One technique is to light your background from behind. The black, red and yellow areas show where the background is not a clean white. So I opened the image in Photoshop and added a Levels Adjustment Layer. The light drops off around the edges of the frame. In this studio photo the background light was not even. It doesn’t show you where the tones are in the image.Ĭhecking your image on a computer is the most accurate way to find out if your background is pure white. The histogram is showing a representation of the tone range in all the pixels.

Even if the histogram shows a spike hard against the right side, you may not have a clean white background. If the spike on the right is not hard up against the right hand edge, you do not have a pure white background. At this point, you should check your camera’s histogram. If the light is uneven the whole of the background may appear to be pure white. This may result in light from them spilling onto your subject. You can add lights from the front to help reduce or get rid of the shadow. Placing lights in front of your subject will cause shadow to be cast on the background. This means you won’t have enough space between your subject and background. You might be working in a small photo studio or room. It can also mean spill light from the background affects your subject. This can cause the subject to cast shadows onto the background. Placing your subject too close to the background during a photo shoot is the main problem. © Kevin Landwer-Johan Most Common Problems With White Background Photography Is it close to the amount of light on your subject? If there is not three stops or more of difference, you will need to add more light to your background. Then check the light on the white background. Check if you have your setting correct for your subject to be well exposed.

Take a spot meter reading from your subject’s face. Photographing a portrait you will want the person’s face to be well exposed. Use the spot meter setting on your camera to ensure you are only making a reading from your subject. It is also important to take your exposure meter reading only from your subject. The background must be at least three stops brighter than your subject. Having more light on a white background than on your subject is the key to creating a pure white background. Best Settings for White Background Photography

Black and white background