I'm new at this, can someone help?

[laker]

I need to show this led finger light with a white background. But the light needs to be on and show a little color on that white background. If I just use a brush and white out some area around the light hitting the table then it does not look very good. I want to make a great looking photo to put on the front of this website. I would appreciate any help at all. There is a photo now on the front of this website 1000's Of Chinese Wholesale Items Shipped Direct From China ToYourDoorof the finger light but they want me to change it to have a white back ground but show the color light. Thank you.

[Electricseashell]

Take a white piece of poster board ..place the light turned on on it snap the pic...

[solent]

Originally Posted by Electricseashell

Take a white piece of poster board ..place the light turned on on it snap the pic...

Which will result in the background looking gray.

He will need to dial in between one and two stops of exposure compensation. How to do this depends on the camera, either will a button or menu item labeled EV or +/-.

[Electricseashell]

Then I guess had I done it my way I could photoshop it and the grey could be used as shadow ? lol I had never tried it but I would have tried it..and gotten a grey background.. learning shutterbug.. would white balance of the poster board do the same thing?

[solent]

Originally Posted by Electricseashell

Then I guess had I done it my way I could photoshop it and the grey could be used as shadow ? lol I had never tried it but I would have tried it..and gotten a grey background.. learning shutterbug.. would white balance of the poster board do the same thing?

I'm still a newbie myself, so fogive me if this isn't entirely accurate.

It's not white balance, but exposure. A camera is designed to even out the light and dark in a scene. Normally this is fine, but if you point a camera at a pure white subject (eg a piece of paper), it will reduce the exposure so the image comes out grey. On a black subject it will lighten the exposure to again get gray. The same applies in a reduced way with a subject against a white or black background - the background will come out darker or lighter respectively.

This was an issue I always had when I tried to take pictures of model trains for a website of mine. I put the model on a sheet of white paper, the paper would come out gray and the model would be too dark.

[Electricseashell]

So you would still use the white poster board but increase the exposure leaving the white balance alone? right? or are you saying it may take a negative exposure to get the desired white?

[solent]

Originally Posted by Electricseashell

So you would still use the white poster board but increase the exposure leaving the white balance alone? right? or are you saying it may take a negative exposure to get the desired white?

That's it. Increase the exposure to lighten the background.

Now go and play with your camera and see what happens (doing is always better than reading).

[Electricseashell]

I don't have an LED pen light lol I think I'll try it with my phone.. Thanks