muse university - white backgrounds

white backgrounds

by muses kat and april with guest karen

Have you ever wanted to create professional-looking shots on white backgrounds, but aren't sure how to do it? This week, the muses are here to help! These shots with white backgrounds, also called "high key" photos, are commonly used in product photography. To capture a good high key image you need both the white background and a strong light source. Fortunately, these images are easy to create with a few simple supplies.

Both of the shots above were created on Kat's kitchen table, shown below. With the white table, white wall and a big window for natural light, she has everything she needs to create a high key shot. Once she moves the kitchen chairs and the table decorations out of the way, she's ready to set up her subject.

If you don't happen to have a white table and walls nicely convenient to a big window, you can create your own white backgrounds. Karen of Random Reflections created this beautiful still life of lemon drop cookies using foam core board.

Karen doesn't have good light in her kitchen, so she set the foam core up by a north-facing window on her dining room table.  She scored the foam core in half so it folds, and props it up with anything handy. To eliminate the seam in the folded foam core, she runs a piece of freezer paper down the foam core, matte side up, taping at the top and tucking it at the bottom. You'll notice how she allows the freezer paper to flow along the surface of the foam core, so there are no creases to create shadows.

April uses a similar idea as Karen except she uses a white poster board.  It is easy to move around the house to chase the best light and it can be slightly bent so there are no lines in the background.  Another wonderful thing about poster board is that one side is usually shinier than the other so you can get a nice little reflection if it is desired in your shot.

Poster board is very inexpensive and easy to store so it can be handy anytime you want a clean, high key shot. Just keep toddler hands away so they don't bend (see below) and goobers all over :)

Styling by an 18 month old!

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 by Kat of The Kat Eye View of the World,

April of April's 365 photos,

and guest Karen of Random Reflections

Join us every weekend for a new muse university post! 

If you would like to provide a post for this series, please contact kat [at] kateyeview.com