Help gray vinyl background anyone... need to order today

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Treesie

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Teresa
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:eek:Does anyone own a mid gray vinyl background? I've managed to find one (and only one) so I have my finger poised to order unless someone can enlighten me! The one I am looking at is 2.9m x 6m @£114.00 plus £14.99 delivery.

I have a black and white vinyl, is it worth getting a gray?
 
I guess you could always light your white backdrop to appear gray, unless that's going to be a problem - saves you £130 *** :naughty:
 
Any white background will photograph as grey if it isn't lit, obviously - and sometimes grey can be nearly black, depending on the arrangement of the lighting used.

But it isn't as simple as that. The darker the background to start with, the creative control there is when lighting it, especially when using gels or when lighting only part of it, for example with a honeycombed light.

The downside of a darker background is that more lighting power is needed
 
Garry Edwards said:
The downside of a darker background is that more lighting power is needed
Click to expand...

I'd guess you'd only need more power to make it white? Not to leave it grey.
 
Thanks guys, yes please EdGary:)

I think I am over thinking things in my studio :(
I'm still trying things out and have 3 lights 2 x 500 bowens and a Lencarta 200 smart head. I have the smart head and 1 bowens towards the front and a bowens on the background. The walls are white, which I now know I'm going to have to paint gray as too much spill in my little place (10ft x 30x) but however I take the images, there still seems to be too much light or too little light. I'm finding it hard to get a setup that I'm happy with.:'(

I have 'spoken' to snapper73 about images he posted with beautifully colour backgrounds achieved on a white vinyl.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=192738 . Why am I having so much trouble trying to replicate something similar?
 
Teresa,
Your problem will be down to lack of control rather than to the colour of the background (although a darker background would give you the ability to have more colour saturation on gelled backgrounds)
It's a combination of white walls, a white ceiling (a guess) and a low ceiling (another guess) combined with not enough space between subject and background.
Also, the lighting arrangement makes a big difference - if your key light is placed very close to the subject then the lighting power reaching the background falls off very rapidly due to the effect of the inverse square law. If the light is too far away then the background receives much more light for the same reason.
Look at this brief tutorial on the Lencarta website and you'll see that the background is much brighter in the 2nd picture simply because a (fairly) distant fill light has been added
 
Garry, yes, white walls and ceiling. The distance between subject and background is about 10 feet or more, I had tried a key light on the subject a fill light and background light set about 3 feet off the background.
Why am I not seeing colour from the background light & gel?
 
Treesie said:
Garry, yes, white walls and ceiling. The distance between subject and background is about 10 feet or more, I had tried a key light on the subject a fill light and background light set about 3 feet off the background.
Why am I not seeing colour from the background light & gel?
Click to expand...
I'm a good guesser:)
Another guess - your key light is quite a long way from the subject, causing quite a bit of the light to reach the background. How far was it from the subject?
Replicate that shot but without any lighting on the background. How dark is the background? If it isn't reasonably dark without a light on it then the colour from the gel can't be very dark can it?
Example here of a gelled background light on a white background where the 'model' is 10' from the background - as you can see, the unlit background is quite dark and so the gel works.
 
Garry no, the keylight was only 2ft from subject if that. I'm going to replicate the shot in the morning without a background light. I looked at an image I took with a background light previously and it looks like a dull gray. I'd got it into my mind that with white everything else the spill is interferring hence the thought of painting it gray... and the ceiling for the 12foot or so that's in the shooting area. Do you think its a good idea?

Thanks for the link Garry, looking at it, do I need to use a honeycomb grid?
 
I used a honeycomb for that shot simply because I only wanted part of the background lit.
Don't use one if you want all of the background lit.
Having the ceiling grey will help - having it black would help more but not everyone wants a black ceiling...
 
... and leave the walls white?
I too have access to a model, she says shes realted to Louisa, her name is Lynda ;) I'll ask her to sit tomorrow and post the results following your tutorial:)
 
Teresa, Zarch Arias' blog details some of this and explains very well the effects of each type of light. Although he has a big space making separation a lot easier...

http://www.zarias.com/?p=71

Part 3 covers a pitch black background, even though it's still white paper. But having the separation between subject or rather the lighting of the subject means no light whatsoever spills onto the background.

I hope this doesn't come across as patronising, it's certainly not my intention :)
 
tfboy, not at all, thanks for the links. I'm determined to crack this! :D
I think the problem is, there is so much advice available on the net, I got to overthinking the subject! I have plenty of length to separate the subject from the background (studio is 11mtrs long), its the width which is the bug bear (10ft)... I just need to learn to work with what I have.:)

I've read a portrait chapter in a book today called Light, Science and Magic.... and it is magic:thumbs:
Tomorrow morning I'm painting the ceiling gray and will then take some images.
 
The more space you have, the less swearing there will be as ZA said in that lighting guide. Also, the less light reflections you have, the better. I reckon with a dark grey ceiling reducing the amount of reflected light, you'll not only get better results, but it'll be a lot easier to see the effect of experimenting as there's less light pollution clouding the effect / contrast :)
 
tfboy said:
The more space you have, the less swearing there will be as ZA said in that lighting guide. Also, the less light reflections you have, the better. I reckon with a dark grey ceiling reducing the amount of reflected light, you'll not only get better results, but it'll be a lot easier to see the effect of experimenting as there's less light pollution clouding the effect / contrast :)
Click to expand...

I did originally think of doing the two side walls gray as well but I'll see how it goes with the ceiling. Because I'm in part of a barn the ceiling goes from 8ft at the lowest up to 11ft so I think you're right with that:)
 
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