In this article you will find EVERYTHING you are looking for about white background for photography.
Do you need to put a white background to a photo? Or do you prefer to remove the existing white background and change it to something more interesting? Or simply remove the background from an image online?
are you looking for a plain white background to download? Perhaps what you hope to find is a white background for your photo sessions?
Well, all this, and more, is available in today’s article.
- White backgrounds to download
- How to buy a white background for photos
- How to make the background of your photos really white
- How to remove the background from an image online (free, and without watermark)
- How to remove the background from an image in Photoshop
- How to add a white background to a photo
- When to use a white background in your photographs?
White backgrounds to download
To download these free white backgrounds you just have to click on the image you want, right button and Save Picture. Clever!
How to buy a white background for photos
at the time of buy a white background for photos it is important to know what to look for:
- Price: You will find a price range from 15 euros to more than 100 depending on the material or whether or not it comes with support. The important thing is to find a balance between your needs and what you can or want to spend.
- Size: A white background is not the same for a fashion portrait as it is for a small product or a flower. Determine what size you need and take a good look at the measurements before purchasing it.
- Material: There are backgrounds made of cotton, polyester, vinyl, etc. There is not one better than another, but they respond to different needs or budgets. Look at what type of cleaning it has; its resistance; if it is more or less easy to transport it and if it makes more or less wrinkles.
- Support: There is the option of a plain white background to hold with clips or on a bar, such as this muslinor this other vinyl; or purchase the kit that carries the support with various backgrounds (white, black and green, as a general rule).
I have left you some recommendations, if you want to see more types and sizes of white backgrounds you can find a wide variety here.
To get a plain white background in product photography or other small objects there are also light boxesYou can find them in different sizes.
And if you want to build your own lightbox, follow this tutorial.
How to make the background of your photos really white
Let’s see what you need to get a background that is really white and only white 🙂 :
1. Get a white background
Although it sounds strange, it is possible that you have already tried to get a White background using a white background, but, as strange as it sounds, you have not succeeded.
That’s because the background being white does not ensure that the result reaches pure white.
Other factors influence the process, and if they are not taken into account, it is possible that the result, more than white, will be gray, grayish or broken white.
We are not capable of distinguishing hundreds of whites like the Eskimos, but we do know how to appreciate pure white 🙂 .
Despite what has been said, a white background helps. So get one, or at least as clear as possible and, above all, contrast with the protagonist of your image, whatever it may be.
In the previous section I have left you ideas and recommendations to buy a white background.
Also, for small motifs you can use objects you have at home, a light table, an infinite background that you can create following these steps, etc.
2. Separate the subject from the background
Your first impulse may be to place your protagonist directly on the whitest wall in your house, or the curtain, poster board or whatever you are going to use as a background.
But if you place your protagonist very close to the background, several things will happen:
- the subject itself will cast shadows above the wall, what will stain gray your image.
- You will see the detail of the background and with it all its imperfections (gotelé, wrinkles, stains, etc.).
- The background lighting will be the same as the subject, so you won’t be able to work with increasing the exposure in the background (we’ll see why this is important in a bit).
So, after locating a good background, your second mission is to make sure that your subject doesn’t create shadows against him and that you can apply a sufficient aperture so that what you want to portray comes out perfectly in focus but not the background (it will help you dissimilate imperfections and achieve a more natural result).
3. Light up the background
Another essential trick to make your background whiter is that this be well litso homogeneouspreventing shadow areas from being created.
The lighting should be enough to make it look like pure white.
For this, it must be top at bottom than in the main subject, and well differentiated in both shots.
In this way you will prevent the protagonist from appearing overexposed or burned.
4. Use a neutral gray card
Assuming you use your camera’s light meter to measure light, like most mortals, you will have the problem that the measurement of the reflected light.
Reflected light photometers give you exposure values ​​based on the light reflected by objects or people it affects.
It is not the real light that reaches them (which is what external photometers can measure) but what they detach.
In addition, they are configured to measure based on a neutral gray. It is with this value that they give a correct exposure. For this reason, on white backgrounds (as with snow images) or, conversely, in scenes with many blacks, the photometer easily gets confused and gives wrong values.
