How To Make A Pure White Photography Background

I am repeatedly asked - by annoyed photographers - what materials they ought to be using so you can get a crisp, spotless, pure white photography background.

Regrettably, that would be the wrong question to ask! It in actuality, isn't the backdrop material that provides you with the sparkling white that you are looking for.

It is actually the source of the light!

Here's the situation…you set up a clean white bed sheet or a roll of white paper - and you situate your subject matter in front of it.

You set up a light source or - even more than one, and light your subject matter. All is looking nice. You think you've got a perfectly lit model and a nice white background.

Next, you shoot the shot.

Apprehensively, you run to the photo lab if you're shooting film or to a computer if you are shooting digital. You see the completed shot and ta daaa!

Your subject matter is impeccably lit, however the backdrop is usually a dingy gray color. Not the sterile, untainted white you saw within your viewfinder!

Seem recognizable? If you have been having a difficult time shooting high key photography…And you've been getting that dingy gray color (regardless of the materials you use) here's how to mend the situation!

All light has a certain drop off factor.

With that I mean that the further away the light is from a subject, the dimmer it appears. Consequently, meaning… if you have a specific amount of light striking your subject matter, and you are using that SAME illumination to light your set, your light is further away from your background than from your subject matter. For that reason, it will be slightly dimmer by the time it gets to the background substance.

Whew! That's a tongue twister. In other words...

The main reason you're making that gray color is because there's more light hitting your model than is hitting the photography background.

To have your backdrop be an absolute, picture perfect white…just hit it with MORE illumination than you're using on your model!

Appears obvious when you finally understand it, but this is a huge sticking point for many photographers.

The amount of "over-exposure" you would need on the background depends on the color of the background fabric. If it is already white, you could probably get by with using sufficient extra illumination to get an over-exposure of about half an f-stop. Maybe even one full f-stop.

If the material you're starting with is gray…that's OK as well! Just hit it with in the region of 2 ½ stops (give or take) more brightness than you're using on the subject.

Here is one that could blow plenty of minds…imagine if your photography background substance is actually a pure black piece of canvas - or black paper?

It doesn't make any difference! Zap it with 5, 6 or perhaps even 7 extra stops worth of light (over what you might be using for the primary model) and you'll once again have a pleasant uncontaminated white backdrop.

This is a BUNCH of illumination and I wouldn't propose starting out using a black background. If you start closer to white at first, it's a lot simpler. However, try it! It's a amusing experiment and can educate you a lot regarding light!

The point being - by way of enough light, you can achieve a nice white photography background no matter what type or color substance you start with.

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