Lighting a white background for head shots

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Eddie1

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hi all
I need to set up and light a white background in an office situation to take some portraits against white.
I have the background but I'm just unsure of how to get an even spread of light without light spilling everywhere. Usually would use white reflective brollies for this but any advice on alternatives appreciated.
 
Lighting the white background for such a small area is simple, a white brolly would be fine.

The only issue is ensuring the subject is far enough away so the b/g light doesn't affect your subject lighting
 
Thanks Phil
Yes issue may be that I get stuck in a very small room and can't get enough distance back, so wondering what the solution to this may be ?
 
Eddie1 said:
Thanks Phil
Yes issue may be that I get stuck in a very small room and can't get enough distance back, so wondering what the solution to this may be ?
Click to expand...
Careful flagging will help.
But honestly if you're too close to the BG you might have to dial down the flash power and bring it back in post.
A lot of work, not ideal, but it's easier to brighten a bg in post than it is to fix problems on your subject caused by reflected light from bg.
 
A large softbox as a background is as already mentioned another way, it's as bright as you set the strobe. I've used this approach many times and never had any iissues.
 
Thanks again all

Where would you position a soft box to get an even spread like that ?
Or are you using 2 ?

And Phil exactly what do you do in post to brighten the Bg ?
 
Eddie1 said:
Thanks again all

Where would you position a soft box to get an even spread like that ?
Or are you using 2 ?

...
Click to expand...
That's a softbox used as a background as per his post.

Eddie1 said:
And Phil exactly what do you do in post to brighten the Bg ?
Click to expand...

It depends how much it needs lifting, but if it's only a bit, just lifting the 'white' slider in lightroom would work.

If it's a lot, it'd need selecting in Photoshop which can get tricky.
 
If there's not enough room to light the BG separately with good separation, the next best bet is to put them very close to the BG and use the ISL to help you. You could pull the lights back or maybe backwards bounce one to fill the room, or some combination... i.e. if the lights are at 6ft and the BG is at 7ft it will be w/in about a 1/2 stop and easy to lift. And if you use backwards bounce "the lights" would be even farther away and the exposure closer (as well as the lighting being much softer/flatter).

If the BG is white it doesn't need to be overexposed, it needs to meter ~ 2stops overexposed in order to be white. And if there is a texture in it that you need to loose it needs to be (actually) overexposed by ~ 1/2 stop.
 
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Eddie1 said:
Thanks again all

Where would you position a soft box to get an even spread like that ?
Or are you using 2 ?

And Phil exactly what do you do in post to brighten the Bg ?
Click to expand...
In the sample in my post the background is an 180 cm Westcott umbrella with the diffusor attached placed behind the subject facing the camera but any softbox or similar big enough to fill the frame will do. I don't remember the setting for the flash but enough to make it appear white and not to much so it affect the subject lighting.
 
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sk66 said:
If there's not enough room to light the BG separately with good separation, the next best bet is to put them very close to the BG and use the ISL to help you. You could pull the lights back or maybe backwards bounce one to fill the room, or some combination... i.e. if the lights are at 6ft and the BG is at 7ft it will be w/in about a 1/2 stop and easy to lift. And if you use backwards bounce "the lights" would be even farther away and the exposure closer (as well as the lighting being much softer/flatter).

If the BG is white it doesn't need to be overexposed, it needs to meter ~ 2stops overexposed in order to be white. And if there is a texture in it that you need to loose it needs to be (actually) overexposed by ~ 1/2 stop.
Click to expand...
ISL?
 
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