How do yo make whites really white? I am not talking about getting the correct white balance!

I am not happy with the way whites in most digital images look. Film photos have beautiful whites most of the time but digital images often have blueish, yellowish overcasts...sometimes grey.

What is your approach to achieve the perfect silky whites. I sometimes use Hue/Saturation layer, sometimes selective color adjustment layers...

What do you do to get clean whites?

Originally Posted by haring How do yo make whites really white? I am not talking about getting the correct white balance! I am not happy with the way whites in most digital images look. Film photos have beautiful whites most of the time but digital images often have blueish, yellowish overcasts...sometimes grey. What is your approach to achieve the perfect silky whites. I sometimes use Hue/Saturation layer, sometimes selective color adjustment layers... What do you do to get clean whites?

If I like most of the image with a particular white balance that leaves whites with a color cast, a little de-saturation (and maybe dodge a bit?) is what I do (though really, I'm almost always happy with the whites after a white balance correction if the original is raw). I generally shoot raw, and post process with Aperture (and almost always rely on Aperture's tool for setting the white balance by selecting a skin tone or a neutral target. nearly always gets me what i want.).

Do you shoot raw or JPEG? Maybe you aren't really getting the white balance that you intend, even though you think you've set it where you want (if that makes sense).

Do you have an example image?

Hi Otto,

I can't help you with your question here, but i I went your website and almost lost my poor eyeballs when this hideous blaring red overpowered my organic sensors.

Sorry if that was a bit harsh, BUT your images are so wonderful!! I really do think your site deserves a home page that reflects the class and quality of your photography.

Sam

It kinda depends.....Clorox or White vinegar...White vinegar also softens, so no need for softeners later......basically I do what I can with white balance in LightRoom and then maybe a lite dodging if really needed....there are times when no matter what you do, due to reflected light the whites just won't go bright white......

you site is cool...it is definitely different from a lot I see, which are usually an almost solid black or white background, yours is like old antique drapery....I have actually seen that exact fabric print in a few studios...on my monitor the background is not screaming, glaring, blaring red ... ... if we all had backgrounds alike then there would be no individuaizm ... ... Good Luck with your whites .....

Your whites will be white if properly exposed and color balanced, and edited with an appropriate white point in PS or LR, and an appropriate black point as well.

Try shooting a 32 step Kodak grey scale, and see if you can identify each step in your RAW files, or your jpgs ( if you shoot jpgs ) right up to the lightest white spot short of 256,256,256.

Casts are frequently due to ambient light reflections, or mixed color light sources - think green grass and green wedding dresses. This can usually be taken care of in image editing. Not always easy.

I agree, you have some lovely work on your web site, and the color looks fine to me.

You did not state whether you are shooting RAW or jpgs, nor how you edit your images. All of those choices may, or may not, be contributing to some of your frustration with image color balance.

One further topic for discussion is whether your "white" dress is REALLY white, or not, or whether you really want your white dress to actually look white.

A truly neutral white dress in late afternoon sunlight will be a warm non white golden color, and who would want to "correct" this color??