Q 'n A
Meredith, of Jackson, Mississippi asks:
I'm in the process of setting up a studio in a new space. We were trying to pick paint colors, and the rest of the building has a black ceiling.
The photo studio, I think, should obviously have white walls instead of some crazy color. But then we were questioning the ceiling color -- should it be white, or black? (It is a very small room.)
Which would you do? If it sounds arbitrary, give it a little thought before making the jump.
__________
Meredith, if you think about it, you probably answered your own question when you brought up the room size. The classic color for a studio ceiling is black, since that controls unwanted reflections better than any other color.
You can always put a light up there if you want top light. But you certainly won't want it all of the time, and that is what you'll get to a large degree when working in a "very small room."
Small rooms are the most difficult for controlling stray light bounce, so the smaller your studio is, the darker you will probably want to paint the surfaces. If you can't escape light walls, you want to create some "negative fill" reflectors out of a flat black surface of some kinds.
Bonus points: Paint your reflectors white on one side and black on the other, and you'll have it both ways. But the main point is that you want to be able to control the bounced light.
And dark surfaces -- including the ceiling -- will help you do that.
I'm in the process of setting up a studio in a new space. We were trying to pick paint colors, and the rest of the building has a black ceiling. The photo studio, I think, should obviously have white walls instead of some crazy color. But then we were questioning the ceiling color -- should it be white, or black? (It is a very small room.)
Which would you do? If it sounds arbitrary, give it a little thought before making the jump.
__________
Meredith, if you think about it, you probably answered your own question when you brought up the room size. The classic color for a studio ceiling is black, since that controls unwanted reflections better than any other color.
You can always put a light up there if you want top light. But you certainly won't want it all of the time, and that is what you'll get to a large degree when working in a "very small room."
Small rooms are the most difficult for controlling stray light bounce, so the smaller your studio is, the darker you will probably want to paint the surfaces. If you can't escape light walls, you want to create some "negative fill" reflectors out of a flat black surface of some kinds.
Bonus points: Paint your reflectors white on one side and black on the other, and you'll have it both ways. But the main point is that you want to be able to control the bounced light.
And dark surfaces -- including the ceiling -- will help you do that.
__________
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Posted at 8:51 PM.
29 Comments:
I've seen this one go both ways depending on what lighting style is the trend with portraiture. But every still life studio always had white walls and ceilings. Same with rental spaces.
Paint everything 18% grey. (Seriously.)
David - Is it just me, or did you sound like Dr. Phil here? Can we start sending you our questions too?
Since black will control the light the best, would all black walls make sense? Or, all black with one wall white (the one you shoot against the most)? A room with black walls might be depressing to look at but it would offer great control.
I'm with the black walls. If I want light somewhere I put it there. I do think however, it depends on your shooting style.
@Harry (i'm a twitter user)- i would have to disagree with all still life studios being painted white. it makes more sense for them to be painted black that way you elminate most unwanted reflections when photographing metal/glass subjects.
When you say a small space, that is relative. You can make white walls grey by controlling the light. It takes a lot more light to make black walls white. My studio is white walls, grey ceiling 18 feet. Floor is grey but usually covered by something depending on what is being shot.
If you've never worked in an all black studio, it's very depressing =(
Usage plays a big part in it. If you're shooting mostly people, then I'd prefer white. It's brighter and more enjoyable to work in. You can always hang up black drapes if needed.
If you're shooting a lot of product where you need to control reflections and bounce constantly, then go black.
White walls with black walk along curtains. Subtractive or reflective, your choice.
i think that -kb is onto the winner. White walls with black walk along curtains. this way you can hvae the best of both worlds as and when you need it.
If you have a really small stuido space, perhaps it would be useful to have white walls - as you could use the walls for bouncing your strobe off to get a really big light source in close, without taking up all of the space in the small room? (a little less conrol over the quality and angle of your light though!)
I've just moved to a new house. I made the living room a studio. I painted the walls and ceiling 18% grey and got a carpet as close to that as I could find. If I want any color in the shots, I can just gel a speedlight and point it at a wall.
What Adam said. The ideal studio has 18% grey surfaces everywhere. The point is to control exposure. That includes both unwanted reflection and absorption of light. And of course neutral colour should not even need to be mentioned here.
