Please help me with my "white" background lighting & settings?

[Jill H]

I everyone, I am VERY new to "light box" photography, and I was pretty happy with these shots, until I realised the background should be white! What should I have done? The lightbox has two small fluorescent lights on the side, and I was using a white cloth backdrop. I was using a Canon 450D with white balance set to "fluorescent".

I suppose there is a simple remedy - if only I knew what it was. Can you help me please? I look forward to hearing from you.

From Light Box

From Light Box

These last two I also sat on a white plate.

From Light Box

[OsmosisStudios]

Not enough light, not the right white balance.

Getting the background truly WHITE needs a lot of light. Your white balance in this case is also very blue.

[Jill H]

what else can I do other than set the camera to "fluorescent white balance"?

What sort of lighting would you suggest to get a lot of light?

[scootermcq]

You can easily fix them in PS with levels....

I hope you don't mind, but I just pulled down your image, hit the background with the white eye dropper et viola...

You could tweak it even more nicely, this was just a down and dirty 5 second edit.

I have deleted your image off my PC...

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by Jill H

what else can I do other than set the camera to "fluorescent white balance"?

What sort of lighting would you suggest to get a lot of light?

Custom. Or shoot RAW with Auto WB and edit it in post.
Generally for product and studio stuff requiring a white background you use strobes. You can do it with speedlights, but it's easiest with studio packs. Now, for products of this size, speedlights should be fine.

[Jill H]

thanks guys. I will look into the lighting - thanks for the input.

and also the pp - thanks for the tip about the eye dropper - the adjustment is certainly better than the original. I just had a quick look in photoshop elements, and couldn't get the colour to merge seamlessly like in your adjustment. I don't do a lot of pp work so I will need to pull out my manual a bit later tonight to check out how to do it.

thanks for the help!

[Jill H]

Thanks guys for your help. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer. How does this look now? I went back to my work book from an on-line course I did - and here is the result. What do you think?

From Light Box

From Light Box

From Light Box

[OsmosisStudios]

Considerably better. The background on the second and third images isnt quite white (needs a bit more in the top) but thats easily fixed with the dodge tool set to highlights on a soft brush. The white balance in the first still seems a bit cold, but not bad.

The trick is to try to get it right before bringing it into some kind of editor. It just makes life sooo much easier,

[Jill H]

Thanks for your input. I will check out the speedlites and that dodge tool. Thanks!

I have posted a few images in SHS Other - Don't play with the vegies!

thanks again for helping out! I really do appreciate it. It is so fantastic having somewhere to come for help.

[KaaPhotography]

If you do not want to adjust the white balance in pp, most dslr's have a program to preset the white balance for whatever lighting situation you have. Use a white background or 18% gray card. Doesn't have to be in focus, just with the light you are going to use. Check your camera manual for preset white balance. I've found most of the time auto white balance is OK, but the preset is much better.