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I have read through all the posts on photography but couldn't find an answer. I am trying to photograph a mostly white subject. No matter what I do there seems to be a glare on the white fur on top. I have a Sony cybershot digital. I use the macro setting. I use 200w bulbs in my light box and get good photos for the internet but I want to print these to submit for competition. I can set the white balance on my camera for incandescent, fluorescent, daylight and cloudy. I have tried a light tent with the 200w bulbs on the outside. I have taken photos outside on a cloudy day, with and without the light tent. I have tried different ev settings on my camera. I'm kinda dense when it comes to manual settings but if someone has some suggestions I will try anything.
It is really difficult no matter what you try. I find that my light meter reading is off for white. I think it has a hard time reading so much white. I try to underexpose and move the lights so that there are some shadows. Without some shadow white comes out flat. Kelly Dean seems to photograph white very well. Maybe he'll reveal his secret. 
Karen
Belper, DerbyshireHave you tried a reflector?
You sometimes see professional photographers with silver or gold-lined umbrellas - they point the light into the umbrella which is positioned usually above and to one side of the subject. They sometimes have an assistant standing holding a gold reflector at weddings. Gold gives a softer colour, but you could try experimenting with silver cooking foil
cheers,
G
The Littlest ThistleCan you change your flash power? I think there's several issues, firstly your lights are obviously pointing at the top of the critter in question, as that is what's 'blowing out'. If you can't change the power of the flash, move the lights further away. Also if you light at an angle pointing down, with the light a good distance away to save blowing out the top, you could use a reflector to light the bottom evenly. Gold reflectors will warm up the light, so if you want to keep the whole thing white, use silver - baking foil over a piece of cardboard would work just fine for that. I'm afraid I'm a DSLR user, so now quite sure what incandescent WB is, but it sounds the closest to the 'flash' option most cameras have, so I'd plump for that. Flourescent light is very 'blue' naturally, so the WB for that will try and counteract by warming the image. Daylight is quite washed out, so the WB for that would boost the colours. Cloudy is again a 'cool' shade, so again cloudy WB will try and warm the image up. The effect of warming is that it boosts the reds/yellows, and is probably not what you want if you want your critter to come out white.
Hope that all makes sense!
Holt, MIDo you shoot RAW files and edit in photoshop? (just curious)
Choose the manual setting, set your camera (I'm assuming you're using a tripod) to ISO 100, then set your f-stop to 16 or higher if you want a full depth of field (without too much thought about it) or st it to a smaller f-stop (5.6 or so) if you want a very limited depth of field... then take a meter reading and set the meter so that it is perfectly exposed according to your camera (there's that little scale in the viewfinder with a plus on the right side, a minus on the left side and a little tab in the center... set it to the center)... then click it so that it's about 4 clicks to the negative side of that scale (to the right) and take a picture... that should help with the hot spots, and then you can make adjustments in your photo editing program, if need be....
was this just confusing???
