Here's a stupid question...

[DeLeon]

Sorry for such a stupid question, but I am doing some senior portraits this weekend, and the girl asked (in her words) for a photo of her "sitting or laying infront of an all white background" I am assuming by the way she described this, that she wants a sort of high key look.

All I have done so far is outdoor work, so I have no backdrops or lights. The room that I will be working in has a large east facing picture window that I could use for light, but im not sure if this will be enough for the look she wants. Any ideas?

I would rather try and figure something out and do this for her, than just tell her I dont have the equipment....thanks for any suggestions, and again sorry for the stupid question...

[LoungeLizard]

One thing I've seen people do is use a reflector as a background. It's good for a headshot - maybe even a 3/4 shot. They are bright white and if you're outdoor can light it up so that it looks really bright.

Yes, it does sound as though she wants a high key photo. Call Scott - he's the master of those!

[srwatters]

My ears are burning....

What you need to acheive is lighting the background 1 to 1.5 stops brighter than the subject. You can do this with direct and reflected light, but it's much harder than with strobes. If you have one or two hotshoe mounted strobes and a way to fire it (them) remotely, you could use sunlight for the subject and the strobe(s) for the BG. You will have to either use spot metering or go full manual to have the subject exposed correctly and let the BG get close to blown out. Make sure she isn't wearing too light a color clothing or she will disappear into the BG. Strive to keep detail in the subject, but let the BG get close to 245,245,245. You can also shoot her in a bit of shade (like a tree or scrim), use a strobe for fill, and use the natural sunlight to light the BG. Shoot her wide open and let the BG overexpose.

Keep her at least 6 feet from the BG too so that your DOF will lose any detail in the BG. That also helps to reduce or eliminate any shadows from the key light on the BG.

Hope this helps.

Let me know if what I posted isn't clear or you have other questions.

[CaptainTom]

you can probably find a very large flat white sheet. Use it as the background. Take Scott's method. Any imperfections can come out in PS. Notice that he has the model on a white reflective surface.. You can get this material at a building supply store.

If you would rather make the shot happen , than tell the client you can't do it, you may have to sacrifice some of your fee to get the materials to do the shoot. This happens all the time to pros, and is just a part of doing business, and setting appropriate fees.

Good Luck
Show us what you come up with please.

[sbug_adam]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

you can probably find a very large flat white sheet. Use it as the background. Take Scott's method. Any imperfections can come out in PS. Notice that he has the model on a white reflective surface.. You can get this material at a building supply store. .

that might work but you'll be able to see the folds and such.. some might be a bit hard to edit out..

Adam

[srwatters]

Originally Posted by sbug_adam

that might work but you'll be able to see the folds and such.. some might be a bit hard to edit out..

Adam

As long as the model is far enough from the BG given the aperture, the DOF will hide most small creases and imperfections. A little patch tool in PS can fix most everything else. On top of that at 250,250,250 most detail is gone anyway. Before I got my seamless, I used a big white sheet and Home Depot spring clips to stretch it taught. Wash it, dry it on high and remove it immediately from the dryer to avoid wrinkles.

PS (I don't do windows )

[LoungeLizard]

Originally Posted by srwatters

PS (I don't do windows )

We know, you talk about your Mac often enough!

No wonder your wife lets you shoot models, you do the laundry now!

[CalebSimpson]

If you are going to be shooting something as important as senior portraits you should use strobes. rent them if you don't have them. you may consider renting a white seamless backdrop too. that is what she will be expecting most likely. also keep in mind that if you don't use strobe you may have a lot of shadows to deal with. some shadow may be deisred but you can at least control it with strobes.