speed lights?  


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5 years 11 months ago #586788 by fmw
If it is dirty white then you need to add light to the background to whiten it.  Probably time pick up a couple more flash heads.


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5 years 11 months ago #586800 by garyrhook

Fishtaco wrote: Is there anyway of doing this with out using one of my 2 speed lights?  


Short answer: not really, no. You need to throw light on the background, and if you really want it to disappear, you'll want two: one from each side.


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5 years 11 months ago #586806 by Ozzie_Traveller
G'day mate

When you first mentioned 'dirty white' background I wondered whether it might be a colour temperature issue ... but as you're using flash it should not be the case

It seems to me now that as you seem to want to bleach the background to a 'perfect' white you might be attempting the impossible. If you had several slave flashguns, variable-height tripod mounted at each side of the backdrop, that might do something - but point-source light sources & light falloff across the surface + shadows might change one problem for another

Another possibility might be to locate some 5000K 4ft-long fluoro tubes and build 3 or 4 of them into surrounding the rear screen so as to totally flood the background ... where the 5000K colour will match the flashguns and their use will also create shadowless lighting from the flashes

As the old saying goes [a bit like NASA] ... throw heaps of money at a problem and it's usually fixable :)

Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

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5 years 11 months ago #586883 by Ian Stone
All good posts.  But wouldn't one flash work depending on distance from backdrop and how much light is needed to whiten out the frame (how wide)?  


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5 years 11 months ago #587013 by garyrhook
No. One flash will create a shadow of the subject. The point is to eliminate that. You can't correctly  illuminate your subject and blow out the background (which requires considerably more light) with a single flash. Think about it.

Lights for the subject, lights for the background. Adjust each as appropriate.


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