The Advantages of a Home Studio

It’s “Tricky Tuesday,” a way for me to share some of the tricks, tools and techniques I’ve used over the years when shooting studio portraits. Today’s post features Erin Valakari aka Vala the Artist at her sexiest best.

Today’s Post by Joe Farace

Home is the nicest word there is.–Laura Ingalls Wilder

Like Noah, I’ve long since bounced back from a basement flood that submerged my home studio in four-inches of water, while also creating problems in the adjacent family room and an area where my LEGO City layout now sits. All of the rooms that were affected have been repaired and slightly upgraded/updated, including a bathroom that serves as my model’s dressing room.

Home On The Range…

Recently a reader sent me an email saying, “I like that you have a home studio. I do also. That is an area that seems frowned upon by a good many ‘pro’ photographers. I don’t believe a rented studio downtown (lets you) make any better shots than a home studio. The end result is all that is important. I have been made to feel shamed from time to time because of equipment choices and my home studio.”

Much like this reader, I’ve had hotshot photographers look down their noses at my tiny 11×15-foot home studio. Sure, it’s small when compared to most rental studios but it is better than what was available in my former home and so I take heart with this small improvement.

How I made this portrait: The image of Erin Valakari, was made in my home studio using the lighting setup (partially) shown above right with me use of a HexOval 100 Plume Wafer (37.5 x 27.5 by 12 inches deep) that was placed at camera right.A Westcott Scrim Jim Cine covered in Sunlight/Silver Bounce Fabric was located at camera left. It’s basically a single light portrait, with maybe wraparound lighting? The hand-painted muslin backdrop was from Silverlake Photo Accessories and is hanging from JTL background stands. The camera used was a Panasonic Lumix GH4 with Lumix G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens at 38mm (equivalent of 78mm) with an exposure of 1/80 sec at f/8 and ISO 200.

I like having an-home studio for several reasons:

• One, if you have the space in your home repurposing part of it as a studio is cheaper than a rental studio and the more you use it the more money you save.
• Two, unless you live next door to a rental studio, it’s more convenient. These days the nearest rental studio to me is about a 15 miles away.
• Three, it saves time. When shooting at a rental studio, I have to pack my gear into my car, unload it at the rental studio, set it up and then knock it down and go through the same process in reverse to schlep it home and…
• Four, set up time it zero. In my home studio I leave the gear set up and when the subject arrives we’re ready to shoot.

After the flood I wanted to install an engineered hardwood floor in the studio but because none of the damage was covered by insurance, all upgrades were modest. The carpeting was removed, reinstalled with all-new padding and then cleaned and disinfected. New baseboards were installed all round the room. I don’t like having carpet in the shooting space but until my ship comes in, I’ll use what I have.The walls are no longer white. They are Sherwin Williams Lazy Grey, a tone somewhere between Zone VI and VII on Ansel Adam’s Zone System. The inside of a storage closet was painted too; Mary insisted. While I helped with the painting (I’m a supremely messy painter) Mary did all the hard work.

Held over from the previous setup are pegboard, now painted grey, on the side camera left wall that holds various implements of destruction hanging on hooks. Also remaining is Savage’s Air Flow Tech Table Essentials Kit, which I consider indispensable in a small studio.

As part of the cleanup, I’ve been going through my gear closet selling equipment I haven’t used in a while. In doing this I standardized on using monolights from Paul C Buff, including one Alien Bees 800 and two DigiBee 800 monolights. Mary bought me that second (blue) DigiBee 800 as a birthday gift. As I continue to work in the studio, I’ll be posting some updates on any changes or upgrades along with some example photos.

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