So glad I painted the walls in my studio middle gray

[TMR Design]

I've been using my newly built studio, really putting it to the test, and I am so glad that I decided to paint the walls middle gray. Originally I thought I was just going to be doing portraiture (subject's sitting) with 53" seamless in the background but now I find myself shooting a variety of things and realize I need a wider background.

Although I've done full length body shots, most of what I'm doing is with a model in front of a gray or white background so the sweep at the bottom isn't necessary. This leads me back to the subject of the thread. By having a middle gray wall behind the subject I can roll up the 53" rolls and use the actual wall itself. By controlling light it can be anything from black to white with no detail. This gives me an almost 9 foot width to work with and by feathering 2 Alien Bees B800's in from the sides it can be lit evenly with no hot spots or gradients.

Depending on budget, size of your space and what you shoot I think it's a very good idea to paint your walls middle gray, or at least the wall behind the subject that you're going to use as the background wall. it gives you the most flexibitly without the use of paper, fabric or muslin backgrounds.

[Raymate]

I've been using my newly built studio, really putting it to the test, and I am so glad that I decided to paint the walls middle gray. Originally I thought I was just going to be doing portraiture (subject's sitting) with 53" seamless in the background but now I find myself shooting a variety of things and realize I need a wider background.

Although I've done full length body shots, most of what I'm doing is with a model in front of a gray or white background so the sweep at the bottom isn't necessary. This leads me back to the subject of the thread. By having a middle gray wall behind the subject I can roll up the 53" rolls and use the actual wall itself. By controlling light it can be anything from black to white with no detail. This gives me an almost 9 foot width to work with and by feathering 2 Alien Bees B800's in from the sides it can be lit evenly with no hot spots or gradients.

Depending on budget, size of your space and what you shoot I think it's a very good idea to paint your walls middle gray, or at least the wall behind the subject that you're going to use as the background wall. it gives you the most flexibitly without the use of paper, fabric or muslin backgrounds.

Great idea... lets see some pics from this setup when you have some time :)

[TMR Design]

Hi Raymate,

Did you want to see pics of the setup or the results?
Setup shots I can have up in a few days. Shots of the results will be up in about a week after I've done crops and edits.

[Raymate]

Hi Raymate,

Did you want to see pics of the setup or the results?
Setup shots I can have up in a few days. Shots of the results will be up in about a week after I've done crops and edits.

Both would be interesting, no rush now I'm subscribed to this thread as soon as your ready we shall see them... Thank you

R :)

[RichNY]

I've seen Robert's studio and it is quite practical although I do find it extreme to paint your walls Benjamin Moore 18percent grey just to accomodate female models too large to stand in front of a 53" backdrop:) The solution isn't paint, it's better looking models-lol.

[TMR Design]

I've seen Robert's studio and it is quite practical although I do find it extreme to paint your walls Benjamin Moore 18percent grey just to accomodate female models too large to stand in front of a 53" backdrop:) The solution isn't paint, it's better looking models-lol.

Funny guy Rich. You know that's not the reason I painted the walls gray. Due to the size of the room there was just too much light returning from the walls and ceiling and required too much negative fill to control it. The gray walls give me the control I need and the white ceiling gives me a little return from above my subjects which works very well.

[TMR Design]

Here is what the background lighting setup looks like.

I'm using 2 Alien Bees B800's symmetrically placed outside the width of the subject area, which is about 8 feet (indicated by the red line) wide. I'm using the modified Lowel D2-20 barn doors with flags attached to control spill and limit the amount of return to the subject area. The flags are 20" x 30" foam core panels that are black on one side and white on the other. The black side faces the subject area and camera while the white side is used to direct some of the feathered light straight back to the edges. This helps open up that large circle of light and gives me even meter readings from the center almost to the edge and the circle of light is large enough so I can capture a nice large area (again, the red line) that is evenly lit.

The setup shown was used to produce a background that is white with no detail.

[kuanyu]

Very nice, I am currently tring to reach a agreement with the wife over painting my studio. Problem is it is also used very seldom as a 'guest' room. She hates the idea of 19% grey for all the walls.

[TMR Design]

Hi kuanyu,

That's understandable but I felt that with the white trim and wood floors it wouldn't look too industrial. There's nothing that says you have to paint your walls gray. You could have white walls and either use the light that returns to your advantage or control it by using black panels and flags to add negative fill. Depending on the dimensions of the studio you can have white walls with no problem. The smaller the studio the more contribution from those white reflective surfaces.

