Photography; I can't get my background white :(

[Loa]

Sorry to bump, but one of the best pony photographer's I've ever seen used a white bucket as a backdrop. Placing the pony inside, the light reflected beautifully.

[retrogradenova]

What kind of lights are you using exactly? It might be time to change out the bulbs. The picture you posted of the pony without the flash is extremely orange. Maybe even that sort of orange light bulbs can get when they are starting to die. And in my opinion, might be contributing to the difficulty in achieving a white background.

You might want to give some daylight bulbs a try if you haven't before. I find them very refreshing and clear in terms of how they affect light.

[LadyMoondancer]

I'm learning a lot from this thread!  I too have the issue with my white background looking kind of grey or peach.

[ghouldilocks]

My dad's been a professional photographer for multiple decades; white backgrounds can be tricky unless they are lit separately - that is, individually from the subject. You may also want to use a balance card to help set your white balance properly, or use a light box.  That would be cheaper for you than investing in a full studio set-up.

I know Emerald already suggested this, though - she's also a professional photographer.

[Loona]

I haven't yet had the chance to try it out myself, but this tutorial on how to make a DIY lightbox has been recommended to me at least two times, by separate people, it might be worth a try if you don't want to right ahead invest into a lightbox. you'll still need bright and even lights for this, too.

[daffodil101]

I have a simple lightbox and it makes a big difference.  I use two lights on the left and right through the fabric, and a big fluorescent lamp above.  The light box faces an east-facing window, but I take more photos at night tbh.  I usually avoid using the flash at all costs!  This is one of my photos:

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


I use Microsoft Office Picture Manager and I'm pretty happy with it.  I've never been able to achieve the elusive bright-white background, but the program has a lot of good editing features that help.

ShelvesofWhimsy 'lightroom' sounds like a cool program, your photo is incredible!

[ghouldilocks]

I have a simple lightbox and it makes a big difference.  I use two lights on the left and right through the fabric, and a big fluorescent lamp above.  The light box faces an east-facing window, but I take more photos at night tbh.  I usually avoid using the flash at all costs!  This is one of my photos:

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


I use Microsoft Office Picture Manager and I'm pretty happy with it.  I've never been able to achieve the elusive bright-white background, but the program has a lot of good editing features that help.

ShelvesofWhimsy 'lightroom' sounds like a cool program, your photo is incredible!

A lightbox is a great tool! You might still want the background lit separately, though, to get it a nice white instead of turning out grey. It's much better (and will save you time in the long run) to play around with the lighting a bit and maybe adjust your camera settings if necessary, to get the images you want right off instead of hoping you can fix them later in a program.

Just for more clarification, here's an example of lighting the background separately in order to get the pure white you're looking for:

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


I know this is with a human, but the setup would be the same, just play with the angle of your lights and/or bounce.