My layout room is 7.3' x 20.5' and it is all sheetrocked and painted sky blue on all 4 walls and the ceiling. I have two rows of 4 flourecents for a total of 16-4' 40 watt bulbs running the length of the room mounted to ceiling with no wires showing so I have tons of light. My question is this.....what if I thumbtacked some white cotton bed sheets loosely to the ceiling , covering it entirely and at creating a sort of cloud. This would hide the lights without losing hardly any light , I think, and look more realistic , in my mind anyway. I still have access and if I don't like it I can easily remove. What do you guys think??
Its worth a try. That's essentially how they light cars for commercials. One huge area light. You may want to take a good flashlight to the fabric store to test the dimming effects of different material so you can choose the best one.
Give it a try. Use a light meter (one in a camera will do fine) to see how much light you are losing--it might be more than it looks at first. You might think 50% transmission (one stop) when it is actually more like 25% (two stops). 640 watts to start with is plenty! I think that thumbtacks are not going to be strong enough except for a test.
I forgot that bed sheets will stretch. So you will have a sky that looks like draped bed sheets rather than clouds. But the photography possibilities will be good, albeit diffuse. Getting sheets tight is probably beyond thumbtacks; keeping them tight might prove impossible.
You might have better luck doing a dropped ceiling of fabric mounted to a stretcher frame. This would keep the ceiling from having that droopy look yet give you the diffuse lighting you're seeking. Keeping them clean might be a challenge, though.
It may be practical to mount theatrical scrim material in lightweight wood or aluminum frames, similar to window screens, and suspend them from the fluorescent light fixtures. Of course this would look nothing like clouds, but it would hide the fixtures, give diffuse light, and be mechanically simple. Good luck!
