First, let’s see what I used: a white textile (canvas or so) and not a paper. Why? Because I want the result to be realistic and not plane. Also, it’s important that the background surface should not be glossy.
Natural light plus a tungsten light (two of them would be even better) and fill flash. Because the flash might overexpose some ares of the photo (usually the central area), I use a diffuser made from a very transparent soft plastic or canvas piece.
Usually this kind of thing refers to macro shots, so you may want to shoot in macro mode or manual.
Now let’s see the tips:
1. Use a textile background that makes a few soft “natural waves”
2. Use one little colored piece in your white composition as a reference
3. Use lights from all sides to avoid big dark shadows
4. Use fill flash (better with diffuser on it) to naturally brighten up the scene and reveal the details
5. Use custom white balance to ensure real white
6. Only use matrix light metering
7. Do not overexpose the picture in the attempt of getting pure white
8. Use manual focus if the auto does not find the desired focus point
9. Do not completely remove the shadows - let the shapes be visible
10. Use a software to remove dark corners that may form
Sometimes, even if I use custom white balance, I still need to cool the picture a bit later. The whole task of photographing white objects on white background can be very difficult and require allot of practice. On the other hand, shooting in RAW format may let you change the exposure even after the shot was taken.
Tags: White Object on White Background, photography tutorials, photo tips, macro photo, macro photography
My Name is Lau, I'm 23 and I'm from Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Nature Photography is my passion, and secondary, Abstract Photography, but other kind of photographic challenges please me as well.
October 12th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Hope i will be able to do this and give these results. You make everything look simple and possible. Thanks!
October 14th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I love the first picture, looks fabulous. Not sure about the other two.
October 14th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
First image is nice.
October 14th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
I’m glad you like it. Thanks for your support.
October 16th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
It is rather brief, but it is very clear and sounds rather useful.
November 7th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
[...] read more | digg story [...]
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:04 pm
The first picture has red ~ although it isn’t equally clear digital responds to red just as film does(did), so dramatically, the effect or the associations are probably still in our mental template, to please our mind’s eye. The gold foil, does look believable, and metallic sheens are as hard to capture as glass, so that is indeed a result of careful lighting. In the other two pictures, note the grey in the background is not truly neutral (which may or may not be desired) and they are not identical, so one or both are off from true neutral (it could be the shot, the post processing, or done by preference) … study of human vision will show that can also happen due to the colors in a scene — however I do find the other two photos to be better compositions in terms of a self contained and quickly identifiable image, and appearing whiter, nice clean work & strong sense of image.