Pure white backgrounds in product photography gray card

How to get a pure white background in product photography

If you do a lot of product photography, either for stock or ebay listings, you'd have probably realised by now that items that sell the most, are those that have a pure white background. Many photographers new to this style of photography, start off by placing a white background such as a sheet behind the object they are shooting, then change the exposure until they achieve the look they are after.

However, this isn't always very effective. For example, recently I tried photographing a shiny tin bucket using the method explained above. After each shot, I viewed the image in the LCD screen then overexposed the photo one stop at a time until I had a completely white background. Unfortunately, after viewing it on my computer monitor, I found this method also took away the edges of the bucket.

It was then that I came across this video on Utube, that explains nicely how using a gray card (grey card, exposure card) can help product photographers to achieve a pure white background. Note: The video presumes you already know how to use a gray card. For those that have never used one before, I have some quick tips explaining how to use them further down this page.

How to use a photographers gray card (sometimes spelt grey card or called an exposure card)

Using a gray card is easy. First set your camera to spot or partial metering, then place the gray card near the object you are going to photograph and look through your viewfinder as if you are going to take a photograph of it. Get in close enough to fill the frame with the grey card, then lock the exposure (check your camera's manual). Remove the card and take the image.

Where to buy a gray card?

The #1 selling gray card at Amazon is called a 'Digital Grey Kard Premium White Balance Card / Gray Card for Digital Photography'.

Customer Review:

Before I used this product I used white paper as recommended by Canon for my 30D. I put lines on the paper for focus and set white balance as custom. The paper was difficult to use and keep with me. Since buying the gray digital card, I have found it to be more accurate than white paper and easier to use. The digital gray card produces perfect custom white balance and works every time. It has a focus spot to get the correct image for setting up in-camera custom white balance. One time I used both the gray card and the white card (on the lanyard) and found the gray card produced the correct white balance over the white card. Now I never take a shot without setting the custom white balance to the gray card.