I think it's more important to avoid colored walls so that you don't get a color cast, as opposed to white or gray which will contribute light with no color cast.

[In2Photos]

Nice setup Robert.

I painted my garage a nuetral grey just in case when I finished it last year. Although I haven't used it for any studio work yet.

[TMR Design]

Thanks Mike,

Things are still slowly coming together. I knew that I was going to take my time finishing the studio but's really getting there. I didn't want to finalize things before I started using the room and seeing how things worked and felt. So far I couldn't be happier (except for having another 10 feet in each direction..lol) and the gear I've chosen is working very well.. no regrets.

[sleibrand]

Looks like a nice work space, I'm envious.

It looks as though you have room to hang 9' seamless, is there a reason you don't? If the space is tight, you can cut down the 9' rolls to a shorter length. The local shop offered to do it for me at no extra cost.

In addition to the shades from black to white, you should be able to get a color of your choice with gels. Not sure if that's a long-term solution - i.e. it only works when the lights are on and may not help persuade the wife. :)

[TMR Design]

Hi sleibrand,

It's not that I don't have the space or that I'm not planning on using 9 foot seamless. The only point I was making was that I don't have that in my studio yet because I'm looking at different background systems and deciding whether to buy or build a support system.

I have the space but the studio was built around the idea of doing head shots and portraiture and the 53" rolls of paper were installed for that purpose.

You're seeing what I'm doing as something that is makeshift or a compromise but it is actually a perfect solution that wasn't even in the original plan.

I own and use gels all the time and I could color that wall as easily as I can turn it white or black. Not an issue. I also don't have to persuade or convince anyone if I want to do something in my studio so that's a non-issue as well.

I posted this thread so I could let others know how well this works and to demonstrate how without any backgrounds at all you give yourself a very flexible background solution by using middle gray on the walls. You have everything you need to make it any shade of gray, white or black, or any color, but again, the idea was to show how to create a white with no detail background using a gray wall that is lit correctly.

[sleibrand]

Ah, fair enough. I had approached backgrounds from the other direction - 4' just never seemed like it would be wide enough for me - and I tend to see 9' seamless as the solution to the world's problems. :)

The persuading the wife comment was intended to be a joke on a previous poster's issues with getting spousal buy-in for a gray guest room. :oops:

[AWPhotography]

I'm glad Cosworth pointed me in the direction of your thread. Very interesting on the 18% grey paint. Was the paint shop able to make it from there computer or did you have to bring a grey card in with you? Also did you go for matt, satin or gloss throughout the whole studio? From the picture it looks like matt but I may be wrong.

[michael_]

Rob out of interest whats the size of the room and can we see some shots you have taken using it? im trying to work out where i can set myself up a studio space just need to work on some dimensions, im planning to do signle portraits and small groups (no larger than say 4 people)

[TMR Design]

Hi Michael,

My studio space is about 14 ft. x 17 ft. with an 8 ft. ceiling. At first I thought I was going to just be doing sitting portraits but a lot has changed for me and I'm really putting a relatively small space to the test. There is no getting around the fact that the 8 ft. ceiling is prohibitive for full length shots but it doesn't prevent me from getting work or producing beautiful images.

I started with only 53" seamless paper which was fine for head shots and head/shoulder shots. it worked great but I realized very quickly that solid backgrounds, even if colored with gels can get a little boring. I also found out that as soon as your subject is standing in any position other than straight up, the field of view of let's say a 50mm lens begins to see past the edges of the seamless. Long story short, I have one 10 ft wide muslin background and a few more on the way. Since I don't have the room for sets and lots of props I decided to invest is some nice hand painted muslins and give myslelf lots of flexibiltiy and I can still use gels to color my backgrounds.

Here are 2 samples of images I shot in my studio. Since we already know a small space is suited for a sitting portrait or head shot I figured I would show you shots that required lighting each side of the body, not just the face or head and shoulders.

The first image is one that I used 53" white seamless and the second one was in front of a 10 ft. slate gray muslin background.

http://tmrdesign.com/photography/samples/tanya_01.jpg

http://tmrdesign.com/photography/samples/alex_01.jpg

[mkuriger]

you guys have some really nice studio setups!

[suyenfung]

the images look great robert. i'm really happy to see some real world stuff from you. i was hoping you weren't all mods and it's clear you're not. good!

awesome idea clamping the foamcore to the barndoors. i've got to try that!

btw i got my barndoors the other day. i was actually able to fit the 7" reflector without shaving any metal. it took some muscle (which i have in abundance ;>), but wasn't too hard. the barndoor frame is bendy around it, but not too bad, it feels like it should hold up without problem. i'm excited to get out and use them. thanks again for your efforts in finding barndoors that fit!

