Color of Paint for Small Home Portrait Studio

Hi All,

Silly question, I'm setting up a spare bedroom into a home portrait studio. What color/type of paint would you recommend? I have a couple able bodied teenagers who need cash and are willing to paint.

I have a 12 foot backdrop coming so I'm not intending on using the walls at all. Currently the walls are purple (yes purple, so even if they are fine, I'm painting them anyway ha ha) and somewhat shiny.

So my thoughts were a neutral flat paint? Any ideas?

jhankins wrote:
Hi All,

Silly question, I'm setting up a spare bedroom into a home portrait studio. What color/type of paint would you recommend? I have a couple able bodied teenagers who need cash and are willing to paint.

I have a 12 foot backdrop coming so I'm not intending on using the walls at all. Currently the walls are purple (yes purple, so even if they are fine, I'm painting them anyway ha ha) and somewhat shiny.

So my thoughts were a neutral flat paint? Any ideas?

If you want to be able to bounce light off the walls, paint them white. If you don't, paint them black, but if you do be prepared to invest in lots of lighting equipment. With white walls, you'll have a hard time getting harsh lighting even if you want it because the light will be bouncing around a lot. These days, most folks like that. You can always use a black scrim if you want to kill the bounce effect from one wall.

I think in practice you'll have a hard time finding a truly neutral gray paint, and if it isn't exactly neutral, you make color balance and correction a real pain. That's why most folks either use black or white.

Peter Gowland's studio is all white, but I've seen studios that were black, too.

Rick "who doesn't have the luxury of choice" Denney

I work as a professional photographer out of a studio in my home which is a converted single car garage. I eventually opted to paint the walls and ceiling matte finish white and the floor 18% (approx.) gray. This was to enable light bouncing in a relatively small space and with limited lighting equipment, and it has worked out well.

The one thing that may be helpful to keep in mind is that there is not perfect studio lighting. All your equipment and the space you shoot in contribute to your final product and style. People who shoot in warehouses will certainly have a different style then people in garages but it will not necessarily be better. This is also true of the hue of your lighting. Modern capabilities for white balancing both in the camera and digitally make miniscule differences mute. In fact, I've found the limitations of my space and light to be a creative stimulus to force me to try things differently then I might have originally intended.

Hopes this helps.

My studio, when I had it, was painted a neutral flat white. That allowed me to bounce when I needed to do so, and if I didn't bounce I flagged the light off to get better contrast.