I’m frequently asked – by frustrated shooters – what materials they should be using to accomplish a crisp, clean, pure white photography background.

Unfortunately, that is the inappropriate question to pose! It in fact, isn’t the backdrop material that provides you with the spotless white you might be seeking.

It’s the source of the light!

Here’s the situation…you put up a pure white bed sheet or a piece of white paper – and you place your subject in front of it.

You set up a light source or two and light your subject. All is appearing excellent. You think you’ve got a properly lit subject and a nice white background.

Now, you take the picture.

Worriedly, you run to the photo lab if you’re shooting film or to your computer if you’re shooting digital. You look at the completed image and ta daaa!

Your subject is flawlessly lit, however the backdrop is really a dull gray color. Not the clean, untainted white you saw within your viewfinder!

Sound recognizable? If you have been having a difficult time shooting high key photographs…And you have been getting that dingy gray color (regardless of the materials you employ) here is how to fix the situation!

All light has a certain drop off feature.

With that I mean the further the light is from a subject matter, the dimmer it appears. So, that means… if you have a certain quantity of light striking your subject, and you’re using that SAME illumination to light your background, your light is further from the background than from the subject. As a result, it is going to be a little dimmer when it gets to your backdrop substance.

Whew! That’s a tongue twister. In other words…

The main reason you’re making that gray color is because there is more light striking your subject than is striking the photography background.

To have your backdrop be an absolute, flawless white…just hit it with MORE illumination than you will be using for your subject!

Appears obvious when you realize it, but this can be a huge sticking point for a lot of shooters.

The amount of “over-exposure” that’s needed for the backdrop depends on the color of the backdrop substance. If it is already white, you could get by with using adequate extra illumination to get an over-exposure of roughly half an f-stop. Possibly even one full f-stop.

If the fabric you’re starting with is gray…that is okay too! Merely hit it with roughly 2 ½ stops (give or take) more brightness than you might be using for the subject.

Here’s one that may blow a large number of minds…what if your photography background fabric is actually a pure black piece of material – or black roll of paper?

It doesn’t make any difference! Zap it with 5, 6 or maybe even 7 additional stops worth of light (over what you are using for the primary subject) and you will again have a nice sterile white background.

It is a LOT of light and I wouldn’t advocate starting out with a black backdrop. When you begin nearer to white in the beginning, it is a lot simpler and easier. Nevertheless, take a crack at it! It is a amusing experiment and can educate you a lot on the subject of light!

The point being – with sufficient illumination, you can get a nice white photography background regardless of the type or color substance you begin with.

Want to know how to get a professional quality photography background for ALMOST ZILCH? This is guaranteed to move your photographs to the next level! Check out the above link.

Or, If you’re already a pretty good shooter…do you intend to begin making money with your camera? Take a look at: PartTimePhotography.com.

For some more photography background information, check out this video:

My dad wants to by the top of the line hdtv. He doesn’t care about the price at all. I just want to help him pick the right one. He wants no other tv to beat his. I was looking at a Sony 60″ dlp. I really like Sony, and I believe it will be the right brand, since Sony is usually far beyond any other company. I need the right tv though.

By Chris Scott Barr

When a person buys a new lamp, the last thing they want is for it to get broken. Here’s an interesting twist, what if there was a lamp that you were supposed to break as soon as you take it out of the box? That’s exactly what the Less Lamp wants you to do.

When you unbox the Less Lamp, you’ll find that it’s the absolute worst excuse for a lighting fixture, as it’s basically just a solid black egg. The idea is that you’ll use the included pick to poke holes in it. Heck, you can even break off the bottom portion of the egg to let out more light. As you can imagine, nothing this artsy-sounding ever comes cheap. This particular lamp will set you back $800. That’s right, eight hundred smackeroos for a lamp that you’re going to break immediately.

[ MoMA ] VIA [ Technabob ]

When it comes to leaks in the gadget world, when it rains, it pours. In just shy of 20 days, the HTC Supersonic — an absolute beast of a phone — went from non-existent to exhaustively detailed and fully photographed.

Whether you’ve missed a screenshot or two or just had no idea the Supersonic existed, don’t sweat it – we’ve got your back. Hop behind the jump, where we’ve rounded up all the details that have leaked thus far on what is quite possibly one of the most exciting Android handsets yet.

Read the rest of this entry at MobileCrunch >>

We’re almost clear of the aughts. Just one more week, and we get to leave this decade behind for good. But before we do, it’s worth taking stock of the absolute worst gadgets these last ten years have given us.

We haven’t ranked our picks, but we have put them in a rough chronological order. Think of it as a guided tour through the various circles of gadget hell—and feel free to have a little guilt when you spot the ones you’ve owned (or still do). Anything we’ve missed? Share it in the comments. There have been thousands of gadgets released since 2000, and we’re sure there are at least fifty more out there that should never have seen the light of day.

Update: OK, now all you gallery haters can view the embedded all in one long skinny post, if you prefer. Here you go. You’re welcome.