I note that Peak and Norlander provide, or recommend, white surfece pedestals. Having done this myself many years ago using Formica covered plywood I wonder why other vise makers don’t also use a powder coat white paint their pedestals. What a great aid this is in viewing materials you are about to add to the hook. Maybe this could become a standard practice. As a detail issue, the home made Formica surface plywood is really nice since spilled lacquer or paint can be washed away with lacquer thinner. Formica is unaffected by it. In my classes I provide pieces of white file card stock for the folks to put next to their clamp-on vises.
I have black bases on my vises and in all honesty, in my normal sitting and tying position most of the time the base is out of my line of sight. I do have a white blotter on my desktop which is white on one side and black on the other and can be flipped as needed although I’ve never flipped it once.
What I do like is the “profile plates” that provide a colored backdrop behind the vise. I consider mine an essential attachment to my vice.
I’ve noticed that most fly photographs in books and online have soft pastel backgrounds, most often a soft blue or turquoise. Light gray seems to be a close second, followed by cream or a pale tan…This seems to enhance the colors of the flies being photographed. I’d once thought about changing my vises’ pedestal color, but when I tie, the vise pedestal is below the fly and doesn’t act as a background behind the fly as Bamboozle says. About 15 years ago I bought a “reject” 6 foot countertop from a local building materials store…it has a backsplash and is a soft turquoise/light blue non-textured formica. I mounted it on a wall with a large, long piano hinge and folding legs in case I needed to temporarily have more room. The color is a great background for the fly, makes it easier to spot materials I have laying on the work surface, and is impervious to spills of anything I use during tying or rodbuilding/repair. I also have a 10 X 12-inch piece of cream-colored posterboard handy that I can prop behind the fly being tied if the colors of the fly are light (such as cahills, pmd’s, sulfurs, etc.). For some odd reason, the cream background seems to work better when there’s no daylight coming into my tying room. I’ve tried a profile plate, but often bump it with my hands when tying, and posterboard is less expensive…
I too find the base out of my line of sight so I use a profile plate by Dyna-King. Here is the one I use.
I have plates in white, grey and pale blue. The grey and pale blue were gifts. I generally use the white.
I tye on a Renzetti Master that has the black salt water base. My eyes are always focused on the jaws and the base or matting underneath never comes into play. Now I did at one time try a lite matt on my bench. It did not make a differance to me. What made all the differance in the world is when I went to using the Day Lights. This is one item I will never do without. I guess it comes down to a matter of to each his own.