White Background Images

The white background images on this page are the result of testing various camera settings and lighting scenarios.  My first experiences with white backgrounds began a couple of years ago while I was attempting to take pictures of wood projects for one of my web sites (mycarpentry.com). 

I quickly discovered that there's more to taking these types of pictures than a white background and a bright light.  My goal is to find the best camera and light settings to photograph images so that they have a perfect white background.

I made the photo light box (shown below) out of 5 pieces of white foam board and white "Duck" tape.  The total cost of materials was about $20, and took about 15 minutes to make.  One of the light fixtures is a work light that I purchased from a hardware store for less than $10.  The other fixture is an old pole lamp that I bought from IKEA about 20 years ago.  I never really used it until now. 

The bulbs that I use, for white background lighting, are full spectrum "daylight" bulbs.  The nice folding chrome stand is another thing that had been sitting in my closet for years.  Like the pole lamp, it finally became useful again.  I aimed one of the lights towards the top of the box, and the other towards the back of the box.

After assembling the photo light box, I set up the lighting and camera to begin the white background image project.  These first images were taken with an 18 megapixel SLR with the following settings:

• Shutter Speed: (1/10 - 1/20)
• AV: F10
• ISO: 100
• White Balance: Daylight and Auto
• Flash: On

Results: I discovered that, when photographing white background images, the same camera settings didn't always work for all objects. It could be because of the object's size differences, or the color, or both. So, when photographing each object, I took 3 to 4 pictures, changing the shutter speed between each shot, then selected the best photo from each set to use for my web sites.