cc before/after, also advice on white backgrounds

lilmomma

working with Photoshop CS5 now (FINALLY!)
Im getting the hang of it, but I cannot for the life of me figure out the best way to get my background completely white without it having the blown look. so its either grayish or blown. theres a simple trick i'm sure, just can't figure it out. soooo....tips & tricks requested. Thanks :lust:lust


I'm just goofing off with an older image. my baby's 8 month pic. cc requested please.

here's my before:



AFTER: its white, but not quite white enough i think

JimKarczewski

Well, answer to the question is, you need more lights and more distance from the subject-> background.

You should have 2 lights lighting just the background to make it white, those lights also have to be flagged so they don't flare on the camera at any point. Then you need light for your subject. Putting your subject with no distance to the background will be very difficult and need the PS work you did already for every image. Too much work for anyone that does a lot of these.

Also, suggestion of using seamless paper vs a sheet... You won't have problems with wrinkles, etc. Alternatively is a 4x8 sheet of plastic which they sell at specialty plastic distributors.. Polystyrene. I have them in white and black...

Qarik

I think she want advice on how to make it white in post..not the setup for the shot. Melissa how are you doing it now?

lilmomma

Qarik wrote: »

I think she want advice on how to make it white in post..not the setup for the shot. Melissa how are you doing it now?

Yes sir, you are correct. I should have been more clear. Yes I wholly understand lighting concepts and could set it up if given the resources however I am now down to one speedlight that hasn't made contact with my camera in months. I don't have time for all that these days. I am a natural light gal, since it's only a personal hobby of mine, plus my house setup is too wacky for studio. I was only trying out my white muslin a few months ago to hide all the baby crap in my living room to get some nekkid babe shots of my little love. so, what I'm asking is in post, what are some tricks if any, to whiten the background?

I did a few lighten/brighten type actions masking off my son. Maybe I just needed to run some more. I was just hoping for a secret photoshop trick. Like any remove color cast, or whiten whites type deals.

dogwood

In terms of lighting, check this out. I was actually shooting product photos for a marketing project, one-light in a softbox firing at a white ceiling to evenly light up everything. Background is simply a piece of white poster board curved to look seamless. Anyway, I have a new dog so couldn't resist setting him up there and firing off a few frames when I was done with the products. Again, I want to emphasize this is one light and poster board. My advice is to ditch your muslin and try something similar to this. Puppy here is about 13 pounds so similar in size to a baby.

lilmomma

dogwood wrote: »

In terms of lighting, check this out. I was actually shooting product photos for a marketing project, one-light in a softbox firing at a white ceiling to evenly light up everything. Background is simply a piece of white poster board curved to look seamless. Anyway, I have a new dog so couldn't resist setting him up there and firing off a few frames when I was done with the products. Again, I want to emphasize this is one light and poster board. My advice is to ditch your muslin and try something similar to this. Puppy here is about 13 pounds so similar in size to a baby.

what a cutie
well, it's VERY rare that I even break out the muslin. I would love to pick up some seemless paper but I don't have background stands, plus how would that stuff work on carpet? i can't imagine it would work well?
Besides, my little guy has been walking for a little while now, so i'm mostly chasing him around with a camera. not fun with a stationary setup

Here is what i'm working on: he will be 11 months in a few days. So, of course after the big 11 months comes the even bigger first birthday! I've taken various type shots at every month milestone and am going back to rework and pick out one shot from each month to display at his birthday party. this is one of his 8 months that i'm considering. (we werent very successfull this day, he was crawling ALL over the place and then a few minutes into it he peed all over my muslin lol)

So I am very very grateful for the advice for how to do it in the future. and when the time comes that i'm ready to invest in more equipment for studio type stuff, i'll refer back to this advice in this thread. thanks for taking the time to provide it


the question still remains... Any little tricks for how to do this the best in post? I'm simply looking for some kind of tool or adjustment to make whites white basically. Photoshop is still fairly new to me. I've always been a lightroom gal.

Mitchell

I usually start in camera RAW and use the WB selector tool on the background. This should make your background white. Adjust your exposure from that same window to satisfy your needs.

