Wall Colour Question

[DannyCox]

I'm setting up one of the spare rooms in my house for quick shoots. I need to repaint and am looking for advice as to wall colour. I'd be shooting with Kineflow style fluorescents.

I am colour-blind, which is why I don't design, and always get baffled when it comes to selecting colour!

[softball]

Danny, colour is up to you for the look. However, even in black and white, you should consider the reflectance value of the shade you choose. If it is close to skin tone value, it will be easiest to shoot unless you want to blow out your background for effect. Similar shades to what you would paint your household walls, but more colourful. That is my inclination....

[Toby]

Whatever you do, don't paint the walls lavendar.

I share a house with a friend whose family is all grown, moved out, and having kids of their own. The room we use for an office used to be a bedroom for two of his daughters. The walls are still lavendar and any time I try to take a photo with one of the walls as a backdrop the colors are all FUBAR, even after setting the white balance.

[softball]

Originally Posted by Toby

Whatever you do, don't paint the walls lavendar.

I share a house with a friend whose family is all grown, moved out, and having kids of their own. The room we use for an office used to be a bedroom for two of his daughters. The walls are still lavendar and any time I try to take a photo with one of the walls as a backdrop the colors are all FUBAR, even after setting the white balance.

Toby, set the white balance on automatic and all will be well. If everything is Fubared, it is probably just the lavender reflection and that auto setting should take care of it.

[DannyCox]

I should have made it more clear. What I meant was...I am going to repaint, and what colour would people paint a room so it looks good in video shoots and helps enhance the people in front of that wall. I know certain colours work better than others, but as I mentioned, I am colour-blind and just don't know.

[softball]

Originally Posted by DannyCox

I should have made it more clear. What I meant was...I am going to repaint, and what colour would people paint a room so it looks good in video shoots and helps enhance the people in front of that wall. I know certain colours work better than others, but as I mentioned, I am colour-blind and just don't know.

That is a hard question to answer. I change wall colours sometimes weekly. It all depends on costume, props any number of things. Rule of thumb, use warmer colours like reds and pinks. I also like yellow. Vivid red is amazing, but it does present problems for video depending on the camera. Greens and blues are harder to deal with. Mostly these are issues of taste, however, not technicalities. That was why I posted that reflectance value stuff.

[Gerco]

Hey, Paint the walls with Green Screen paint... and change them after the fact..

[DannyCox]

I still have my blue screen and green screen backdrops

[Cherry7]

White

[Jim_Gunn]

Such bad advice here so far. Forget white walls, they just aren't pleasing to the eye and makes your video look so amateurish. I like a lot of color on my sets. Greens and blues, and purples usually are good colors for video. Red can also work if lit properly. The bleeding problem old tvs had aren't such an issue anymore now with high def video and tv sets. Also make sure the furniture, rugs and props are colorful on the set, as that will also look nice. Check out BangBros web sites for example, nice use of color there. Beyond all that it helps greatly to have expertly arrayed lighting which can make a big difference in the perceived color and video quality overall.