Lighting for White Clothing

One of my favorite type of photography looks is white on white. Photographing white clothing with a white background can be ethereal, striking, siren and energetic. It also can be very tricky to light correctly. Before you even start shooting or testing your light, take a look at the white clothing in the existing light you have. Does the white clothing shine or have a sheen? Is the fabric flat or have colored undertones? what is the skin tone of your model, if you have one. Do you want to blow out any highlights? Do you under expose while shooting and bring up your mid range and highlight details in post? These are just a few questions I would ask myself before setting my lights up.

If I had the option to set my strobe lights at a brighter setting for the background while keeping my front light at the right exposure, then I will have my white clothing stand out with a brighter white background. Sometimes, I can not light the background but still have to shoot white on white. In that case, I will underexpose my subject by a stop, stop and a half and bring up the highlights and mid range tones in post. Why do that? I do not want extra work in post production but I want to be sure my highlights and mid range tones hold up. Clothing, fabrics or plastic can be very reflective or suck in light. Your light modifier will also play a big part on how your white on white is created with ease or frustration. Do you need to soften the light or have a more direct light source for your white item? Testing your modifiers with your white items will help you decide which way to go. Sometimes a blown out highlight can add division to your image. It is up to you if that blown out detail is worth saving or not. I would experiment with different types of white items with different types of lighting. Make sure your main subject has the correct lighting and exposure so it can stand out from it's white background. Shadows, texture and shapes can help shape your subject and entire image. Look for ways to use these when shooting.