Image: 43-00520925
Title:  “Assorted ice cream in sugar cones”
Contributor: Elenathewise                 

Why we like it:  Despite the gray skies out in Seattle today, we’re not ready to give up on summer without a fight!

Elenathewise shows off three varieties of a classic summertime treat on a clean bright white background.  Yum!

Mastering white backgrounds is an important milestone for many stock photographers. Clean backgrounds are essential to good shots of products and objects, and image buyers like that it’s easy to cutout an isolated object and drop it into their projects.

Here are three tips for nice clean white backgrounds:

• Use a seamless curved backdrop or a light tent:
  • Use backdrop paper or cloth that is is as white as you can find. White muslin works great - or “Studio white” or “Pure white” paper from Savage works well.
  • If you don’t have one already, you don’t need to blow your budget buying a kit. Here are some tips for constructing your own. DIYPhotography.net has suggestions for an incredibly simple starter kit:
    • http://www.diyphotography.net/homestudio/cheap-homemade-diy-studio-no-lighting-needed
  • For a contained solution and for highly reflective objects, light tents are come in handy - and once again, you can make one easily!
    • http://www.diyphotography.net/homestudio/super-simple-light-tent
  • Worth1000 has a nice tutorial and equipment list to make a basic studio setup that would also be a good place to start:
    • http://www.worth1000.com/tutorial.asp?sid=161040
• Light the background and the subject separately:
  • Meter for the main subject(s) - and then set your background lights at least 1-2 stops higher so that it will be blown-out
    • A meter will come in handy here as you’ll want to check that the background is bright enough.
  • For best results with larger subjects such as people - you’ll need to have two lights on the background
• Made a mistake? As usual, Photoshop can save you:
  • While it’s always better to get it right in camera, if you find that your backgrounds aren’t very clean during post-processing - you’re in luck! Some fairly simple Photoshopping can save you.
    • Check out Cheapshooters video tutorial here:
      • http://www.cheapshooter.com/2007/07/26/video-tutorial-getting-a-white-background-in-adobe-photoshop/

How do you get bright white backgrounds?  Share your suggestions in the comments.

- Brian