If you think about it, the way Dave tends to light; close-in; the room is less of a factor than you might think.
A black room (or even a black ceiling) is an oppressive environment to spend much time.
Dave spends a lot of time talking about ratios: drop the fill by 1 stop.."
Once room reflections are about 3-4 stops down they have little influence.
It turns out a very pale grey is all you need to drop reflection to 'nothing'. And it's a lot nicer to live with.
(take a grey card to the paint shop and colour match it, then add heaps of white>neutral colour reflections)
Wollom
Yes, I've got something of the same problem, but since it's a rental (in Tokyo) I'm not allowed to paint. So it's all-white for two walls and the ceiling, and an off-white for two other walls.
But as -kb pointed out, I've put long curtains that cover most of one wall, and that helps. But I'm a bit stuck for what else to do. Negative reflectors, hm? Have to give that a look...
Brick walls for a background with character, then hang reversible gobos/baffles... Or curtains. :g:
I had this same dilemma a while back. Finding 18% grey was not easy for me living in a remote area, however I choose a matt grey colour. “Stormy Monday” from Benjamin Moore. In my blog i have a sample histogram of the colour. It basically dead on neutral.
I guess I'll be the first to quote the Rolling Stones... paint it black.
just like the song goes.
"I see a red 'room' and I want to paint it black"
Or black walls with white walk-along curtains.
Depression: black holes amount to sensory deprivation. Very bad for your mood. Sound stages & TV studios, being acoustically deadened too, are even worse working environments.
Has no one heard of seamless paper?
You can easily hang a role at the top of the wall and roll down whatever color you want. That said, I'd go for blue or green, since it's easiest to key out. Of course, I shoot more motion than still.
Otherwise, blacks the best bet. It's much easier to add than take away. Black walls and ceiling, plus a roll or three of seamless white. As you know, gelling a Speedlight gets you any color background you want.
Cheers,
Charlie Cello
I'm with kb. The walk along black curtains, with black ceiling would be best in my mind. Think of the inside of your camera... At least with curtains the mood is changeable.
grey walls, black curtians and a few boards of foamcore painted black on one side. That will allow you to get anyware you want.
My studio is completely black! It's very small (only big enough for a 3-person group shot at max), and the walls are bare (and very aged) brick. I've lined all walls, the ceiling and the floor with black cloth (which I can remove as desired, when I want to do a really grunge shoot). I chose black because I want _complete_ control of my light: if I want light, I set one up (or a reflector). If I don't, I don't! As for it being depressing, the warm glow of my monitor, with the Strobist site loaded up, takes care of the blues every time :-)
Photographically, the key point is just that you need to be able to control the room's reflectance. For studio functionality, whether the surfaces are black and you have white flats/curtains/etc. or vice-versa doesn't make much difference.
But it might make a BIG difference to the landlord, or to a potential buyer if you own the property, because NOBODY except another photo studio would want a room with black walls and a black ceiling.
So, I would suggest making the decision based on that, and then do your reflection control with materials that will be more easily movable/removable than paint.
I don't know about anyone else... but I love working in a all black space, it limits distraction and really lets me focus on what I'm doing. It can also give the illusion of a much BIGGER space, one flood against a wall with the rest of the room black and you may as well be in a giant cave. Very hard to do with white or grey walls.
My wife and I just bought our first house and one of the loose criteria was a space for a studio. A fairly large extra family room but with low(8ft) ceilings is what I ended up with as "my" room. I think I'm going with dark gray and keeping the bits of white trim in the room so it's still a fairly pleasant room in the house rather than painting it a black hole.
Right now we're remodeling the kitchen though, so the geek room will have to wait.
white walls, black drapes. ceiling painted white down one end of the room, black down the other. the white side of the ceiling is likely to be far enough away from the black end to avoid inadvertent top-fill when you don't want it. but the white end is useful for lots of things, and will make the room look less dreary.
now to get my wife to agree to painting the living room this way.
paint the walls white and attach curtain rods on each wall with black curtains. if you want white, then open the curtains. if you want a black wall then close the curtains.
Hi David, no need to post this comment, but here's a link to print your own colour gels for the SB900.
http://tinyurl.com/onk964
Not sure how reliable they are though.
Cheers.
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