thanx heep
the lighting was the trick to getting the backgroud like that. i used several bits of white paper, making sure it covered the area i was going to take the pic in, right up to the edges of the frame. then i used two 20cm long white cold cathode lights (pc case mod stuff) to light that background and the subject indirectly. this made the background a lot lighter than the subject, so when i took the pic it would burn out and not register any details.
hth,
j.