[TMR Design]

Thanks for the compliement suyenfung,

I spent a lot of time learning and building my studio. Over the last few months I've been getting more and more work and having a ball applying everything I've learned.

LOL yes, I never said the doors couldn't be forced on to the reflector..LOL

They can but I didn't like the idea and let's face it, the Alien Bees reflector is not a very rugged item. I wanted to be able to get the frame on and off without scratching and bending the crap out of the reflector.

Glad you're using the barn doors.

[suyenfung]

haha yeah while i did take the barndoors off and put them back on, it was annoying enough to consider them 'permanently attached'...

[carseasoncity]

Robert,

I have just started using my new studio (you visited the thread not to long ago) and I have grey walls. I have figured out how to get the walls white, but have not yet mastered getting them black. Do you have any pointers? I have tried to keep the light off of the back wall, but it still shows up as a greyish blue color not even close to black. Thanks for any help.
Brandi

[Mum2J&M]

Very nice, I am currently tring to reach a agreement with the wife over painting my studio. Problem is it is also used very seldom as a 'guest' room. She hates the idea of 19% grey for all the walls.

Show her the pic. I was just thinking it doesn't look half bad.

[Mum2J&M]

Hi Michael,

My studio space is about 14 ft. x 17 ft. with an 8 ft. ceiling. At first I thought I was going to just be doing sitting portraits but a lot has changed for me and I'm really putting a relatively small space to the test. There is no getting around the fact that the 8 ft. ceiling is prohibitive for full length shots but it doesn't prevent me from getting work or producing beautiful images.

I started with only 53" seamless paper which was fine for head shots and head/shoulder shots. it worked great but I realized very quickly that solid backgrounds, even if colored with gels can get a little boring. I also found out that as soon as your subject is standing in any position other than straight up, the field of view of let's say a 50mm lens begins to see past the edges of the seamless. Long story short, I have one 10 ft wide muslin background and a few more on the way. Since I don't have the room for sets and lots of props I decided to invest is some nice hand painted muslins and give myslelf lots of flexibiltiy and I can still use gels to color my backgrounds.

Here are 2 samples of images I shot in my studio. Since we already know a small space is suited for a sitting portrait or head shot I figured I would show you shots that required lighting each side of the body, not just the face or head and shoulders.

The first image is one that I used 53" white seamless and the second one was in front of a 10 ft. slate gray muslin background.

http://tmrdesign.com/photography/samples/tanya_01.jpg

http://tmrdesign.com/photography/samples/alex_01.jpg



Maybe it just took a straight female to notice this, but what happened to the gal's fingernails in the first pic? :???:

[TMR Design]

Maybe it just took a straight female to notice this, but what happened to the gal's fingernails in the first pic? :???:

Believe it or not, they look that way in the original shot but not quite as pronounced. One aspect of the processing must have lifted the highlights a tad too much. Good catch.

But as the late great Dean Collins once said.. "Beauty is in the eye of the person writing the check".

[Mum2J&M]

Well, like I eluded to above, I'd venture to guess most people who'd be looking at this image wouldn't notice it anyway. ;)

[TMR Design]

Show her the pic. I was just thinking it doesn't look half bad.

There's nothing that says the walls have to be gray. It truly is not a requirement and in the case of sharing the studio with a guest room you can do any number of things. You can use a lighter shade of gray, which I see a lot in homes. If there's trim and other cosmetics it doesn't look inductrial at all. You could also selectively paint some of the walls gray, or you can just go with white. White works quite nicely and if you need more control you can use gobos and flags to provide negative fill.

[TMR Design]

Robert,

I have just started using my new studio (you visited the thread not to long ago) and I have grey walls. I have figured out how to get the walls white, but have not yet mastered getting them black. Do you have any pointers? I have tried to keep the light off of the back wall, but it still shows up as a greyish blue color not even close to black. Thanks for any help.
Brandi

Hi Brandi,

The trick to getting your gray walls to appear black is to have the isolation between subject and background and to have 4 stops difference between the subject incident reading and the background reflective reading. If your subject is too close or you're using a high power level and too much light spills on to the background it decreases that difference and then starts to look gray again.

[Naturalist]

AWP
If you bring your grey card to the paint shop they should be able to zap it with their Photospectrometer and mix the batch up.