HI KEY Help.....

How do I get better results on this king of lighting?
I want the subject to be in good exposure, as you can see the back of the litle piano it's over exposed, if I start moving the F's either open or closed I get the object more over exposed or get to see litle grey parts.
what it is the best setup for this king of lighting?
it's it a rule that the background should be 1 f more than the key light?
If my background lights are set up at F16 each, then my my key light should be 11?
If so, what should I set the camera to?
so far this picture my best result, but still not happy, you guys take great hi key pictures, help please.

A light tent

...a lighting setup that produces high overall brightness and low overall contrast.

One thing you don't want are pronounced shadows, especially IN FRONT of your subject like you have. This is a tip off, not that your bg lighting is too hot, but rather that your front lighting isn't enough.

Think of high key as basically bathing your subject in light from all directions and slightly overexposing to lighten the scene up and wash out the colors slightly. Typically you would have as much white in the shot as possible, but any light color (such as pastels) works well.

The problem with trying this with an object on the floor is that yes, you will almost always have unwanted shadows. In this case Peter is absolutely right; a light tent would be your best option...

Scourh,

The way I would approach this shot it to put the main light with a large soft box directly over the subject and just slightly back and to one side. This will cause a forward shadow that angles towards a corner of the frame. For a shot like this I like that. Then I would use a fill light or reflector to soften the shadow.

Then, shoot in an angle such that it covers the subject and only the surface around it. Then you don't need to worry about lighting a background.


Mike