# What Seamless colour?



## Bend The Light (Aug 15, 2012)

Hi,

I am thinking I might buy some seamless paper from Calumet (via Jessops - I have some vouchers to spend). I was wondering what colour to buy? 
I do white BG photos of kids and the like, so Arctic White might be the obvious choice, but there are other colours and it might be an idea to "ring the changes" and plump for something different - get away from what some people call the "Chav-ground". 

What do you guys think? I only have funds for one roll at the moment (2.72m x 11m), otherwise I'd buy 2 or 3 and a roll support.

Cheers


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## chris (Aug 15, 2012)

Get white, you can always change the colour by putting gels over the lights for the background.


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## Bend The Light (Aug 15, 2012)

chris said:


> Get white, you can always change the colour by putting gels over the lights for the background.



Yep. That was my thought...just needed to confirm. I could always pick up a black at a later date to add to a collection. 

Cheers


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## kundalini (Aug 15, 2012)

I would suggest grey for the same reason.  Right off the bat you have three colors depending on your light setup; white, grey and black.  With gels you have the rainbow available to you.


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## Derrel (Aug 15, 2012)

Thunder gray is much more-versatile than white. Gray is easier to work with when using gels...not so much blow-back of gelled light as with white paper...and if you want the BG to be white, add light to it and reduce the main light level, and voila! white!

_DSC4648_Justin_sRGB.jpg photo - Derrel photos at pbase.com

This was shot in front of a Thunder Gray seamless paper back in 2006.


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## tirediron (Aug 15, 2012)

'nother vote for Thunder Grey!


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## KmH (Aug 15, 2012)

The best background color to gel to a different color is black, and a rough surface like black felt or velvet works best.

Gelling a gray background will give you pastel shades of the gel color, and a white background will give very much lighter pastel shades of the gel color than gray seamless will.

I used the same Thunder Gray Derrel recommended the most, by far, of any Savage seamless paper color, and used the Thunder Gray to make final images that the background was anywhere from pure white to pure black.


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## Bend The Light (Aug 15, 2012)

KmH said:


> The best background color to gel to a different color is black, and a rough surface like black felt or velvet works best.
> 
> Gelling a gray background will give you pastel shades of the gel color, and a white background will give very much lighter pastel shades of the gel color than gray seamless will.
> 
> I used the same Thunder Gray Derrel recommended the most, by far, of any Savage seamless paper color, and used the Thunder Gray to make final images that the background was anywhere from pure white to pure black.





tirediron said:


> 'nother vote for Thunder Grey!





Derrel said:


> Thunder gray is much more-versatile than white. Gray is easier to work with when using gels...not so much blow-back of gelled light as with white paper...and if you want the BG to be white, add light to it and reduce the main light level, and voila! white!
> 
> _DSC4648_Justin_sRGB.jpg photo - Derrel photos at pbase.com
> 
> This was shot in front of a Thunder Gray seamless paper back in 2006.





kundalini said:


> I would suggest grey for the same reason.  Right off the bat you have three colors depending on your light setup; white, grey and black.  With gels you have the rainbow available to you.



Now had several recommendations for Thunder Grey, although that colour is not in the range I will be choosing from...

We have these:
http://www.jessops.com/Directory/catalogue.ashx/$s=colorama%20grey

But they don't show the exact shade of grey due to differences in colour displays...wonder which one equates to your Thunder Grey? Or is it not that precise anyway?

Basically, I am not much the wiser due to an equal number of recommendations for white, or grey. And I just read a really good tutorial blog by Zack Arias showing a white BG as black...hmmm...still not decided! 

Thanks for all the input folks.


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## tirediron (Aug 15, 2012)

Thunder grey = (more or less) a nice middle grey, regardless of name.


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## Bend The Light (Aug 15, 2012)

tirediron said:


> Thunder grey = (more or less) a nice middle grey, regardless of name.



Thanks. I put a Storm Grey in my basket...just got to push the button!


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## Derrel (Aug 15, 2012)

Storm Grey...zOMG...that's not THUNDER...that's just Storm...I mean dude... order from France if you have to, but get the THUNDER...

lol

Zack Arias has a fine blog, and YES, white "can be" rendered as black in a final photograph under the right circumstances, but in everyday,real-world scenarios, that can be almost IMPOSSIBLE to achieve..."dropping white down" to black requires a HUGE key-shift, with large differential in light reflectance values between background and the subject. "Lifting gray up" to white, on the other hand is VERY EASY to do--even in cramped quarters. Lifting black paper "up to gray" is also quite easy to do, in a real-world situation. Again...making white paper render as black is somewhat of a parlor trick...it can NOT be done under many circumstances, given real-world limitations that one often encounters.

Storm Grey...oughtta be just fine!


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## Bend The Light (Aug 15, 2012)

Derrel said:


> Storm Grey...zOMG...that's not THUNDER...that's just Storm...I mean dude... order from France if you have to, but get the THUNDER...
> 
> lol
> 
> ...



Ha ha...ok...Storm it'll have to be. We all know that we can't get anything as BIG and AWESOME as you guys over the pond...I'll have to settle for Storm...


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