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"You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!" Just kidding. Here's a video tutorial on how one pro does it. Get out your credit card.

http://www.prophotolife.com/2008/06/26/quick-video-3-studio-setup-for-a-large-white-background/

This is great stuff.  Do I have a dodge tool in PSE with the same capabilities he was demonstrating?

I started using a cheap set of 4 lights from Ebay, with two flat kingsize white sheets from the supermarket, 2 lights on the background stopped brighter, this is one image, not the best as a couple of areas are blown out, but white over white.



I have some other images shot with this setup and a PhotoShop tutorial for stray areas on my website! 
 
http://www.instancesintime.co.uk/Home/tabid/59/EntryID/5/Default.aspx

Or on youtube:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5FubCsniEQ" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5FubCsniEQ</a>

Now I am using the Lastolite Hilite background and train which is just under £300 but is great for stopping light spill in a confined space, just a nightmare to fold up

thanks, I found the dodge tool.  Need to spend more time studying tutorials and less time in experimental mode.   

My problem ... especially evaluating Stock images at 100% ... is cleaning the edges.  All the techniques seem great until you get right down to cleaning the jagged edges around the primary subject.

Also, what are all the FFFFFF references?

 

You can quickly go around the edges with the dodge tool. The feathering obtained is perfect, no jaggies. Sometimes you'll have to isolate by hand when the background is not perfect #FFFFFF and the subject itself is near-white. In that case I use the polygonal tool at 3-400%. Just make sure you have a feathering of at least 0.6 px then (menu: Select > Feather).


The whitest possible in 8 bits (256 possible values). FF is the hexadecimal notation (0..FF). Decimal is 0..255. The deepest black possible is #000000, or decimal 0. In principle, you can isolate on any background color, but since dodging highlights and burning shadow end at 0 and 255, #FFFFFF and #000000 are the easiest backgrounds.

You can avoid all this postproduction work by having a white over-exposed (2-3 stops) background in studio and work on manual.

I have to share my experience with a great product from Lastolite...  HI-LITE Backgrounds....

http://www.lastolite.com/hilite-backgrounds.php

It works exactly like flamish states... overexpose the background.  It's actually a giant softbox that can be folded and fittet into a nice carrying bag. It's great for home use as well..   It's really worth every dime...  

/Flemming


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A part of my problem is having NO studio or equipment.  My products are usually laying directly on the background.  Overexposure isn't really possible ... unless you have a few secrets to share?   

David,
Thanks a bunch for the tips.  Matter of fact, thanks to all for sharing. 

The videos brought up another question from my past failures.  In the video of photographing the camera on plexiglass, I have tried that and can't get rid of that annoying reflection.  There was one image in that series in which he eliminated that reflection but no explanation.  Can someone help me with that?

Since I move back and forth between Asia and Europe and luggage allowance is only 20kg and unsafe (all the time things get broken in checked luggage) I'm limited to carry-on for valuables like laptop, cam, usb disk, strobes. Some airports strictly enforce the 7kg limit on carry-on so extra strobe heads are out of the question.

You can isolate on non-overexposed backgrounds too as long as they are clean. It just takes much more work in the postproduction. I did some experiments outdoors with giant lightboxes (fabric is incredibly cheap in Asia) but the models can barely endure the tropical sun for more than 2 mins. Tricks I'm planning to use next April are from the strobist and putting the model in a tight plywood tunnel that is painted white all over so you get maximum reflection. Use a portable strobe with ceiling-bouncing of course. I did some experimenting last December in my shower/bathroom which is narrow, deep and totally white, and I could reach even F11.0.

If you can't solve it with brute force like softboxes, you can exploit the reflection and triple the light that reaches the subject by a tight enclosure of white walls. With softboxes in studio, only the light from the frontal surface reaches the subject and the rest gets lost in the studio.

You'll get a gradient this way on the background from pure white near the top to light gray near the hips, but the top is the most important for the hair and my subjects wear dark clothes like suits or jeans along the hips so that's very easy to dodge there.

This is on fact the ideal solution. Thanks for the link.
Available here, around 500$.

Do you actually use it and are you speaking from experience?

Zack's tutorials are awesome. All my isolated shots are based on this technique and I setup a little studio that way in my basement. For product shots, I setup a mini-studio on a desk using the same technique. Here is my setup if you want to take a look and it's really cheap.

Hope it helps!

That's a reflective plastic sheet that you can find in the bathroom department of your Home Depot or other store. It isn't a clear material, it's an opaque reflective white sheet of plastic.

Two reasons why I use reflective mats:

1- it reflect the light more so the "floor" is white and not just the background. So to answer your question: yes, it helps to remove the background. glass isn't the best thing to chose though, you have to be able to bend the material so your background is seamless and don't see a line where the wall interect the floor.

2- to get reflection under the objects that looks more appealing (to me) than standard isolation. I'm sure someone will say the complete opposite. I like my pictures to have a gradiant reflection on the floor because it looks like they are more alive. Besides, if the buyer don't want that reflection, it's really easy to remove with the Dodge tool but it is far harder job to start with an isolated object and make a good reflection that doesn't seem fake (for complex objects). On the example in my post, I would remove the reflection because I would also remove the metal bar and the stand holding the figurine. That's my personal preference and I know many people have opposite view on that topic.