White Background

Kids' Blog
7 Comments

by Patience

 

I love white backgrounds, but unfortunately I don’t have a studio or a seamless white background like the pros.
 

I had Levi sit on a piece of foam core: about 24″x30″, and literally the edges of the photo are the edges of my makeshift white background.  The trick was just not showing any edges, so it looks like my resources are a lot bigger than they really are.
I used two light souces. 
 
1) The flash unit on my mom’s SLR. I just pointed it directly up at the white ceiling of the room, so it would bounce down as nice, even light. 
2) Mini blinds!  they may not be the nicest looking blinds, but they are awesome for diffusing window light, and getting just the right amount of light in your photo, at the exact angle you want it. 
 
In this photo, he’s placed, directly next to the window, and I had the blinds mostly closed, but a little bit open, letting more soft, diffused light into my photo.

Even with careful light placement, without a big professional get-up, my white background is never going to be pure white, it usually turns out as a medium-light gray.  So how do I get it to look really white?

I use a tool on my photo editing software.  I use a free program called GIMP.  I use a section called levels, and it’s used for making color, and brightness adjustments to your photo.  In this photo, I picked the white eyedropper in the lower right hand corner, and clicked on a few of the spots that were supposed to be white in my photo, and voila! A perfectly white background.  Now all you have to do is make minor color adjustments, and you have a profesional looking white backround!

 

7 Comments

  1. You definitely know what it takes to make a great photograph. Another good source for a white background is butcher paper – you can get big rolls for quite cheap – taping them together allows you to create a larger backdrop – a little cloning with your photo-editing software and the seams are gone…

    You did a fabulous job and you clearly understand light – I am impressed.

  2. Looks great!! Have you tried setting a custom white balance on your camera before shooting? It makes a huge difference. I am trying to learn about all the different settings on my camera–there’s so much I don’t know! 🙂 You’re doing a great job!

  4. You can buy a huge sheet of white thick plastic stuff at Lowe’s. It is back where wall board is, but you can roll it up in a roll to store it. It was pretty inexpensive. If we lived closer together I could give you mine! LOL! Your tips are great.

  5. Patience, thanks for the tips! The photos of Levi are fantastic. On my List of Things To Do is learn to take a better photograph. In fact, I need a *lot* of help!

    Can you explain more how you use Mom’s flash on her SLR?

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