Home Studio

theTinker

Hey Guys

Im setting up a home studio for gaining some portrait experience. Forcing myself out of my nature and landscape shots if you will.

I have a living room which i plan to make a 'room' in out of 4 white sheet 'walls'. I can hang them on clothes line rope with pegs right below my 10' ceiling, sheets barely scratch the floor. Are 4 walls needed or is just a big white back drop enough? I thought side walls and a rear wall might stop colors from being reflected against my furniture etc.
Regards size. I've got about 12-14 feet to work with. How does this size sound to you? I figure ill have about 10' between myself and subject at most. Its just barely meeting the requirements from what i've read.
I could gain an extra 2-3 feet by using a white sheet against a window as the background. Would minimal light affect this? Anyone done it before?

Regards lighting. I just dont have the money right now to buy a Flash light kit. So i was thinking of just using 3-4 lamps Ill steal from family/friends. Or buying a few cheap light fittings from B&Q and wireing them together. Would this work? would 6 energy bulbs make a bright enough light? I figure attaching dimmer switch might make it more controllable? ..I think electrics work that way anyways

Any opinions, please let me know. Thanks

Ray

thefly

theTinker wrote: »

Hey Guys

Im setting up a home studio for gaining some portrait experience. Forcing myself out of my nature and landscape shots if you will.

I have a living room which i plan to make a 'room' in out of 4 white sheet 'walls'. I can hang them on clothes line rope with pegs right below my 10' ceiling, sheets barely scratch the floor. Are 4 walls needed or is just a big white back drop enough? I thought side walls and a rear wall might stop colors from being reflected against my furniture etc.
Regards size. I've got about 12-14 feet to work with. How does this size sound to you? I figure ill have about 10' between myself and subject at most. Its just barely meeting the requirements from what i've read.
I could gain an extra 2-3 feet by using a white sheet against a window as the background. Would minimal light affect this? Anyone done it before?

Regards lighting. I just dont have the money right now to buy a Flash light kit. So i was thinking of just using 3-4 lamps Ill steal from family/friends. Or buying a few cheap light fittings from B&Q and wireing them together. Would this work? would 6 energy bulbs make a bright enough light? I figure attaching dimmer switch might make it more controllable? ..I think electrics work that way anyways

Any opinions, please let me know. Thanks

Ray

Why go through all the effort and not get a Flash kit. If you light your "studio" the way you said you would your mad and wasting your time imo

hoganpoly

get a d-lite 2 or 4 kit from barkersphotographic.ie , i got the d-lite 4 lately and its the dogs:)

kelly1

hoganpoly wrote: »

get a d-lite 2 or 4 kit from barkersphotographic.ie , i got the d-lite 4 lately and its the dogs:)

I've been researching that kit and it sounds very good. Did you go for the umbrella or softbox option?

http://www.barkerphotographic.ie/products.php?id=1349&cat=100
http://www.barkerphotographic.ie/products.php?id=105&cat=100

DK32

I picked up one of these last year and IMO it's great for beginners and small home studios.
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-interfit-int182-ex150-mark-ii-two-head-kit/p1025920

Steve Reddin

Hi Ray,

Some interesting questions asked there, so bear with me and I'll go through them one by one.

Are 4 walls needed or is just a big white back drop enough

Usually a studio is pretty much empty so there's nothing for light to reflect off. What I'd suggest is to use a single backdrop, if you notice light reflecting off this then stick up some sides....or alternatively remove whatever the light is being reflected off, if possible.

I've got about 12-14 feet to work with. How does this size sound to you? I figure ill have about 10' between myself and subject at most.

I don't want to sound negative here, but you're going to find this size restrictive, not when someone is standing up or you're doing a head shot, but when they are lying down perpendicular to the camera you'll probably have to zoom out to a focal length that isn't very flattering on the subject...I know this because that's about the same size I have in my studio and sometimes I'm literally pasted to the wall trying to move back as much as possible.

I could gain an extra 2-3 feet by using a white sheet against a window as the background. Would minimal light affect this? Anyone done it before?

This might work if you have some way to blocking ambient light from entering the window from outside. The last thing you want is headlights of a car shining in just when you hit the shutter release.

i was thinking of just using 3-4 lamps Ill steal from family/friends. Or buying a few cheap light fittings from B&Q and wiring them together. Would this work?

Essentially what you are suggesting here is that you build a flash kit. Again, I don't want to come across as negative but you'll have two major issues here.

Firstly, the actual flash bulb in a flash lamp gives out light at around 5,000k to 6,000k, which is a very pure white light, much like you'd see in HID headlamps in suped up cars. Standard lamps in a room give out light at around 2,000k to 3,000k, which has a very distinctive orange hue and this will be reflected in your subject matter. This problem isn't insurmountable if you know how to / have the necessary packages to change this in post production, but it'll mean a little more work for you and probably mean you are restricted to shooting in RAW files, although this certainly isn't a bad habit to get into.

