"Photo Gray": Did you ever hear of "photo gray"? It's a light gray that is used to photograph products. This was briefly mentioned in a description of a product online. Being more...

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Did you ever hear of "photo gray"? It's a light gray that is used to photograph products. This was briefly mentioned in a description of a product online. Being more observant, I've seen similar gray products being shown on the makers' websites. I didn't find anything online describing it.

Maybe they photograph it in gray so they can add any colors they want later.

Ideas?

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Are you talking about "Photo Gray" cards used to measure exposure settings?

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

The only use of the term I've known, to date, was for eyeglass lenses that darken when exposed to sunlight (UV).

Photographically, it might be used for illuminating products with a neutral color light. Such as reflecting the illuminating source off a photo gray material. I've never seen or read of this being done but can see some benefits.
--Bob

jerryc41 wrote:

Did you ever hear of "photo gray"? It's a light gray that is used to photograph products. This was briefly mentioned in a description of a product online. Being more observant, I've seen similar gray products being shown on the makers' websites. I didn't find anything online describing it.

Maybe they photograph it in gray so they can add any colors they want later.

Ideas?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

As in photo grey ink?
It's a true grey ink instead of printing dithered black which requires the perception of the viewer to see the mix of little black dots on a white background as "grey".
I would imagine for the purists???

BlackRipleyDog

I have a friend who is a graphics designer in the communications department of a local university research department. This department was moving from one building to another on campus and as part of renovations she specified a paint for her office that was true 18% grey with no blues as she described it so that it would not skew her perception of the Pantone color selections on her work surface. She had to go outside the Facilities Management to source this paint.

User ID

bsprague wrote:

Are you talking about "Photo Gray" cards used to measure exposure settings?

No. He talking about background paper and cloth. Thaz where the term applies.

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rmalarz wrote:

The only use of the term I've known, to date, was for eyeglass lenses that darken when exposed to sunlight (UV).

Photographically, it might be used for illuminating products with a neutral color light. Such as reflecting the illuminating source off a photo gray material. I've never seen or read of this being done but can see some benefits.
--Bob

Loss of light is a benefit ?

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I would assume it is a true neutral gray. Background paper is available in many shades of gray, cool or warm. Sometimes you want one with no color tint.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Controlling light is a benefit.
--Bob

User ID wrote:

Loss of light is a benefit ?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

BlackRipleyDog wrote:

I have a friend who is a graphics designer in the communications department of a local university research department. This department was moving from one building to another on campus and as part of renovations she specified a paint for her office that was true 18% grey with no blues as she described it so that it would not skew her perception of the Pantone color selections on her work surface. She had to go outside the Facilities Management to source this paint.

Right. I found that online.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

User ID wrote:

No. He talking about background paper and cloth. Thaz where the term applies.

Close. I meant the product itself being gray, although I could not find anything about this online. As I said above, it wass mentioned in a couple of videos - "photo gray for product photography."

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Okay, I found an answer. It's "Photographic Grey." Locomotives, mostly in England, would be painted gray when they were being photographed for advertising - to sell them to railroads. This practiced began declining in the 1920s when photography improved.

"The solution was to paint the entire locomotive a mid-grey (usually approximate to the modern shade of slate grey). This light colour reproduced well on the photographic plates and picked out the shadows and shading produced by the various components (such as the valve gear and wheel spokes) allowing them to be recorded in detail. Often a variant of the company's standard livery (such as the lining or company name and crest) would be applied in a darker shade of grey to complete the picture's use for publicity."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_grey

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

jerryc41 wrote:

Okay, I found an answer. It's "Photographic ... (show quote)

This makes sense. It is usually difficult to capture any detail in a locomotive photograph when the engine has a slightly weathered coat of flat black paint (sometimes even gloss black). Locomotive paint seems to have the ability to literally suck light from the sky, almost as if it were a black hole devouring photons. Years ago, I had great difficulty photographing UP 3985 (the Challenger) on film when it came through our area. Several tries over several days yielded limited success.

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JohnSwanda wrote:

I would assume it is a true neutral gray. Background paper is available in many shades of gray, cool or warm. Sometimes you want one with no color tint.

Correctly assumed.

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rmalarz wrote:

Controlling light is a benefit.
--Bob

Throwing light away is not controlling it. Thaz why reflector are white, not gray.