• White tile board cut in half and joined with door hinges to create a cutter.
  • White tile board cut in half and joined with door hinges to create a cutter.
  • SB-28, 1/2 power, 20mm zoom (using front diffuser panel), fired by PW at floor to light front tile board.
  • SB-28, 1/2 power, 20mm zoom (using front diffuser panel), fired by PW at floor to light front tile board.
  • SB-28, 1/2 power, 24mm zoom, fired by PW into translucent umbrella.
  • Black cloth to block sunlight coming in through the door.
  • Usual mess! :)
  • Towel to wipe feet before stepping on tile board.
  • Tile board.
  • Bunny Rachel, the bride to be! :)
  • Kimmy! :)
  • Trang! :)
  • Tram! :)
  • Nguyen! :)
  • Elinchrom D-lite 4, 5/6th power, fired by PW into small softbox (behind cutter).
  • Elinchrom D-lite 4, 5/6th power, fired by PW into small softbox (behind cutter).
  • White seamless paper.
  • what's up? - adar.que

Seamless White Background Setup Front

Strobist Information:

I have tried shooting seamless white backgrounds before, but I always had problems getting the floor to go perfectly white. After seeing a speedlink on the strobist blog to Zack Arias' White Seamless Tutorial, the solution to this problem suddenly seemed within easy reach. All it required were a few large white tile boards to replace the seamless paper on the floor and all should be well.

I found the white tile boards at a local Bunnings. They came in nice big 8' x 4' sheets and they had five left. I grabbed four and took them to the check out where I arranged to have two of them cut in half length ways. The guy took them to the wall mounted cutting machine and promptly dragged the saw down the end of the first board. That was quickly assigned to the scrap pile while I went and fetched the last one. I did ask if I could have the scratched board (it was only slightly damaged on one end) and he let me have it for a couple of dollars (the tills won't let them give stuff away for free apparently). It was handy that I did pick it up, as I had not realised I actually needed three boards for the floor and not two as I had assumed.

When I got home, I added five hinges to the each of the two half sets of boards and ran a line of white cloth tape down the inside of the join to make it light tight. Even though the tile board is quite thin and flimsy, when it is stood up with a 90 degree join it is easily stiff enough to support its own weight.

The setup is very simple and is explained fully in the very well written (and funny) tutorial. I gave the whole thing a test drive to see how it looked and came across a couple of problems. The first problem was one of space. To use this setup properly, you need a lot of room, particularly length ways. Even in Keoula's office which is six meters wide and eight meters long, with all the furniture in place, I was struggling to get enough separation between the background and the front lights and still have room for me to shoot. This proved fairly simple to solve by just taking most of the furniture out of the room and pushing everything else against the walls. While this works nicely, it does make for a big setup and tear down job.

The second problem was balancing the background studio lights with the much less powerful small strobes. While I had no problem lighting the models, it was hard to get the foreground floor to go white. I finally found that a pair of SB-28's pointing down at the floor on half power and a 20mm zoom (using the front diffuser panel) just about did the trick and a bit of work in Paint Shop Pro could tidy up any remaining problems.

With everything tested and working, I just needed some models to try the setup out on.

The perfect opportunity arose when Kimmy asked Keoula if she would like to host a hens night for one of Kimmy's friends Rachel. The plan was that the girls would all get dressed up in designer gowns and then have a photo session, followed by facials and general pampering done by another friend, Julie. The perfect opportunity to try the white back ground! :)

After a lot of dress changes and some very silly posing, we ended up with a few hundred pictures. I am still wading through them, but I have posted a selection of the ones I have got to so far.

All in all, it was a fun day and a valuable learning experience. The seamless white background setup worked well and offers scope for some interesting variations on the setup.

Pictures here:

Trang
Kimmy
Julie
Tram
Trang
Rachel
Tram
Kimmy are you taking this seriously?

Zack Arias: White Seamless Tutorial

Learn how to light: www.strobist.com

Comments and faves

  1. ★

    aaronbrethorst, NikHonMer, John Adkins II, BeLL* [Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind], and 270 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  2. ezzentx (59 months ago | reply)

    Thanks so much for the details. Nice set.

