I tried to create a light,spring-like atmosphere and made sure there was a little bit of light on the edge of the cheek and temple area by making sure the barn doors allowed about a 2-foot wide swatch of softened rim lighting coming through a 20 degree honeycomb grid. The slight dimensional clue that the rim light gives makes the hands also pick up the small,but visible,highlights that help delineate his fingers. The EXIF information shows that this was shot using My Custom Curve #1,which is a pretty steep tone curve adjustment that makes things really "pop".This is a straight out of the camera,unmanipulated white backdrop made from gray seamless paper. There is no need to lighten the background in post. The background is lighted by two flash heads aimed in from the sides of the 9 foot wide roll of gray paper. Main light is from a single Lastolite 40 inch umbrella camera right. I positioned a LightForm 4x6 foot on a rolling stand to the left of the camera,close to the subject. Hair/separation light is a Speedotron light with an 11.5 inch reflector fitted with a honeycomb grid. This is a four-light setup, with a lot of light on the backdrop and very,very little light on the subject. This is in fact my "standard",four-light lighting scenario for quickie portraiture.

uploaded to TPF on 2013_1014 http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/photographic-discussions/341914-what-type-backdrop-best.html