Today’s post might be considered a prequel to my post, Developing a Portrait Style and when you have the time. you might want to click and read it,
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“The light is what guides you home, the warmth is what keeps you there.” – Ellie Rodriguez
When setting up an in-house or in-apartment studio, the first thing you need is space but you really don’t need that much. But more is always better than less.
You can build a studio in a basement, garage, spare bedroom or you can use your living room as Mary and I did when we started our photography business many years ago. For each shoot, we would set up the lighting equipment and background, have the shoot and then knock it down and pack it away afterwards. It wasn’t the best way to operate but it got the work done and it worked. I even won an award for a bridal portrait I shot in that space, so it can work for you too.
In creating a studio from existing space in your home you need to be creative and flexible. My first home studio was in an 8×9-foot space in my former home’s unfinished basement and was sandwiched between my model train layout and an old sofa. The ceiling height was only 7.5 feet, so my choice of lighting modifiers was often limited to small umbrellas but I was able to successfully use a Plume Wafer softbox as a main light in this space too. You can read about this softbox’s unique qualities here. I made this portrait that was featured in a previous #corsetmonday in that compact space.
My current home studio, where the image at left was made, was a spare room that was located in a finished basement and measures 11×15 feet. It has a 9.5-foot ceiling giving me more flexibility in my choice of lighting modifiers. I have room to use many different backgrounds too but can just barely shoot full-length shots in this space as you can see in the featured portrait of Scarlet Ana.
How I made this portrait: The lighting setup for this portrait of Scarlet Ana consisted of two Paul C Buff DigiBee DB800’s monolights and one Alien Bee B800. One DigiBee DB800 was placed at camera right and was fairly close to Scarlet. It had a 37x27x12-inch Plume Ltd. Wafer soft box attached. An Alien Bee B800 with a 16 x 30-inch Westcott Apollo Strip soft box mounted was located at camera left. Another DigiBee DB800 with a Paul C Buff 18-OMNI Reflector attached, softened by a triple-layer Diffusion Sock, was placed at camera left and near the back corner of the studio. The lights were synced using a pair of Pocket Wizard PlusX flash triggers.
The camera used was a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with a Lumix G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens (at 23mm) with an exposure of 1/125 sec at f/11 and ISO 200. The background was a hand painted Carbonite muslin from Silverlake Photo Accessories. This is a full-frame (18 x 13.5 mm) image of the RAW file that was captured by the camera. The RAW file was lightly retouched, color balanced tweaked with PictoColor iCorrect Portrait and layered with the Glamour Glow filter from Color Efex to produce what you see here.
If you’re interested in learning how I shoot portraits and use cameras, lenses and lighting in my in-home studio and on location, please pick up a copy of Studio Lighting Anywhere that’s available new from Amazon.com for $24.48 or starting around thirteen bucks used, as I write this. The Kindle version is $19.99 for those preferring a digital format.
Here’s a special offer for a limited time (this month) only: The next reader who signs up for a Supporter or VIP membership account on my Patreon will receive a free, signed copy of my book Posing for Portrait & Glamour Photography.