Is the white background really white?

or how to make a white background (RGB:255.255.255) and prepare image for a catalog print

Step 1. Finding not white areas of the background



Convert photo from Raw using Raw Converter

Duplicate layer

Create New fill ore adjusted layer/Curves:

Than drag the graph from the left lower corner to the right lower corner:

Now we can see that our “white” is not really white. So next steps will explain how to make 255-255-255 white background but leave nice realistic shadow under the object.

More detailed screen shots of this step you can find on my previous lesson How to determine overexposed and underexposed areas using Photoshop

Step 2. Clean background

Using Dodge Tool (from your left tools palette) clean the background. My parameters for the brush is on this picture:

I start from big soft brush to clean bigger areas, decreasing brush size and adding more hardness when I clean the edge of the object. And as you see on this screen shot I do not remove shadows under the boot. If you like the shadow to be a little bit lighter just change Dodge Brush Range from Highlights to Midtones and slightly brush that area.

Open the photo 100% and clean edges by smaller and harder brush:

Now we have a perfectly white background with real shadow under the boot.

Step 3. Cleaning and retouching

Open the image full size (100%) and using Clone Stamp tool and Healing Brush tool correct all imperfections and motes.

And now we have a nice clean product photo with real white background and realistic shadow.

Mouse Over to see Before and After

Now we are ready to Flatten image (Layer/Flatten Image), crop, re-size, add sharpness, save JPEG for web or TIFF for print.

If you are interesting how this boot was photographed, here is the article about it on Atlanta photographer blog: Product photography lighting: It is simple when you know how

Location: AKELstudio, Alpharetta, GA

Atlanta commercial photographer Alex Koloskov