View Full Version : Anyone shoot a piece in front of a white backdrop/cyc with the 7D?


Arif Syed
March 2nd, 2010, 04:31 PM
Or do you know of any videos online that did? I plan on shooting one in the near future and am unsure of the lighting situation and how to do it effectively.

Bill Pryor
March 2nd, 2010, 04:53 PM
Same as with any other camera. Light the background evenly and close to 100 IRE (or 2-3 stops hotter than the foreground, light the foreground independently however you want.

Arif Syed
March 2nd, 2010, 04:59 PM
What type of lights would you use to evenly light the backdrop?

Also, would this be the same method as a photographer shooting on a white backdrop? Examples of how to set those shots up are plentiful on youtube/vimeo but harder to find for shooting video.

Brian Luce
March 2nd, 2010, 07:29 PM
What type of lights would you use to evenly light the backdrop?

Also, would this be the same method as a photographer shooting on a white backdrop? Examples of how to set those shots up are plentiful on youtube/vimeo but harder to find for shooting video.

There's a really good link to a tutorial on shooting and lighting limbo white bg's posted somewhere here. I was looking for it the other day and couldn't find it. Maybe someone knows. I think it was originally on Vimeo.

Arif Syed
March 2nd, 2010, 10:13 PM
happen to be talking about this one?

Lighting Infinite White on Vimeo

Norman Pogson
March 3rd, 2010, 07:49 AM
Coming from a still photography background, I use white backgrounds for stills all the time. I have a room similar in dimension to the above video demonstration, so I keep my background one to one and a half stops brighter than my subject is light. If I go brighter to two stops I get too much bounced lighting back from the background onto the subject.

I also use free standing closet pocket doors to hide the lights onto the background to flag them from the subject and camera.

In the past I tried this with a Canon HV30 and never got it to work, now with the 7D it works great with the manual controls. I use 5500k cfl's as I also have large windows and these lights can match daylight.

Onar Stangeland
March 4th, 2010, 01:10 PM
The dynamic range of the 7D is very limited. Any surface two and a half stop over neutral grey wil burn out. Here is an example of how easy it can be done.

http://www.onarfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/NH_IMG_0016.jpg

Arif Syed
March 5th, 2010, 12:09 AM
So if my subject is at 8, my light should be two stops above...so 16 (or 2 and a half)

Onar Stangeland
March 5th, 2010, 01:46 AM
If you use a spot meter (the lightmeter in your cam will do i believe) and measure the white background, your exposure should be two stops or more higher than the white background. If youre background reflects f16, your exposure should be 8 or 5.6 and a half.

If you do not have a seperat lightmeter (spot meter) make sure your camera is not set for "evaluating measurment".