Photo Setup – Wall Color

Tysons, Virginia

Going through the photos from last weekend has me thinking about another consideration when setting my lighting for photography. For one thing, wall color plays a big part in how I place my lights. The Fairfax Ballroom at the Sheraton Premiere in Tysons Corner, VA is the venue where I have photographed the most dance events. It was the first ballroom where I attempted to cover this kind of event professionally. Little did I know that it would become a standard to measure my photos, and how I would think about setting up every other ballroom that host dance events.

©TimeLine Media - ballroom dance photos in the old Fairfax Ballroom
©TimeLine Media – ballroom dance photos in the old Fairfax Ballroom

Wall Color

Up until last year, the room was mostly unchanged from each of the Arthur Murray events we covered there since 2008. You can see from the walls, there was a reddish-brown striped wallpaper that covered most of the sides. This has the effect of making the room taller – which accentuated the height 2 story ballroom. When bouncing any flash against a wall, the color of the light will change depending color tones of the wall. At this time, it is a strong reddish hue. With the length of the large floor, the effect of the change in tint gets stronger the farther away the subject gets from the flash.

©TimeLine Media - ballroom dance photos in the old Fairfax Ballroom
©TimeLine Media – ballroom dance photos in the old Fairfax Ballroom

Overall, it makes it more difficult to edit, as you have to make more adjustments to sliders as you edit photos. This slows down the editing process and makes the photos inconsistent between images. With their recent renovations, they made a welcome change to a more neutral wallpaper color. It is consequently making the editing much easier! To compare the results, check out the photos once they are posted at the proofing website, and on the blog here, of course. Back to work for me!

©TimeLine Media - ballroom dance photos in the old Fairfax Ballroom
©TimeLine Media – ballroom dance photos in the old Fairfax Ballroom

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