  3. [Jenn Lee] (59 months ago | reply)

    Nick...I love this series of shots! This is great! I'm going to have to see if I can pull something off like this with less gear ;-)

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    Seen on your photo stream. (?)

  4. Silver Raidla (59 months ago | reply)

    Thanks man, really great!

  5. ShadiEideh (59 months ago | reply)

    Great setup and greater photos..

    how did you protect the model from being contaminated by the 2 front flashes pointing downwards ? ditto for the bg strobes behind the hinged tileboards ?

    checkout my trials with similar setup, i however didn't hide the bg lights and suffered a lot from contamination from bg lights on subjects. distance of subjects to bg was around 2 1/2 meters and flashes were almost 1 meter from bg.
    Family Portraits

    Family Portraits

  6. John Adkins II (59 months ago | reply)

    Fantastic shots and setup! I've had problems trying to get high key backgrounds (albeit I have a limited setup) but you make it look easy, thanks for sharing your techniques!

  7. nickwheeleroz (59 months ago | reply)

    Thanks Shadi, I found that lots of separation between the background and the models was the only way to avoid contamination. Even in an 8 meter room it was a bit of a struggle to get the whole set in and still have room to shoot. I was actually having the opposite problem of overpowering the models with the front lights. It was tricky getting them bright enough to balance out with the studio heads on the background! Your shots look great. Adding the cutters to hide the background lights would probably fix the contamination problems you are having. :)

  8. nickwheeleroz (59 months ago | reply)

    Thanks John, I really can't take credit for this setup, it is all down to Zack Arias and his fantastic tutorial. :)

  9. Shenghung Lin (59 months ago | reply)

    Well done. And the tutorial is an eye opener.
    Now I have to figure out a way to persuade my wife to give space :)

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    Seen on your photo stream. (?)

  10. lotso (59 months ago | reply)

    This is great information. Unfortunately, it calls for VERY large space!

  11. MAD'ART STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY. (59 months ago | reply)

    thx for sharing.

  12. udijw (59 months ago | reply)

    Hi Nick,
    The results are great. and it looks like everybody had a great fun doing the session. (and this alone is a guarantee for great results). Thanks for sharing this great setup

  13. Glasgow_lass (59 months ago | reply)

    Thanks for sharing your set up Nick.

    I've recently bought myself some studio lights, as I've just moved into a new house and had a spare room. But due to space constraints: (i) I couldn't get a roll of seamless paper into the attic as the stairwell was really tight and (ii) the room isn't as big as I would have liked, so I've bought a collapsible white vinyl background and train:

    My wee studio

    It's great as it's portable and the way the background is lit means that the subject can be very close to it, but doesn't give fantastic results for a seamless finish when doing full length shots.

    Sarah :-)

  14. nickwheeleroz (59 months ago | reply)

    Hi Sarah,

    Trust me, no matter how big your room is, it is never quite big enough! :)

    You have a nice setup there. I saw the white vinyl background on Scott Kelby's web site and thought it looked like an interesting way of doing hi-key portraits in a limited space. Do you have problems with wrap when the model is that close or can you get enough separation to avoid it? :)

  15. Glasgow_lass (59 months ago | reply)

    I've only done a few test shots, and have to admit I had the model in the middle of the train, and didn't think to try her closer to the background to see what the results were like. Will give it a shot next time I have a willing model, and see how it turns out :-)

  16. Debbi in California (58 months ago | reply)

    The more I look at your images, the more I learn and white floor has had me stumped!! Thanks for sharing this info!

    Debbi

  17. Debbi in California (58 months ago | reply)

    Looks like a total of 5 lights used, two powerful strobes for background, one speedlight in umbrella for models and two speedlites for the frontal foreground area?
    Debbi

  18. nickwheeleroz (58 months ago | reply)

    Spot on Debbie! You really need a couple of powerful lights on the background, speed lights would really struggle with such a big area to light, they are perfect for the foreground though! :)

  19. ♥Rebecca♥ (58 months ago | reply)

    Great set up. I took Zack's workshop. He is a genius!

