I turned down a cyclorama booking last year. The studio was gorgeous on paper — Park Royal, drive-in access, 8m wide cyc, hand-finished coving. The ceiling was 3.2m. I said no. The studio owner thought I was being precious. The creative director I was shooting for later thanked me twice.

Here's the thing about cyc ceiling height. It's the one number on a listing that actually predicts whether your shoot will work or collapse. Floor area, cove radius, electrical load — all solvable. Ceiling is not. If the room is short, you're stuffed.

What the 4.5m rule actually means

I keep saying "4.5m rule" to clients and they nod politely. Let me explain what it really is. For a car shoot, you need space above the car for a light, space for that light to have a throw distance, and space above your camera's rise so you can shoot slightly down without clipping the ceiling line into frame.

Rough maths. A mid-size hatchback sits about 1.5m tall. A saloon, closer to 1.4m. An SUV, 1.7m. Now add a Profoto or Broncolor head in a 150cm octabox flown overhead — that eats another 1.2m minimum once you factor in the bracket and the modifier depth. You want the modifier at least 0.8m above the top of the car to get a soft wrap-around, not a hot spot. You're already at 3.5m. And you haven't left any room for a scrim above the modifier if you want to diffuse twice, or a black flag behind it to kill spill.

Under 4.5m, you're constantly compromising. Above 4.5m, you can actually light the car properly.

Product is the same logic, scaled down. A bike shoot. A bathtub. A fridge-freezer. The moment the hero item is over about 80cm tall, the 3-metre ceiling starts to bite.

Why studio listings lie (not on purpose)

Listings love to quote "4m clear". I have walked into dozens of "4m clear" studios that were measured at the apex and had steel beams, sprinkler heads, air-con ducting, and a light rig hanging at 3.1m. Clear means clear to the lowest obstruction — not the plaster line.

Ask every time. "What's the lowest point of ceiling obstruction above the cyc floor, measured in working position?" If the studio manager pauses, the answer is lower than they want to admit.

One studio in Hackney Wick quotes 5m on their site. The truss is at 4.1m and can't be lifted. That's your usable height. Still decent. But it's not 5m.

What you actually need, by shoot type

Hatchbacks and small saloons: 4.2m minimum, 4.5m comfortable, 5m lovely.

SUVs, vans, premium saloons: 4.8m minimum, 5.5m comfortable. Anything lower and you're reverse-engineering your lighting plan to fit the room instead of the car.

Large product (bikes, furniture, domestic appliances): 3.8m minimum. You can get away with less for single-item hero shots if you're cool with top-down only, but any wider scene and you're in trouble.

Table-top product, fashion, portraits on cyc: 3.5m is fine. A 3m cyc will work for head-to-knees portraits all day. Don't pay premium for height you don't use.

The bit about HMI and big LED heads

If you're shooting video on cyc, ceiling height matters for a different reason. Flash is a burst. Continuous is heat. An Aputure LS 600d Pro is rated at 600W nominal with a max draw of up to 720W, and it's comparable in brightness to a 1,200W HMI — that's a proper working tool in a commercial cyc. Put two of those overhead in a 3.5m room and you're cooking the talent, the paint, and the colour grade. More height means more distance, which means less heat on set.

If you're going bigger — an Arri SkyPanel S60 Pro weighs about 15 kg on its own, and you'll need safe rigging distance above the cyc floor. An S60 at 3m from a subject is fine for portraits. Same light at 3m on a car hero shot is a floodlight that kills every shadow you were trying to sculpt.

The cove radius thing

Related issue. A 1m cove radius with a 4.5m ceiling gives you a proper infinity curve in wide shot. A 0.3m cove with the same ceiling shows a visible bend in the back wall from 14mm. I've seen "cycloramas" that are just a radiused corner painted white. They're fine for mid-shots. They're not fine for wide.

Ask for the cove radius. Ask where the floor-to-wall transition starts. A good cyc has the transition at least 80cm out from the back wall, ideally 1m. Cheaper ones cheat at 40-50cm and call it infinity.

What I check on a studio viewing now

This is my list. Boring. Saves my bacon every time.

I measure to the lowest ceiling obstruction with a laser distance meter. £30 on Amazon. Pays for itself on the first job. I check the cove radius at three points along the back wall. I check the depth from the back of the cyc to the proscenium or door — if you can't pull camera back 6m, you can't shoot a wide car lens without stitching. I check electrical supply at the wall nearest to where lights will live.

And I ask if there's a load-in door big enough for a car. A 2.1m high, 2.4m wide roller door is standard. Sounds obvious. Three times in my career I've seen crew trying to angle a saloon through a double fire door and scratching a bumper on the frame.

When small ceilings are fine

Don't read this and decide every shoot needs 5m. Most content creation work is happy at 3m. YouTube-style talking heads, ecom pack shots, fashion editorial on seamless — all totally fine in a low-ceiling room.

The 4.5m rule only kicks in when you need to fly a light above something tall, or when the ceiling itself is going to end up in frame and you need space to hide it with a top flag.

Pricing reality

Tall studios cost more. A 4.5m cyc in Park Royal or Hackney Wick is going to run you £900-1,800 a day at the good end. That sounds steep until you compare it to the cost of a compromised shoot — extra lighting, more retouching to paint out the ceiling line, a half-day reshoot because the client didn't feel the lighting had enough depth. I once spent £2,400 on a reshoot because I tried to save £400 on studio hire. Never again.

If your budget is capped at £600-800 and you need height, look outside the M25. Manchester has proper tall cycs at Manchester cyc-equipped studios in Ancoats and Salford for 30-40% less than London. Bristol has a couple around the harbourside. Leeds and Birmingham too.

Quick answers to the questions I get asked

Can I shoot a car in a 4m cyc? Yes, if it's a small car and you're not flying a huge modifier. Expect compromise. For a client paying commercial rates, book taller.

Does cove radius matter more than height? They both matter. Height determines what you can do lighting-wise. Cove determines whether the background actually looks seamless in post. Both are non-negotiable for hero work.

What's the ceiling height for a Profoto softbox with a Lexus or a 4x4? 5m minimum. You want room above the modifier for a black flag or a scrim, and you want modifier throw distance to actually soften the light, not blast it.

Is "high ceiling" on a listing enough? No. Never. Ask for the number. Measured from the cyc floor to the lowest obstruction.

The one thing I wish every studio owner would do

Publish two ceiling numbers. Height at apex, and height at lowest obstruction in working position. That's it. Everything else we can work around. Not that.

If you're sick of trawling Peerspace, filtering by ceiling height that turns out to be wrong, and paying platform fees on top — have a look at Creative Studio Hire. It's free to search, and studio owners don't pay commission on bookings. Which means they're more honest about the numbers, because they're not trying to hide fees.