studio wall colour - query!

I've always read so much about the best color for studio walls is a neutral colour - like a neutral grey or something very similar that won't promote spill and I'm fine with that principle, in fact I painted my own studio grey, albeit darker than neutral.

Anyhoo here's my point, any time I see the photographers on Fashion TV or any of the serious pro studios the walls are almost always white, if neutral grey is the best color why are the big names and pros using white?

Looking forward to your thoughts.

Cyrus

Ideally you'd want to have white walls with black retractable curtains covering them.

Jarrad wrote in post #5462635
Ideally you'd want to have white walls with black retractable curtains covering them.

yeah i was just thinking that actually. I'm planning on renovating my house (including the studio) some time in the next year and I think that sounds like the way to go.

I have white walls in studio and I have so many reflections=poor contrast, so I put black curtains on walls to avoid all this. Next time walls will be painted dark grey.

I've been told that grey is the best colour for a general background, purely because of the fact that you can overexpose it to give white, underexpose it to get black, expose it normally to get grey, it colours well with gelled lights, doesn't show dirt much and doesn't reflect as much light as white.

'Neutral gray' walls help control reflection of unwanted light back to the subject area, but problem is finding a truly neutral gray paint! If you go to a paint store you will find 'cool' grays, 'warm' grays, 'brownish' gray, etc. and all can contaminate your color balance if not truly neutral!

Why can't you get your paint tinted to 18% gray? Take your gray card and have them match the color. Won't that work??

Bob D. wrote in post #5464286
Why can't you get your paint tinted to 18% gray? Take your gray card and have them match the color. Won't that work??

Over time anything that contains pigment can shift in color. It could be 18% nuetral gray for the first week, but after being exposed to air... light... gasses, the color will shift. I think worrying about the color of your studio walls is futile, and probably even pointless. If you know how to control your lighting, the color of the walls and ceiling shouldn't matter should it? I mean if you have a key set to 45 degrees up left and you're getting f/8... chances are that once your light reaches the opposite wall and bounces back, it's probably not going to register... and if you're walls are dark it definately won't. Unless you're shooting in a broom closet.

forkball wrote in post #5464360
Over time anything that contains pigment can shift in color. It could be 18% nuetral gray for the first week, but after being exposed to air... light... gasses, the color will shift. I think worrying about the color of your studio walls is futile, and probably even pointless. If you know how to control your lighting, the color of the walls and ceiling shouldn't matter should it? I mean if you have a key set to 45 degrees up left and you're getting f/8... chances are that once your light reaches the opposite wall and bounces back, it's probably not going to register... and if you're walls are dark it definately won't. Unless you're shooting in a broom closet.

So then there is no reason to worry about what flavor of gray you use, it will change eventually by your reasoning which may be true or not. I don't know how fast a pre-mixed paint will fade as compared to a custom tinted paint. But if you at least start at 18% nuetral gray, you are closer to where you want to be IF your desire is a neutral gray wall. My comment about getting the paint tinted was in response to the statement that "problem is finding a truly neutral gray paint!" I'm saying it shouldn't be a problem, just get it tinted to wahtever you want, be it 18% gray or pitch black or somewhere in between.

There's not much point in trying for an 18% grey wall anyway; you won't be metering your walls or using them for white balance. But a greyish wall makes sense to control light spill/reflections.

What about some nice black velvet wallpaper?

Double Negative wrote in post #5465168
What about some nice black velvet wallpaper?

The paint was more economical so i went that way instead of the velvet/fabric.

I went with white. I got all freaked out about making sure gray paint didn't have any wierd blue casts, so I punted and went with white. No negative issues so far that I know of.
Just my $.02

^ Yes, but do you have a warm white, or a cool white?

Double Negative wrote in post #5471955
^ Yes, but do you have a warm white, or a cool white?

DOH!!

"^ Yes, but do you have a warm white, or a cool white?"

It doesn't matter as it will fade in a couple weeks