How to overexpose a backgound?

I don%26#039;t know much about photography but I love to play around with it. I really want to get some shots of small trinkets isolated on just a blank white background. I was going to try using white paper behind the objects, but internet searches tell me the camera will try to add color/shades to the white. What do I adjust on my camera (i%26#039;m using a canon eos rebel) to overexpose the background and get that great shot? I%26#039;m not a professional so I don%26#039;t have any fancy lighting equipment either, but would more light help? Like maybe backlighting from behind the white paper background? Any tips would be great! :)
How to overexpose a backgound?
You can use inexpensive construction lamps (under $30) to put about two to three stops more light on your background. When shooting table tops, you may find using a handheld light meter helpful with setting up your shots.





This is a time when you may want to use incandescent lamps for all your %26quot;table top%26quot; shooting and forget about using the flash on your camera.





Until you can afford a three light kit (around $500 for the lamps, stands, umbrellas, background stands, etc), you can use the construction lamps to provide plenty of light.
How to overexpose a backgound?
Put a light on the background from the cameras side. Make that light brighter than the subjects light.





Expose for the subject. Zoom in on it and take a reading, write it down. Back up and put the cam on M. Plug in those settings (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO) and snap a picture. Look at the pic in the LCD, hit the Disp. button until you get a histogram. If the background flashes at you then its overexposed. If not, then you need to change the shutter speed or aperture.





HTH
Reply:use a white background, in manual exposure mode using a grey card set the exposure and make your shoot. Your background will be white and your subjects their true colour





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Reply:Here%26#039;s another take on your question. When you are shooting a scene that is predominately white (white background, snow, bridal dress, etc) your camera meter is actually set to meter gray, unless you spot meter a gray card or something else in the scene that is a midtone. So when it sees a lot of white, it actually meters it for gray, hence you need to overexpose it to get the white to be white. Otherwise, it will be very pale and grayish instead. That%26#039;s most likely what your internet searches are telling you.





There are a few ways to overexpose.





1) Add more light by slowing down your shutter speed. If you are on a tripod and your subject is static, this is the way to do it, as you can have a large depth of field.





2) Add more light by opening up the aperture. You lose depth of field using this method, but sometimes you can%26#039;t slow down your shutter speed without introducing motion blur.





3) Combination of both 1 and 2. You can open up the aperture and slow down the shutter speed to add more light to the scene.





4) Keep the same aperture and shutter speed, but increase the ISO. Usually this isn%26#039;t as good, since higher ISOs usually means more noise. But when your shutter speed is at it%26#039;s slowest and aperture as it%26#039;s widest and you still aren%26#039;t overexposed, this is what you%26#039;ve got to do, other than adding more light to the scene.