What shade of grey for gell lit backgounds?

[bass_junkie83]

I fancy giving this a go now, so need to get myself a grey paper roll.
But what shade works best, or what effect does the shade have?

I am currently looking at lastolite shadow grey.

http://www.1stcameras.com/pd_lastolite_paper_272x1100cm_shadow_grey_9027.cfm

 

[karfeef]

generally the darker, the more saturated the colour will be. a mid grey can easily be dropped to black or blown out with shutter speed/lighting power. i use pretty much the same grey on that link (except mine is self dyed muslin) and have just started mucking about with white for more pastel shades

 

[Garry Edwards]

generally the darker, the more saturated the colour will be. a mid grey can easily be dropped to black or blown out with shutter speed/lighting power. i use pretty much the same grey on that link (except mine is self dyed muslin) and have just started mucking about with white for more pastel shades

I agree.
For most people, most of the time, the shade isn't critical

 

[bass_junkie83]

Excellent, just got one ordered.

Thanks guys.

 

[Mark.A]

The darker the grey the better it shows up the gel colour. Lighter grey is hard to get a saturated colour on. If you try to get a strong, deep colour on light grey you just get a more washed out colour instead. That's about the only difference.

 

[Andyman]

Hi Dave,

How did you get on with this roll? I can't decide between this and the slightly darker one myself so I'd be interested in how you found it.

Any examples you can show?

Andy.

 

[Kerioak]

I was just going to ask a question about gels but I assume you cannot really use them with white? That would explain the problems I was having earlier. I only have black or white backgrounds so looks as if my pack of gels are going to get expensive if I need a grey one as well

 

[Garry Edwards]

I was just going to ask a question about gels but I assume you cannot really use them with white? That would explain the problems I was having earlier. I only have black or white backgrounds so looks as if my pack of gels are going to get expensive if I need a grey one as well

Yes, of course you can use them with white backgrounds - but remember that you're adding light, which means that you can only produce bright, pastel colours. If you want deeper, more saturated colours then the background needs to be darker, and the darker the background the darker the more saturated the colours can be, which makes the gels far more versatile. But the darker the background, the more powerful the light that shines through the gel will need to be - using low powered flash heads fitted with a gel, on a black background, just won't work.

Of course, any shade of background, including white, will photograph as grey or even black if it's far enough away from the light(s) on the main subject, so if you have enough space you can get deeply saturated colours even on a white background

 

[Kerioak]

Thanks Garry, I was getting the colour background okay but I had to reduce the light on my subject too much to get the colour. I will try again on black just to see if I can get a better result, I use the spare bedroom as a studio so a lot of space is something I just don't have unfortunately.

 

[Kerioak]

A couple of tries with gels on white paper then black muslin

1. on white paper, just enough to get a hint but elephant too dark

2. elephant lit a little better but gel colour not showing

3. On black muslin, one light with gel and one lighting subject

4. Added 3rd light aimed at ceiling, could do with some tweaking to lift the shadow areas, but I had to go and get dinner, but it did adjust colour of black background to a purplish shade, will try it on paper next time. Gives me something to work on.