Product Photography: White box, white background

[vance]

How should I go abouts taking product photos of a white box (3/4 view) against a white backdrop? I'm going for the high-key look. Just a lil personal project to improve on my product photography

I'm also having a hard time making the surface area infront of the box appear a pure white? I seem to have to overexpose the front surface of the box to make the front surface area white? I'm using 2 lights for the backdrop and 2 to light the box.

thanks!

[drg]

Are you shooting film or digital? B/W or color? If you do it in B/W it will be considerably easier to get everything the same white. If the box and the backdrop are made of the same material it will be easier. PA's often get assigned to make boxes and objects (or cover them anyway) with backdrop paper in a variety of colors so that everything matches up come the actual shoot. Film might (depending on your camera/system) might give you better definition of 'white'. Take lots of notes if you use film.

Not knowing exactly what you want to acheive you can start with the whole setup indirectly(bounced off umbrellas, the ceiling and walls) lit to f8 and then use a single key or direct light to cast your shadows.

Get the light even by taking a meter and moving it back and forth across the whole setup and look for minimal change. If you don't have a meter, use the spot meter mode of your camera and take a reading every 6 inches or so (up and down as well as left and right).

A couple of tricks from the archives, you can literally shoot through white material like a gauze or a nylon hosiery material. If you can hold a layer up to normal room light and see through it, this material might do something for your shot. It will of course generally soften the shot. There have been filters made that incorporate a white material for this actual purpose.

Another technique that really works, make sure that what this setup faces is mostly white as well.

There are setups where a second backdrop frame is put in front of the product box/stage and opening just large enough for the lens to extend through or shoot through (it is often wise to keep the lens behind the backdrop in these setups) is made so that any reflections are the same color.
You can even use louvers on the lights to keep the direct light off the lens so it doesn't flare. This setup can have the advantage of requiring a lot less illumination as everything is reflecting. Matte' material is a must! Sometimes just a couple of disk reflectors will work to balance the front of subject area.