How do you light and process a high-key portrait with a pure white background?
Asked 11/23/2010
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I found a portrait gallery with a very clean, high-key look: bright white background, soft frontal lighting, and polished skin tones. I’d like to understand the likely lighting setup and the basic post-processing approach used to create this style. How would you light a portrait like this in a small studio, and what editing is typically needed to keep the background white without losing the subject?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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Here's a similar but not identical shot I did a while ago:
The background is just a bare hotshoe flash pointing at a white wall, it's easiest to setup the background first, without the main lights:
And then position the main lights, turning the background light off to check for interference from the main lights:
As you can see the main lights do spill onto the background (which is inevitable when lighting a small space) however the lighting is approximately constant across the background so I can account for it by turning the background light down a little.
Here is the lighting diagram:
The main difference with the lighting on the shot you posted is that I have an asymmetric setup with two main lights. The image you posted has a fairly symmetrical pattern with two kickers, probably small softboxes either side (similar to the right hand light in my shot) and a main lightsource coming from above to fill out any shadows in the face. From the long nose highlight I'd guess the main was a striplight in a vertical orientation. Possibly more lights for the hair or for additional fill.
As for post processing, nothing too special here, slight curves adjustment, dodging and burning, most of the work is done with the lights. A B/W conversion using a lot of the red channel was probably used as this gives a nice bright look to the skin which you seem to be after. Here is a comparison of the three colour channels, from left to right, red, green and blue:
Originally by user1375. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1375
15y ago
0
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A common way to make this look is to light the background and subject separately.
Start with the background: place a flash aimed at a white wall or seamless and adjust it first so it goes bright white. Then set your subject lights with the background light off, so you can see how much spill the main lights add to the background. In a small space, some spill is unavoidable, so keep it even and compensate by lowering the background light if needed.
For the subject, use soft, fairly symmetrical frontal lighting. The example answer suggests two main lights and notes the reference image likely uses a balanced setup with kickers/rim lights, probably with softboxes or similar modifiers, to keep the face evenly lit and separate the subject from the background.
In post, the key is usually refinement rather than a trick effect: clean up the background to pure white, maintain even skin tones, and preserve detail so the face doesn’t look blown out. The look comes mostly from controlled lighting, with retouching used to polish rather than rescue the image.
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