# How to photograph white clothing on white background??



## eddybz (Jun 16, 2011)

Hi, how can i take a picture of white clothing on white background? every time I try the picture gets dark.
Any suggestion?!

Thanks!!


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## analog.universe (Jun 16, 2011)

Shoot in manual!

In auto, the camera assumes every scene will average out to middle grey, so when you shoot bright scenes, they are underexposed.  Set the exposure yourself, with the brightest parts of the scene being just shy of _overexposed_.


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## Big Mike (Jun 16, 2011)

Welcome to the forum.

Firstly, we need to understand how your camera decides what exposure to use.  All modern cameras have a reflected light meter in them.  They read the light reflecting off of the scene.  Now, because the camera doesn't know what it's shooting (only how bright it is), it has to make an assumption, and that is that every scene is an average of middle grey.  This is a fair assumption, since the average of all the photos taken around the world, is probably close to mid-tone (middle grey).  But this system will fail when your scene is actually brighter or darker than middle grey.  Like in your example, you are shooting a scene that is all white...which is much brighter than middle grey.  The camera doesn't know that it's shooting white, only that there is something bright in front of it...so it recommends settings that will make that white look like middle grey...which will be an underexposed image.

In other words, when the camera's meter sees a bight scene, it underexposes...and when it sees a dark scene, it will overexpose.  So as the photographer, you need to realize this and compensate for it.  So in your case, you would need to dial in some exposure compensation in the positive direction (or use manual mode and expose above the --0--).  

That is basic exposure.

Next, we would need to look at the lighting you are using for your shoot.  If you want a white background, you will likely need to put more light onto the background, than onto the subject.  Or at least, you need to realize that because the background is farther away from the lights, than the subject (clothes), that the background will reflect less light.  A typical set up for a white background, will have separate lights that hit only the background.

You should also consider that if you are shooting white on white, if both the clothes and the background are lit and exposed to white, they may blend into each other in the photo.  For this reason, you may actually want to underexpose the clothes just a bit, keeping the background nice and white.  This will allow the clothes to stand out or separate from the background.


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## KmH (Jun 16, 2011)

In addition your use of lighting will also be critical for separating the whiye clothing from the white background.

Be advised! In the regular world there are many shades of 'White', and what we see as white often isn't, because our brain alters our perception.

So, in digital photography white has a very specific definition - 255 in the red channel, 255 in the green channel, and 255 in the blue channel.

You may want to get the inexpensive book: Light Science and Magic, An Introduction To Photographic Lighting, Fourth Edition

The book is a must have for anyone doing any kind of product photography.


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## eddybz (Jun 16, 2011)

Turnos for the advices!!!! I appreciate the quick response!!


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