Studio Color?

[raucousimages]

I want opinions as to what color I need to paint my studio. The studio is rather small, 11ft wide, 22ft long and 7ft 10in high. It is the short celing I hate. I have an opinion on this subject but I want your choice and any reasons why.

I am thinking flat black.

1. I had a black studio even smaller than this (10 X 7-1/2 X 14) and some of my best work came out of there.

2. Blocks unwanted reflection.

3. Less distracting to clients.

4. Hard to see, I need a flashlight to use LF cameras or to see f stop settings.

Thanks John

 

[jd callow]

flat grey or white would be my choice.

 

[Paul.]

John a club I belonged to had a rented room we used as a studio, it was painted magnolia walls and white ceiling. The coulour cast from the walls was a nightmare, in the end we approached the landlord to alow us to erect a curtain rail around one end of the room and hung a black curtain that came out into the floor by 2 feet. we hade a seperate floor sheet of the same material that coverd the area wall to wall. Results were imediately better and if we wanted another colour background we used a paper roll type infront of the curtain.
From my experiance go for black then you control the light you put in to the shot.
Regards Paul.

 

[JohnArs]

100 % White or black or neutral grey works!

Armin Seeholzer

 

[PHOTOTONE]

The studio should be painted white. The set, sweep set or shooting set either white, or a light grey. With grey, you can make your backgrounds anything you want, from deep dark grey, almost black (no light) to near white, or even blown out white with lots of light. You can also make your backgrounds in color by adding color gels to the light instruments used to light the background. I am coming from my experience of having my own studio for over 30 years. I would never paint a studio black. It will soak up the light and you will need much more fill to get good shots. If you are going to shoot color ever, you should NEVER paint your studio a color, just grey or white.

 

[Helen B]

I prefer all black studios (including floor and ceiling) because of the degree of light and, more importantly in some cases, reflection control. They are not uncommon in film and TV work. A grey studio would be a little less disorientating, though I guess that it depends on the size of the studio. Finding your spectacles, or anything not tied to you on a piece of string, can be a major challenge in a large black studio, and who knows what furtivity the rest of the crew is getting up to.

Best,
Helen

 

[Lee L]

For the reasons mentioned by Helen and others, a number of studios I've worked in have had white or, more often, gray walls with shooting bays that can be surrounded with black drapes.

Lee