Comments on: Grey is the new White

By: Neal Shaw

Neal Shaw — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:30:22 +0000

Thanks Damien
tried shooting F16 on a couple of portrait sittings last week and you have made me think!! been so used to working at F8/11
Neal

By: damien

damien — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:11:37 +0000

Hi Neal,

Studio work requires crisp sharpness front to back and is less forgiving by it’s nature. On location you can really open the lens up and all looks great. It’s only a convention based on what we are used to seeing. Regards, Damien.

By: Neal Shaw

Neal Shaw — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:45:05 +0000

Hi Damien
really enjoy seeing your work – thanks so much for sharing,

I notice on these your shooting at F22 & F16 – just wondered why you dont shoot at F8 for portraits?

thanks
Neal

By: sheradon

sheradon — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:57:47 +0000

Hello Damien, just a quick question.
Regarding the perspex cube, where did you get it from?

I have taken inspiration from your photo & plan to shoot a version myself.

All the best

Sheradon

By: damien

damien — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:34:48 +0000

Hi Bam,

Sorry for the delay in replying, I’ve had a bit of bother with a virus or 2

If you stop light landing on the grey background it will be black. You will need to use hard lights to do this.

If you use a lot of softlight to light your subject and your subject to background distance is short then your background will be grey.

If you add light to just the background and you light it to a level of 3 stops above your subject the background will become white.

The choice is yours. I hope this helps.

By: bam hyslop

bam hyslop — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:27:52 +0000

Hi damien
I am looking to shoot with the calumet storm grey backdrop.
It is a commercial shoot….showing full length portraits
Will i have to light the background to keep it a light grey?
Cheers
Bam

By: Mick Sadler

Mick Sadler — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:02:45 +0000

Hi Damien

A great article, very informative, have just had a customer buy a grey backdrop based on this information.

Thank you

Mick

By: damien

damien — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:03:59 +0000

Hi David,

The grey background is from Calumet and is called Storm Grey.

I hope this helps

Damien.

By: Andrew Gosling

Andrew Gosling — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:01:39 +0000

Perfect!
Thanks, Damien.

By: David Lowerson

David Lowerson — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:55:01 +0000

Hi Damien,

I hope this e-mail finds you well.

Just a quick question on the studio day which I had the pleasure of attending. We also used a grey background, with FAB results – Thank you.

Can you pleae let me know what the background grey colour was called and from what supplier.

Cheers Damien, looking forward to seeing you at Focus 2009.

Dave

By: Jim Schofield

Jim Schofield — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:39:02 +0000

Damien,

Thank you for such straight, solid information. I had noticed the shift to grey but now I have to do it too !

Regards,

Jim

By: damien

damien — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:29:10 +0000

Hi Tanya,

I have a spare cube. It is not cheap but it has the necessary 16mm spigot and aperture in the bottom to take a flash gun. A Speedlight with a gel and a Sto-Fen will do the job and if you use a Pocket Wizard you wont have to Photoshop out the wire;-)

email me if you are interested in the cube.

Damien.

By: damien

damien — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:24:32 +0000

Hi Andrew, Start with a vivid pack from here. Damien.

By: damien

damien — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:22:15 +0000

Hi John,

Don’t buy two magazines the same month as the adverts will be the same. It’s the adverts that provide some of the best images. I alternate titles each month.

Damien.

By: Tanya Plonka

Tanya Plonka — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:08:23 +0000

Very inspiring, thank you! I need to track down a similar cube now!