5 Tips for a Perfect White Background in High Key Photography

A bright, white background creates a high energy, happy, and distraction free scene, perfect for pictures of your friends and family. Known as high key photography, this technique instantly cures problems with ugly backgrounds and focuses the viewer’s attention on your subject.

11.    A solid white background to get rid of distractions

If you really want to make the simplest, most cost effective, high key portrait, then a simple and solid white background is the way to go. You can achieve the ultimate high key portrait with a white background. 

2.    Make use of sunlight to provide additional lighting

Don’t think that the white background will provide all the lights you need to make a perfectly white background for your portraits. You may need to call an additional source of light. Your best bet, therefore, is to use the natural light of the sun to provide the necessary exposure for your background. 

3.    Make the proper use of flash

Hide a flash directly behind your model, making sure to point it directly at the background, rather than your subject. If all goes well, the light created by the hidden flash will completely overexposes the background, making your model stand out all the more against a completely bright, featureless white background. 

4.    Maintain the correct portion of exposure

Even though we heartily recommend a certain degree of intentional overexposure for high key photography, the old maxim of “Everything in its proper proportion” holds true here. You don’t want to overly overexpose your background! If too much light bounces off of the background you’ve created, this will “wash out” your foreground subject and ruin your portrait. 

5.    Lighting equipment

Effectively shooting indoor in high key is not easy if you don’t have lighting equipment. If you want to achieve that studio, white background look, ideally you will have some studio lighting on hand.

High key photography is very challenging because it requires you to create an overexposed background, while still properly exposing your subject. Once you learn how to use exposure compensation and light your background, you will be able to create perfect white backgrounds in just few minutes.