- The easiest and most correct solution is to get one neutral gray chart. They are small and very cheap. You must place it next to your subject in a place that receives exactly the same light as what you are going to photograph and measure the values ​​of the card.
- If you don’t have any, look for something similar, with a similar tone and that reflects the same light.
- If you are not clear, measure your subject in a specific way, so that the rest of the scene does not influence the measurement.
5. Activate the histogram
This will depend on each image. The histogram, in case you don’t know, is like a fingerprint of our photographs and each one is different depending on the image.
But what you should have is a clear tilt to the right of the histogram (highlights) which is where the information about the white of your background should be reflected.
6. Activate the high beam indicator
It serves to mark the areas where information is lost due to excess light.
In this case, you want the background to be one of those areas, but not your main subject.
Activating the highlight indicator will be very useful to know which areas you have in pure white and if you should increase or reduce the light of the background and/or your protagonist.
7. Control the white balance
It is crucial that you control the white balance (or color temperature) of the available lights to prevent them from tinting the image with unwanted tones, especially if you do not have professional equipment to light the stage.
8. Always shoot in RAW to achieve a whiter background
In addition to achieving a correct image right out of the camera, the best way to ensure a good end result is to shoot in RAW format.
RAW (raw) is a format not processed by the camera that retains a more information of the scene allowing more margin when editing (which brings us to the next point).
9. Edit to get a whiter background
To get the purest white in the background you will most likely need to go through editing.
Most editing programs allow you to increase whites, exposure, or highlights, as well as enhance blacks or shadows.
The edition will give you that touch that you lack, if it is that you lack. But the ideal thing, as I said before, is that you try to get the most perfect image possible on the camera 🙂 .
What you do not get directly in the camera you can try to improve it in the edition
How to remove the background from an image online (free, and without watermark)
Now let’s see how to remove the background from an image online. Yes, yes, I bring you two options for free and without a watermark.
Remove background from an image with Remove bg
The easiest and most effective way I have found is from Remove bg.
It is a free and very simple online program.
The drawback is that the resolution is very low. If you want high-resolution images, you already have to checkout, of course.
Let’s use this image of Mario as an example.
The steps to remove the background in Remove bg are:
- You open the page and upload the photo on the right side (Upload Image), you can drag it.
- Automatically, the photo appears without a background and you download it by clicking on the Download button.
- You already have it! Easy, right?
Step 1 Step 2 Result
If you enlarge the image you will see that you get a .png file. It has no background, even if you see it white above, you can put whatever you want on it.
Remove background from an image with PicWish
Another free online tool without a watermark is PicWish. The advantage is that the resolution of the downloaded images is higher.
The drawback is that if the background is not very smooth, it works somewhat worse than the previous one.
Of course, with plain backgrounds it works very well.
I put two examples of results, the same image as before and another with a plain background, click on them to see them well.
Result of removing background with elements in PicWish Result of removing plain background in PicWish
How to remove a background from an image in Photoshop
If you have the program and want a result with higher resolution, these are the steps to remove the background from an image in photoshopBelow are the screenshots:
- Open image and select «Magic Wand» tool.
- For a more precise selection, I recommend using the “Select subject” option (top right).
- Follow the Photoshop menu path: Selection > Invert to select the background.
- Once the background is selected, press Ctrl+Delete (Windows) or Command+Delete (Mac)
- You already have it, you only have Export your photo.
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5
How to add a white background to a photo
In the following video, Mario explains step by step how to add a white background to a photo. Below I leave it summarized.
If it has been useful to you, I remind you that we have a Photoshop Masterclass divided into two sessions (Initiation and Advanced) with many more tips and tricks.
This is the summary of the steps to put white background to a photo that you can see in the larger video:
- Upload photo and background (or backgrounds you want to try)
- from the tool Magic wand select option select subject
- from the menu Edit > Copy or with the keys Command+C (Mac) / Control+C (Windows)
- Go to the file where the background is
- From the menu…