In studio, I usually shoot a greycard as my first photo and then select the WB manually.

lilmomma

Mitchell wrote: »

I usually start in camera RAW and use the WB selector tool on the background. This should make your background white. Adjust your exposure from that same window to satisfy your needs.

In studio, I usually shoot a greycard as my first photo and then select the WB manually.

Yep...tried that with the wb dropper in lightroom. It turned my whole image pretty yellow/orange, and then bringing the exposure up just blew out my subject.

maybe i'll just run some more brightening around the edges. that seemed to work ok i guess i just didn't go far enough with it. Maybe i need to select a low opacity white brush and go over it. i was just hoping for some super secret quick trick to exist.

I remember in photoshop elements there was an adjustment tool to remove color cast. i couldn't find that in the full version. i'm sure its in there somewhere.

anonymouscuban

Try this in CS5. Dodge tool, set on midtones, about 7% and paint the BG. Should brighting the white of the BG.

RyanS

It really wouldn't be that hard to knock out a selection here. Then you can do whatever you want with the background. If you know how to use layer masks - create a layer mask and then paint to knock out the subject. With an image like this, it'd probably take 20-35 minutes. Then, you'll have to add some shadows back in, another 15 minutes or so (depending on your drawing skill).

For every minute you save at capture time, you add three minutes in post. Something you may want to remember if time is really a concern.

jarboedoggart

Enough worrying about lighting and more trying to find a solution! Here is what I was able to do really easily in Lightroom (LR2, not 3, so sorry if the process is different). No layers to mess with or anything.

Takes 30 seconds:







I am in the exact situation you are in. I do not have as much equipment as I would like, I only have two canon speedlites and do not have enough lighting to waste on the background. So almost all my white muslin pics come out just like yours. Here is how I fix mine:

I simply used the "Adjustment Brush" tool (top right button in the "develop page"). Before using, make sure the "auto mask" button is clicked in the tool settings. I put saturation at -100 to take any color out of the background. Exposure at 1.6 and "color" on white...no color at all.

Make the size of brush pretty large and feathering pretty low. Because "Auto mask" is on, the brush can go over the subject and it will not effect it...so get right up to the edges, it will be fine, AS LONG AS THE CENTER OF THE BRUSH stays over the background.

Use the tool like a brush and proceed to lighten the whole background. To make sure you have gotten it all (my monitor sucks so this is a problem for me) you simply hover your cursor over the small silver/black circle marker that the tool puts on your original selection for a couple seconds and it will change the selection to pink so you can see what is selected.

Once it is all selected, just change exposure and color cast as needed.

This is alot of typing, but literally takes seconds to do if you know what tool I am talking about. I hope this helps!

lilmomma

RyanS wrote: »

It really wouldn't be that hard to knock out a selection here. Then you can do whatever you want with the background. If you know how to use layer masks - create a layer mask and then paint to knock out the subject. With an image like this, it'd probably take 20-35 minutes. Then, you'll have to add some shadows back in, another 15 minutes or so (depending on your drawing skill).
For every minute you save at capture time, you add three minutes in post. Something you may want to remember if time is really a concern.

Great suggestion! almost an hour though, good grief! I am so spoiled with lightroom! Definitely a great option for the future if I want it to be *perfect*. thank you

for now, just looking for a down and dirty way, and i think anonymouscubans trick is exactly what i'm looking for.

anonymouscuban wrote: »

Try this in CS5. Dodge tool, set on midtones, about 7% and paint the BG. Should brighting the white of the BG.

PERFECT. thanks man. i messed with it for a minute on lunch and i think it will do the trick. i did have to up the opacity a bit but it worked.

jarboedoggart wrote: »

Enough worrying about lighting and more trying to find a solution! Here is what I was able to do really easily in Lightroom (LR2, not 3, so sorry if the process is different). No layers to mess with or anything.

Another awesome option. Which is why I love lightroom so much, quick and easy. I do not take advantage of the automask nearly as much as I should and often forget about it. wish i would've thought of that before exporting to photoshop and working it there. I didn't do much so i might go back and try it again.

Thanks for the reminder on that!