I’m repeatedly asked – by frustrated photographers – what materials they should be using to get a crisp, uncontaminated, pure white photography background.

Sorry to say, that would be the wrong question to raise! It actually isn’t the background material that offers you the spotless white that you’re in search of.

It is the amount of light!

Here is the situation…you set up a pure white bed sheet or a roll of white paper – and you situate your subject matter in front of it.

You set up a light source or two and light your subject matter. All is looking excellent. You think you will have a satisfactorily lit subject matter and a nice white background.

Now, you take the photograph.

Worriedly, you rush to the photo lab if you’re shooting film or to a computer if you’re shooting digital. You evaluate the finished picture and ta daaa!

Your subject matter is impeccably lit, however the background is often a dull gray color. Not the spotless, untainted white you saw within your viewfinder!

Sound typical? If you have been having a difficult time creating high key pictures…And you have been getting that dull gray color (regardless of the materials you employ) here’s how to fix the problem!

All light has a certain fall off feature.

With that I mean that the further away light is from a subject matter, the less bright it is. Therefore, meaning… when you’ve got a specific amount of light striking your subject matter, and you’re using that SAME illumination to light your background, your light is further away from the background than from the subject matter. As a result, it will be slightly less bright by the time it gets to the background fabric.

Wow! That’s a mouthful. In other words…

The reason you’re making that gray color is because there is more light striking your subject matter than is striking the photography background.

To get your background be an absolute, picture perfect white…just hit it with MORE illumination than you’re using on your subject matter!

Appears obvious when you finally realize it, but this is a major sticking point for a lot of photographers.

The total amount of “over-exposure” you will need on the background is dependent upon the color of the background fabric. If it is already white, you could probably get by with using an adequate amount of additional illumination to get an over-exposure of approximately half an f-stop. Maybe even one full f-stop.

If the fabric you’re starting with is gray…that is okay too! Merely hit it with about 2