White Backgrounds

[DarkSlide 0]

I’ve been reading Kenny J’s post from 23.12.15. regarding white background shots with a slight bluish tint. It has made me think about my experience with the type of background used in cubelites,being very patchy as regards colour balance anyway.

I can never get them to register say,250/250/250 all over. There are areas that are 250/250/249 or similar. Is this ok for submission? Or do they have to be 250/250/250 or 255/255/255 throughout? Would I be better with coloured backgrounds. Do they sell? I only have PSE so no pen tool to isolate backgrounds, and I find the magic wand too imprecise especially when there is white in the subject matter.

 

[Betty LaRue 1,998]

If you use Photoshop, you can create a layer, then fill it with pale blue. Then use the opacity slider to further reduce the amount of blue to suit.

At this point, you take a hard brush with foreground in black, and brush the effect off the subject. This works with products that have clean lines but difficult with things like hair, feathers, fuzzy edges, and so forth. But with most products, they have clean lines.

 

Betty

Edit spellchecker mess. Grrr.

Edited February 22, 2017 by Betty LaRue

[wiskerke 2,648]

Or select all white areas and decrease saturation.

 

wim

[DarkSlide 0]

But will they fail a white background that doesn't colour balance exactly? 

[Matt Ashmore 925]

But will they fail a white background that doesn't colour balance exactly? 

 

You could always do a search on alamy.com for 'white background' and see what you think... there are some 63k results so hopefully they will give you an idea! 

[Betty LaRue 1,998]

But will they fail a white background that doesn't colour balance exactly?

 

I have quite a few isolated images, and the only thing that has ever brought a fail is when I forgot to inspect at 100% and there was a dim dust bunny. Don't obsess, just make sure the BGs are clean and reasonably bright.

 

I shoot raw, and always use the white balance dropper to get any color correction needed.

 

Betty

[DarkSlide 0]

Thanks for all the replies, they really helped. D.

[David_Buzzard 16]

Take a wide, soft Photoshop brush and just paint out the background in white.  Done and done.

[M.Chapman 1,139]

 

But will they fail a white background that doesn't colour balance exactly? 

 

They won't fail but if the white has a slight colour cast it will look rather amateurish. Remember you work for a professional market expecting professional quality.

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

Agreed, especially as it's not too difficult to achieve in PS.

[DarkSlide 0]

Just out of interest should your backgrounds be 255 or 250,245 etc.?

[David_Buzzard 16]

Pick a pure white, 255, 255, 255

[Bryan 10,634]

From memory, and it's a while since I did this, but when making cutouts I seem to recall just deleting the background.

 

Will try Philippe's technique for accurate selection next time I do this, I normally use the pen tool at high magnification. Maybe a combination of the two?

 

Nobody has mentioned a drop shadow as yet - forgotten how to do that, but a quick Google will no doubt reveal.

[DarkSlide 0]

Again, thanks for the input guys. D.