Which color (shade of grey) background is used here

Jessestr · Nov 24, 2015

Hi guys

I've been wondering which shade of grey Richard Avedon used in it's fashion shots. Sometimes it looks white that turned grey... sometimes it looks light grey.
Maybe you guys can help me out!

(some phone photos from a book I own)

Many thanks!

MattKing · Nov 24, 2015

It was probably white, with the resulting grey obtained by adjusting the lighting.

Jessestr · Nov 24, 2015

MattKing said:
It was probably white, with the resulting grey obtained by adjusting the lighting.

Thanks for the fast info!
Like normal white or super white (arctic white) or a very light grey-white?

rorye · Nov 24, 2015

I'd agree it's white that's fallen off to grey and with that lighting it would make little to no difference which white it is, especially in b&w.

markbarendt · Nov 24, 2015

MattKing said:
It was probably white, with the resulting grey obtained by adjusting the lighting.

Yep

Jessestr said:
Thanks for the fast info!
Like normal white or super white (arctic white) or a very light grey-white?

View attachment 120348

Just white. Nothing special.

Underexpose a white sheet enough and you get black.

Overexpose a black tux enough and you get white.

It's all about the lighting.

M Carter · Nov 25, 2015

My vote is white - and I've probably been responsible for the decimation of hundreds of 9 foot rolls between my careers as art director, creative director, and photographer.

I've always purchased arctic white, but have had no preference when stocks are low - I generally say "nine foot white seamless please". It doesn't matter much, the way the light falls off is what makes it happen.

White is pretty versatile in a decent sized studio. You can get a wide range of grays depending upon lighting and having some distance between the lights and the BG.

Arklatexian · Nov 25, 2015

Which color (shade of grey) background here.

MattKing said:
It was probably white, with the resulting grey obtained by adjusting the lighting.

Also "by adjusting the lighting", you can get white using 18% grey backgrounds for black and white,and I'll bet Avedon knew and used how to "adjust the lighting" with just about any color/colour background to obtain just about any background he wanted. I have known of portrait photographers who would control backgrounds for color photography by underexposing 18% grey making it photograph "blue". Regards!

ParkerSmithPhoto · Nov 25, 2015

It's just white paper, and you control the depth of the gray by the distance of the subject from the background. The closer they are, the more "spill" from the lighting and the lighter the gray. That is assuming a one light setup like Avedon used for much of his work. For a terrific overview, see this blog post by one of his former assistants.

I recently used this technique to photograph Atlanta novelist Lynn Cullen. She was about 12 feet from the white seamless, single shoot through umbrella. Slightly fuzzy screen snap from my Instagram feed:

Kirks518 · Nov 25, 2015

Watch this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1f3egvLwVE

Jessestr · Nov 25, 2015

Thanks for the anwers! Really appreciate this

Which color (shade of grey) background is used here

Jessestr

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