For your white backgrounds...

If you are like me, with a house too small to have a full photo studio, but you sometimes need a uniform white background to shoot objects or portraits, there is a solution that I came across at work. It is a white film of polypropylene that sticks to about anything reasonably flat by static electricity, and so can be (re)moved at will.

It is sold as an “instant whiteboard” (comes with a marker pen), but you can stick it instead on a mirror or a window pane. Just push the bubbles to the edges with your hand and you have the perfect uniform background. When the shooting is done, just roll it back…

I found it on Amazon (Legamaster “Magic chart”), €23 for 25 80x60cm sheets (that you can easily reuse…).

The only problem is that it is so white that the camera tends to underexpose…

(my demo photos are unfortunately family-censored :))

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I have a giant one of these to use as an actual… whiteboard. :slight_smile:

The only downside is that it’s got a glossy finish on it, so make sure to keep your lighting for it from the sides to avoid glare and to minimize hot spots (tough in a confined space).

This was shot on in front of an actual whiteboard, and it was hard to control the burn on her fine hairs (I was exposing a little hotter than I should have).

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In my trials I had a strong flash on the sides (at the beginning) and the camera one (set to 1:4) of shooting directly in front. No visible glare.

Love your side lighting… but that was using your umbrella?

I was using my DIY softbox, actually:

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