Painting a room for photography

[ken1953]

Hello all...
We've just rented a house that has a nice room in the basement. It's currently painted glossy black and candy apple red...not real conducive to good photography, according to what I've read. This room has no access to outside light, about 10x10 with a low ceiling about 8'.

I've heard that 18% gray was a great shade, according to a thread I can't seem to find. My question is...what is 18% gray and how do you buy it at a home improvement store??
What are other good colors?
Thanx for any help.

[Xia_Ke]

Not sure about what color would be best but, I imagine if you wanted 18% gray, you could bring in a gray card and they could color match it.

[Asylum Steve]

I've heard that 18% gray was a great shade, according to a thread I can't seem to find. My question is...what is 18% gray and how do you buy it at a home improvement store??

Ken, 18% gray has become one of those mythical terms that stems from the fact that reflective light meters are said to be calibrated to read light as that tonality (although there is some debate to whether this is actually true).

And while a nice light gray certainly makes a good neutral background for your shooting space, personally I can't think of any reason it would have to be a precise 18% gray.

If you want to get in the ballpark, you can print out something extremely close in photoshop (there's a 20% gray in the palette which can be tweaked), then have it color matched at a home improvement store to come up with the paint color.

If it were me, I'd paint the walls white. It's much easier to darken a room than to brighten it.

IOW, you can make a white-walled room very dark by removing or masking light, but no amount of light will make dark walls white.

A white bg drops to a nice light to medium to even dark gray and black if you use your lighting the right way...

[MJS]

I found this at B&H, not sure if its 18% or not.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...Neutral_8.html

[ken1953]

Ok...thanx everyone...I thought about white...I will be using hot lights for a while...got 4 (so far) 500 watt work lights one with a tripod for less than $40.00. On clearance. I'm going to put them on a switch so Kim or I can turn them on and off as needed.
Now, all we have to do is figure out how to scrape all that black and red off the walls...hahahaha, yech...

[MJS]

My classroom studio at school is all black. That way we only get the color light that we want in the place where we want it to be. The studio is used almost entirely for video production and we use a lot of hot lights. We use a background support and Alien Bee strobes when doing our portrait still work. I also agree with Steve for a photography studio, if possible, go for the white.

[ken1953]

Thanx Michael...I think that's going to be my way...white...depending on if I can get all that black off the walls or get enough coats of white on it to cover it well.

[Photo-John]

I like flat black for photo spaces. It reflects nothing and in my opinion, that's the best/ It keeps your white balance as controlled as possible. And since the room is already red and black, it will be easier to paint it flat black than white.

[ken1953]

OK, John...Good idea...I knew I'd get a lot of ideas here...and that sounds like the best...I wasn't looking forward to scraping these walls...hehe

[MJS]

Actually, I don't think you can go wrong with the black, white or gray, but that's just a personal preference with me since I can't see anything but. The black has served me well for the reasons listed below.

[Caryl Y]

Paint white over the black a few times and you just might get your 18% gray....

[LovePictures]

I think Dark grey color will be ideal. Whenever you paint a room for photography, we need to keep in mind the following things:

1. A color which will not reflect when studio lights are on.
2. A suitable color that will enhance the quality of the snaps shot.
3. A color with low contrast.

I am photographer and IMO these things are vital to consider before you choose to color our studio room. Hope this helps.