White paint for studio wall?

I'm having my studio built right now. Looks like I'll go the white wall with black drape route. So for the white paint on the wall, is there any specific brand and code that people use? I would imagine absolute neutrality would be a highly desirable thing, but how does one test for that? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Andy

Hi Andy,

I just went with ordinary household paint but I made sure I went for the MATT Finish + I'm very Happy with it. Brand name here = Dulux. BTW good luck with the Studio.
Cheers
Ray

Andy Wai said:

I'm having my studio built right now. Looks like I'll go the white
wall with black drape route. So for the white paint on the wall, is
there any specific brand and code that people use? I would imagine
absolute neutrality would be a highly desirable thing, but how does
one test for that? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Andy

Click to expand...

As long as you're doing a custom WB you'll be close enough whith any brand of white. I painted my walls black but I only use studio strobes in that room. With large enough modifiers, you can control your outcome. If I shot faster glass and ambient room light I would have painted the walls white but I only have minimal window light. It would be nice to have both.
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http://www.jhstudio.zenfolio.com

Gerrard said:

Hi Andy,
I just went with ordinary household paint but I made sure I went for
the MATT Finish + I'm very Happy with it. Brand name here = Dulux.

Click to expand...

Thanks. My contractor will be using matt ICI ceiling white for the ceiling in the whole house anyway. So looks like I'll get him to paint the studio wall with it as well. And that's cheap too...

Andy Wai said:

BTW good luck with the Studio.

Click to expand...

Thanks.

Jim Hammond said:

[...] I painted my walls black but I only use studio
strobes in that room. With large enough modifiers, you can control
your outcome. If I shot faster glass and ambient room light I would
have painted the walls white but I only have minimal window light. It
would be nice to have both.

Click to expand...

In my case, I originally wanted black as well. My ceiling is quite low and I sometimes use an Elinchrom Octalite 190. Would have preferred a higher ceiling but I don't have much choice here. And my wife is really, really not keen on the black wall idea. So I eventually settled for white wall, black drapes, dark gray floor and ceiling approach. That's what's being built right now.

Andy

if the studio space is large enough then white is the best choice. It gives much better mood than grey or black painted one. However if the slace is small then white wall would work as large reflector and it will be hard to block the light spill.

I have 6 by 6 meters studio paited while however covered with moveable black panels standing by the walls when not in use elsewhere. I had the low ceiling in natural wood color and had a lot of slight orange cast on my pictures. After covering the ceiling with black material then suddenly the WB was changed into neutral. Using custom WB was only partial solution before as the spill light was tinted while the direct one was not so the resulting color was mixed in various proportions from session to session. Now I either don't have a color problem nor the spill light problem at once. I used very cheap and very lightweight matt black agro fiber from DIY pinned into wooden ceiling.

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Bartek

I would use a quality WALL paint. Most paints listed as ceiling paints do not stand up well to washing. You can quickly end up with a mottled background after washing a few finger prints off the wall. You don't need a semi gloss, pick a quality flat paint advertised for its washability.