The second problem I would envision is the power of your lamps. Flash lights tend to flash anything up to 500 watts each, in your case this would be overpowering in a small room, but you are certainly looking at a minimum of 2 lamps, each with 100 watts. Unlike a flash light where the flash only fires for a very short time when the shutter release is pressed, your lamps would be on all the time. This could get very uncomfortable on your and your subjects eyes, not to mention the heat they would create.

On a side issue, the correct lamps will allow you to attach umbrellas, barn doors, diffusers and such correctly to the light, unfortunately you'd not have this option open to you.

If you go down this route, on the dimmer switch, rather than include one, you could just have a selection of bulbs of different strenghts. In addition dimmer switches don't work with long life bulbs and incandescent (traditional blulbs) give out the lowest colour temperature, i.e. the most orange light.

To be honest, rather than going to all this trouble I'd pick up a twin lamp set from eBay, at the moment they're cheap as chips for a simple 300 watt set, it'll not be all singing all dancing, but it'll get you out until you start to make money and then you can salivate at the thoughts of picking up your new Bowens Esprit Quad kit with matching sunshades.

Hope this helps you somewhat.

Steve

hoganpoly

kelly1 wrote: »

I've been researching that kit and it sounds very good. Did you go for the umbrella or softbox option?

http://www.barkerphotographic.ie/products.php?id=1349&cat=100
Hi noel I went for the above softbox option,still getting room ready so have not set up the kit,was down in cork for a few days and couldn,t resist buying the kit whilst down there ,thx,adrian...

stcstc

the other issue with continuous lights, not designed for photography like your talking about is the colour tempreture of the light will change over time.

K_user

theTinker wrote: »

Hey Guys
I have a living room which i plan to make a 'room' in out of 4 white sheet 'walls'. I can hang them on clothes line rope with pegs right below my 10' ceiling, sheets barely scratch the floor.

theTinker wrote: »

Regards size. I've got about 12-14 feet to work with. How does this size sound to you? I figure ill have about 10' between myself and subject at most. Its just barely meeting the requirements from what i've read.

I do see some problems here, sorry, but I speak from a wealth of experience!

Getting a pure white background can be a curse, there are alot of problems. If the sheet isn't ironed and pinned, almost skin tight, you will get creases and waves, which show up as large shadows in the background. For the first few times you won't mind the extra PP'ing to correct this, but it will become old, fast.

As for the space, you'll be surprised how little space you will have. There needs to be a minimum space between the model and the background, especially if you want that pure white look. Then there needs to be a certain space between the lights and the model, else you will get exposure problems or spill. Lighting for both the background and the model needs to be considered, which will eat up more space. Then you, the photographer, need to be a good distance back from both the lights and the model. Basically you'll find that, on average, you have a couple of feet to play with and moving left or right of that will cause problems.

I'm not saying all this to put you off, and its not an insurmountable problem, its just about getting the right setup for you and your space. And knowing what its possible given the equipment at hand.

As mentioned I speak from experience and am doing something similar at the moment, but I can say that Boards has really helped. Some of the great advice has really pushed me in the right direction. The testing and retesting, followed by the C&C has made my life alot easier.

theTinker wrote: »

Regards lighting. I just dont have the money right now to buy a Flash light kit.

I would recommend getting a proper home studio kit, if at all possible. About E200 can get you a decent set. While the investment seems alot at the start, it will pay off. Just being able to walk into a room, pick them up, drop them where they are needed and adjust the height and intensity as required will make life easier.

I got mine a good while ago and spent a while getting to know how to use it. I've brought it with me on a number of occasions for different projects outside the house and it just makes life so much easier. Course then you add the white background and it all goes pear shaped again!

Best of luck - let us know how you get on!

Garyr1

Hi,
I was looking at doing something similar and found this on amazon Portable Mini Photo Studio
has anyone had experience with these and are they any good?

bullpost

You can overcome this problem of background space for hi-key photography(at a cost) by using one of these:
http://www.barkerphotographic.ie/products.php?id=1247&cat=47

Again it might be an option for the future if you are absolutely confined to a small space.

K_user wrote: »

Getting a pure white background can be a curse, there are alot of problems. If the sheet isn't ironed and pinned, almost skin tight, you will get creases and waves, which show up as large shadows in the background. For the first few times you won't mind the extra PP'ing to correct this, but it will become old, fast.

As for the space, you'll be surprised how little space you will have. There needs to be a minimum space between the model and the background, especially if you want that pure white look.

squareballoon

I don't really know anything about lights but I would definitely go for seamless paper rolls and background supports rather than material. http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/Studio/Backgrounds,+Coving,+Cycloramas/

or is you can afford it and are looking for high key and always white behind then go for the one bullpost suggested

Borderfox

For small spaces and portability you cant beat this

Lastolite hi-lite and Elinchrom D-lite 4 kit with softboxes

hmboards

squareballoon wrote: »

or is you can afford it and are looking for high key and always white behind then go for the one bullpost suggested

You can gel the flash in the hilite for other colours, or don't light it directly at all for various shades of grey.