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Archive 2013 · White backgrounds not being white....

  
 
NathanHamler
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · White backgrounds not being white....


So, here's the issue....i shot some head shots last week for a client, they're going in a magazine, on white, with no border (granted they're going to be about 2" wide each, but moving on...)

The head shots were done on white, Peter Hurly style (white background blown out with flashes, and then the subject lit with strobes through umbrellas up close....they look great....

anyway, so as i'm post processing, i notice on one edge of the background, there are some issues with color cast showing up on the background, so instead of the pixel values being like 255, 255, 255, they're like 251, 252, 255 (slightly blueish)....still white, but not WHITE....so what i did to be quick was just cloned within Aperture from the other side of the BG (which is totally WHITE), to straighten out the color cast....

Well on my Dell Ultrasharp (which is totally calibrated, matches every print PERFECTLY), all images look great...in PS, in Aperture, in Finder, in Preview, everything. So i dropbox the photos, then i'm flipping through on my iPhone, and i can TOTALLY see spots i missed...TOTALLY.....where on my main display they look fine...same thing on my 13" white macbook...are the white points that much different? Or does it just boil down to screen brightness.....my MB screen and iPhone screens are both brighter than my main display (90 cdm/2)....

Also, how many of you think that the difference in whites probably wouldn't have shown up in print?? I changed it mainly b/c i knew the clients would view the photos on a screen that was possibly brighter than my main display, so i didn't wanna look like an idiot, where i missed spots...

thoughts?



Sep 01, 2013 at 10:08 PM
Peter Figen
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · White backgrounds not being white....


Yes, they absolutely will show up in print. Presses these days can often hold a half percent dot, and on something that small, it may not matter, but it will still be there.

The easiest thing to to, instead of trying to clone in Aperture, is to simply paint that background white in Ps. You can put a temporary levels or curves adjustment layer above a cloning or painting layer, which, of course, is above your background layer. Drag the arrow on the far right of the levels dialog all the way left until it touches the black slider. You will now be able to see ANY spots you may have missed. Paint them out and chunk the adjustment layer. Done.



Sep 01, 2013 at 10:45 PM
NathanHamler
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · White backgrounds not being white....


Yeah i actually ended up painting them over with pure white on my MacBook, as the screen showed all the misses..but this is good to know, i may be able to do everything on one machine now...thanks!!


Sep 01, 2013 at 11:09 PM
pr4photos
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · White backgrounds not being white....


Whenever I shoot on a white background I always do a duplicate layer, then go into curves, 'show clipping' and bring the highlights in to the point where it shows that the background is completely blown, as it rarely is completely SOOC. Any spots that were missed at the shooting stage will show up and you move the highlights until they disappear. Then go back to your layers and simply paint through to bring the person back to normal.
That way you know for certain that your background is pure white. Its an easy and quick thing to do.



Sep 02, 2013 at 03:23 AM
NathanHamler
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · White backgrounds not being white....


pr4photos wrote:
Whenever I shoot on a white background I always do a duplicate layer, then go into curves, 'show clipping' and bring the highlights in to the point where it shows that the background is completely blown, as it rarely is completely SOOC. Any spots that were missed at the shooting stage will show up and you move the highlights until they disappear. Then go back to your layers and simply paint through to bring the person back to normal.
That way you know for certain that your background is pure white. Its an easy and quick thing to do.


See that is what i was KINDA doing in Aperture..i'd show the clipping (hot and cold areas), and then make sure everything is blown out.... whether by tuning the image exposure/contrast to get it as white as i could, and then cloning the areas i missed...but i've come to realize that "clipped" doesn't exactly mean "WHITE"....it just means "no detail"....i think there is a threshold setting where you can fine tune when the highlight warnings show up, but i think next time i may just have to fine tune my lighting more, and then do the PS route....



Sep 02, 2013 at 07:15 AM
kdphotography
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · White backgrounds not being white....


NathanHamler wrote:
....white background blown out with flashes, and then the subject lit with strobes through umbrellas ....

.... i notice on one edge of the background, there are some issues with color cast showing up on the background,....
thoughts?


The background does need to be overexposed to be "white" but the problem is if you overexpose by too much (e.g., more than 1.5 stops) it is not unusual to see either problems with color cast (typically bluish) or issues with contrast. Depending on severity, it will show up in print.

When shooting high key in studio, I meter the background closer to only one stop over, using multiple strobes angled to give even coverage and avoid spill onto the main subject.

ken



Sep 02, 2013 at 09:35 AM
Sal Baker
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · White backgrounds not being white....


For white backgrounds I make a feathered mask just around the subject, then desaturated. Tones are not affected but the background will be white. Afterwards I use the eye dropper to check any areas near the subject and spot them out the same way if necessary.

Sal



Sep 02, 2013 at 10:42 AM





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