Perfect white backgrounds

[lbk290]

Hi Everyone,
Can anyone tell me how to get perfect white soft backgrounds like this?
Even when I shoot something on a white clean surface it never turns out as beautiful as this and as clean. My shadows are always much too harsh and even the object in the picture looks too flawed. Please help!
(This is not my picture, I have no rights to it and it was found on tumblr)
Image deleted per forum FAQ regarding copyright. We can post links to images we have no rights to.

 

[KmH]

The background in the image wasn't close to being perfectly white, particularly on the right side where it was a gray gradient.

A completely white background is done with lighting, and/or post processing with image editing software.

 

[Photographiend]

I don't even see an image in this post.

At any rate this was covered in a book I read this week.

You need white seamless paper, two strobes lighting the seamless on either side so you can completely blow out the white. Also be careful to position your subject far enough in front of the whole set up that the light for the backdrop doesn't spill over. You will need a 3rd strobe for lighting your subject.

Haven't tried it myself but according to the book I read this is how it is done.

 

[dbvirago]

I do it with a Lastolite Hiliter background which can be done with a single light. Easy to set up and portable, and you can get your subject a lot closer to it. I shot the image below in a space about 8x5. Having said that, if I were doing it over, I would go with seamless and two lights. There is a ton of info out there on how-tos with lighting diagrams. Whatever you do, learn to do it in camera -for me it's a pain to do it in post.

 

[tirediron]

I don't even see an image in this post.

At any rate this was covered in a book I read this week.

You need white seamless paper, two strobes lighting the seamless on either side so you can completely blow out the white. Also be careful to position your subject far enough in front of the whole set up that the light for the backdrop doesn't spill over. You will need a 3rd strobe for lighting your subject.

Haven't tried it myself but according to the book I read this is how it is done.

The only thing I'll add is that when lighting your background "cross" your lights, that is, the light on the right side of the background should light the left side and vice versa. This will avoid hot-spots on the background.