Whitening Studio Backgrounds

[Tiptopsteve]

Guys

I wonder if anyone out there could give me a few hints and tips....

.... as you are probably aware both myself and Glitter are doing a lot of studio work at the moment (which we are both really loving) - however on some shoots, when the lighting has not been quite right we have a slightly grey background.

I have been shown a few ways to get this to white but all of them destroy the shadows cast on the floor? It also needs to affect only the background as I want control over the levels etc. on the person?

Can anyone help????????

Thanks
Converted

 

[true_one_picture]

If its going to white then the following could be of use.

In photoshop CS3>
Open image>
Image - Adjustments - Replace colour>
Whilst holding ****, click all the background area>
Then with the lightness slider take it across to the right.

This should give you a clean white background.
All you need to do then is touch up and adjust your levels.

Hope this helps.
Phil

 

[Tiptopsteve]

Thanks for that - i'll give it a try, but whats the '****' key? lol!

"Whilst holding ****, click all the background area>"

Steve

 

[dellipher]

I think it was the CTRL button....[Control if it astreik'd it out again]

 

[Kerioak]

In PS

Open new Levels layer
Select on the right hand eyedropper
Click on a "white" area of your image (try different areas until you are happy) then OK
Use the Dodge tool at about 2% highlight to clean up any remain areas

I then create another Levels layer and push the sliders all the way to the right hand side to show up any areas I have missed

 

[Keltic Ice Man]

Kerioak, do you need to mask the subject of the picture? When I try this my subject becomes very light as well as the background, and if they are wearing any white they become invisible.

Am I doing something wrong?

 

[mattyh]

Why not just use the colour replace tool as above, far quicker!

 

[Keltic Ice Man]

but the white of the subject is also altered? isn't it

 

[Wile E. coyote]

I use the dodge tool set to highlights with an opacity of about 2-3% then just paint it over the background, zoom in and use a smaller brush near to the subject.

 

[Janice]

Why dont you boys get your background lighting right and save all this trouble!!!!

 

[Keltic Ice Man]

Why dont you boys get your background lighting right and save all this trouble!!!!

We can't be perfect all the time

so should i use a mask? (not while shooting, Janice)

 

[true_one_picture]

sorry for the late reply, the **** was <s h i f t> key, must have missed the f out and it thought it was a naughty word.
sorry

Phil

 

[will69]

I agree with Janice, spend a bit more time getting the lighting right will save a lot of time in front of the PC.

However - if you need to, try this. I use lightroom 2 which has a groovy new mask tool. Use the brush to paint a mask over the areas that are not pure white (burnt out), then adjust exposure slider (on the mask tool) to burn out these areas.

I saved a couple of images on a recent shoot I made using this technique, with one light on the background, no reflectors and two 5 year olds in a crampt bedroom studio getting the background 100% white was a challenge too far.