Wall color & floor type in studio?

[wesley_farris]

I am planning to set up a single light (softbox or umbrella, undecided now)

studio in my home. I don't have any studio experience so I have a couple of

newbie questions. The strobe is an old Photogenic Portamaster 400 that I got

cheap at a yard sale. The optical slave works, but not with the preflash of my

XT, so I'll be picking up a cheap radio slave. My questions are this:

 

1) I plan to use a muslin (white mostly) backdrop pulled out across the floor.

The floor is carpet. I'm afraid it will cause wrinkles in the muslin that show

up in the photos, or worse, damage the muslin in some way. Should I put down

some type of hard floor or use my garage instead of my bonus room?

 

2) The walls of the room I intend to use are blue which I know is

unacceptable, but... Behind the subject will the background, to the subject's

left will be my other background (black, white, or gray - I intend to make

some way to hang the ones that aren't being used over there out of the way),

in front of the subject (behind me) there isn't really any wall but just a

stairwell and a hallway, and to the subject's right is a blue wall. However,

said blue wall is behind the light, which is being fired at the subject by the

softbox or umbrella which will be large and close to the subject. Will this

wall affect my color? Also, what about if I use a white, silver, or gold

reflector on the opposite side of the subject, will the wall affect me then?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Sorry for the wordy question, but I

know it helps to answer if you have more information. Thanks again.

[peter_steeper]

Regarding the preflash, trying setting your camera on manual. On my wife's P&S, the preflash is turned off with the manual setting and it will work with my studio flashes.

[brooks short]

Get a wireless synch or use a synch cord with hotshoe adapter if you don't have a PC socket. Don't use an on-camera flash when you're using studio lighting.

[brandon.r.foster]

Wesley,

<br />

Regarding the blue wall, I would almost certainly say that yes, it will affect your color. What with light being all tricky and difficult to rein in and such. The garage would not be a bad place perhaps, only it will most likely get drafty in the winter. I would opt to lay down some plastic and paint the walls gray or white. My personal preference is white, but I have seen more than a few people say gray. As far as the muslins, yes some bunching will occur, but as far as I have seen in a room with hard wood floors, they have to be taped to keep them from bunching. One could suggest taping them in the room with carpet, but then you have sag from the subject's body weight. One approach might be to put some plywood underneath the muslin, or a sheet of acrylic, or some very hard plastic or whatever. I will leave the brainstorming to you. I hope that in all of this rambling that I have been of some assistance.

<br />

Brandon.

[derek_stanton2]

You would want white, medium gray, or black walls, depending on how you want to the

walls to affect your light. Blue, in analog (film) days would be a huge No-No, but with

white balance, it should be less of a headache. It certainly won't help, though, especially

as it will not be uniform through out the area, and since you plan to use non-neutral

lighting (gold reflectors).

 

And, yes, some sort of hard surface for the floor would be desirable, for muslin or for

seamless paper, and also to move lightstands. Especially so, if you plan to use castors on a

boom setup.

[wesley_farris]

Thanks for you answers. I'm thinking of setting up in the garage to avoid these problems, but I just thought about the fact that those walls are tan and may pose a problem too. Maybe I'll look into hanging up some white sheets when shooting in the house to hide the wall. I'll probably take the suggestion of lying something on the floor to make it stiffer for the muslin. I haven't tried using manual to rid myself of the preflash. Ironically, I was planning using the camera on manual in the studio anyway. Perhaps to avoid direct flash, I could bounce off the ceiling or a white surface on the opposite side of the strobe so that I get a 2nd flash that isn't head on and avoid spending $$$ for radio slave. Thanks again for the input, and if anyone else had ideas I can certianly use them.