I Have A Wall To Paint

[musicaleCA]

Well, I will have a wall to paint. I'm moving into a nice, relatively spacious condo in a couple months, and as if to prove just how much I've fallen into photography and have totally geeked-out on it, I want to turn it into a studio setup. It's a bachelor-style suite, so again, lots of room to work with.

There's a fireplace near the (very large, south-facing so lots of light all day, year-round) window, and for that I'm thinking a deep red wall will give me a nice warm backdrop for portraits by it.

But, I have another wall in the middle, kind-of away from the windows, and for that I'm a little miffed. I'm thinking that I'd like to cut-out most of the daylight by installing a wall if I can, giving me maximum control of the lighting. Good idea or bad idea? (Maybe I should just get black and white pieces of fabric that I can drape down from the ceiling to block out light?)

The other thing, and the main question, what colour do I paint that middle wall? I intend to gel my flashes to create different colours on the wall for backgrounds; would I get more out of an 18% grey wall or pure white? (And would I even be able to get that pure-white blown-out background look with an 18% grey wall?)

 

[craig]

Are you renting or buying. Painting stinks and I try and do it as little as possible. I guess the red wall may add to the room. Adding and painting walls grey or black is going to be a problem when you have to move out. I have my studio out of my garage. I covered the ceiling with old pieces of white seamless. Just to be on the safe side. I think of it like this. White is good with natural light and directional light from strobes. Black is better if you just spew light through 3 soffboxes Strobist style.

Love & Bass

 

[musicaleCA]

I might just go with pure white in that case. It'll probably give me cleaner colour from my gels anyway.

I'm buying. Plan to have this place for quite a few years, so it's not like I'll have to repaint it soon.

Would you suggest semi-gloss, high-gloss, or satin? I imagine the satin would diffuse light a lot better.

 

[craig]

Matte or something that can cover quickly and easily. As you get into the prices; gloss gets spendy. If you are going to live in the area that is one thing. If you are just trying to cover it go cheap.

 

[musicaleCA]

Ah, this will be a space I'm living in. I'm just turning it into a studio when I'm not sleeping. Murphy bed and everything. I think I can make it work. My real concern with gloss is if it bounces too much light, or worse ends-up with specular highlights everywhere...I think I'm answering my own question here and should go satin white.

 

[craig]

That will not happen. Mostly it becomes a studio with nice paint. Highlights etc will be controlled by you.

Love & Bass

 

[KmH]

You don't mention the ceiling height.

White walls will make it harder (scatter, uncontrolled reflections) to have good control of the light.
Black would be optimal but it has a bad effect on peoples mood after a little while.
I have found flat medium gray on the walls works best for me, with a semi-gloss bright white ceiling. I use seamless and the occassional backdrop.

It makes for an interesting bachelor-style suite to have light stands, backdrops, softboxes, umbrellas, props and 9 foot rolls of seamless about when the girls stop by to visit. You should have at least 1 beauty dish around just for the name. Well, all that stuff worked good with the girls 30 years ago.

However, living in a place with medium gray walls would probably warp my mind in about 2 months.