  20. shortyred (58 months ago | reply)

    Great setup where is kimmy's hand??? Look's like you had fun!!

  21. HortenciaCaires (57 months ago | reply)

    oooh how long and wide is that seamless paper?

  22. nickwheeleroz (57 months ago | reply)

    Hi Hortencia, the seamless paper is 2.7 meters wide and there is about five or six meters rolled out in this setup. :)

  23. conorwithonen (56 months ago | reply)

    I'm still wondering if someone will come up with a UK equivalent for this tileboard stuff. It is working its way around the world, so I'm hoping someone will deliver an answer soon.
    Great work - keep it up.

  24. Totia (56 months ago | reply)

    Great setup.

    thank toy very very much for sharing.

  25. girapatguntamun (55 months ago | reply)

    สวย

  26. bootykika (55 months ago | reply)

    Great write up!

  27. honestdave (55 months ago | reply)

    awesome!
    thank you for this!

  28. phanlinh358 (54 months ago | reply)

    J

  29. ArtCPhotos (54 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called All Lighting, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  30. mridea848 (54 months ago | reply)

    PERFECT!
    I'm an admin for a group called GRAPHIC DESIGN ads, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  31. singh.dharmraj (53 months ago | reply)

    Dk

  32. Skunk.Punk [deleted] (53 months ago | reply)

    how high is your ceiling here? By the looks of the models, I'm taking a wild guess that you clearly have your 14', but that might be perception playing a trick on me...

  33. nickwheeleroz (53 months ago | reply)

    Hi Phil, I am not sure of the exact hight as it is an arched ceiling, but 14' in the middle is probably about right. :)

  34. Skunk.Punk [deleted] (53 months ago | reply)

    Lucky you :) I'm hoping to have a similar setup as Zack... it obviously give awesome results!

    Thanks for answering!

  35. manan_kalpesh (53 months ago | reply)

    A

  36. M.Yu Photography (51 months ago | reply)

    if you don't mind me asking, how wide is your paper backdrop? I'm currently looking to purchase a roll for a decent price at that width.
    thanks!

  37. nickwheeleroz (51 months ago | reply)

    Hi Melissa, the background is 2.7 meters wide (although that never quite seems to be wide enough)! :)

  38. innoprolanation (50 months ago | reply)

    A

  39. leberinaimbiri (49 months ago | reply)

    Cantik

  40. *iNiNa* Tracey Barrow Photography (45 months ago | reply)

    thanks for sharing this info, I wish we could get tileboard here in the UK - for us a very small piece is the equivalent of in excess of $105!!

  41. GeeNTee (45 months ago | reply)

    I appreciate you going to the effort of explaining the setup. This strobist geek stuff is excellent!

  42. nyir65 (43 months ago | reply)

    Jgjá

  43. firuza88200 (43 months ago | reply)

    А

  44. MalikPhotography.com (43 months ago | reply)

    Great set up

  45. rosetinah (42 months ago | reply)

    Red

  46. agussupriadimiati (40 months ago | reply)

    Miabi

  47. MazzaPix (40 months ago | reply)

    Great results.
    I bought the same tile boards from Bunnings to use on the floor. I found that the white of the boards aren't as bright as my roll of 10' seamless paper.......the tile board is a few shades darker, or about 2/3 to 1 stop darker. My seamless is arctic white btw.
    Great idea on the construction of your cutters, awesome job.

    Btw, did you use EL strobes behind the cutters? The strobe caps at the right look familiar?

    Cheers and thanks for the walk-through.

  48. Ciucciapunti (39 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Persone people людзі lidé mennesker ihmiset gens άνθρ, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  49. leyla.a (39 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Hot Bachelorette, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  50. CBFphotos (37 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Manfrotto Official, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

    Please tag it with "Manfrotto"


  51. marshmallow_cupcake [deleted] (33 months ago | reply)

    Fine piece!
    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/53442204@N06/49 36269048/in/set-72157624704001211/]

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