Looks like you'll have a great studio! I'm not sure about the paint. However, I know a photographer locally who painted his walls 18% gray and he really liked it. Seemed to really help control bounce light. My studio walls are white and I don't have any problems controlling light.
-Chris
To the right is my wife's coffee shop, and to the left is my photo studio:
[url]www.nemoscoffeeshop.blogspot.com[/url]
Thanks,
JD
Take my advice build the coffe shop first, your going to need a drink after building that lot
Checked your blog, nice one, I will had your brother to my prayer list, Godbless all the peacekeepers around the world, who are walking the wall for all of us.
Bob
I painted my walls with Benjamin Moore's "Stonington Gray" in a flat latex. I find it generally okay, but I installed a heavy BLACK fabric on rails attached to the ceiling using hospital exam room track. I go the black fabric from a supplier that John Eckerd recommended and found it to be excellent. I took the fabric to an upholstery shop and they put in the hems and cut it to the sizes that I needed. I bought a gromet maker and punched the holes in the fabric.
I pull the fabric panels out when I need to really control the light, say when photographing paintings and for low key human subjects.
It was nice while it lasted. And I appreciate everyone who contributed. But, it seems to have gotten to the point where people are keeping this thread going just to keep it going. Maybe it's past time for this thread to die a natural death. But, if it does go to the archives in the great beyond, I hope people will continue to post photos of their studios.
Ok, I have been lurking long enough now. Here are a few shots of my wife's new ring. If everyone else will start posting again, I promise to make some shots of my little rig and some product photos that I do for my clients.
This is the original photo. Ring is scotch-tapped to the bottom of the Bowens cocoon (clever eh?). I have a Bowens Trilite on the left and right of the cocoon. Usually I use one Alien Bee 400 behind the cocoon to completely knock out the background, but it was doing funny things to the color of the band, so I decided to go for some post-op in photoshop to correct my shortcomings with the lighting. (my skills in this order: design, production, photography)
I put a copy of the original on a layer, used burn/dodge to get the reflection right and painted a drop shadow under the ring, but on top of the reflection. A little rubber-stamping to hide the hard edge of the tape.
And finally we give some high contrast to the diamond. I am sure there are many of you who could have gotten this shot right out of the camera, so any advice is welcomed. I did my part to keep this alive, now let's see some shots so I can go back to lurking.
Not another shameless bump, I am turning on Email Notification. Did not see a way to do this without a reply. (Check out the rings I just posted on the last page)
Edited by Dan Finney on Mar 20, 2007 at 03:09 PM GMT
Dan Finney wrote:
Not another shameless bump, I am turning on Email Notification. Did not see a way to do this without a reply. (Check out the rings I just posted on the last page)
No problem with keeping this thing alive, but how about you show us the studio where you took the photos. And welcome to the board!
Yeah, I wasn't planning on posting those, but when I saw one of my favorite boards about to die, I had to do something. If I had thought about posting them here, I would have taken some setup shots.
I have a photoshoot coming this week. Maybe then. And thanks for welcoming me to the board!
This thread has been extremely informative for me. I finally got around to putting together a very small space in my basement. With a little more help from Chuck Gardner's site here is what I came up with.
http://www.pbase.com/csidd/image/75282515.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/csidd/image/75282517.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/csidd/image/75282519.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/csidd/image/75282521.jpg
As you can see the ceiling is low and space is quite limited. Unfortunately trying to get my kids to sit is like pulling teeth but the small confines are fine for head shots of them.
My background is white muslin purchased from Wal-Mart. I cut it to size and folded the top down about 4 inches and used hemming tape to make a pass through. I did the same to the bottom and slid 1/2" pvc through so it would hang fairly straight. The pvc through the bottom adds weight. I just use cheap spring clamps to hang it from the drop ceiling.
My reflector stand is just a light stand that I added a piece of 1" x 1" to and clamp it to either side. I picked up the 36" x 48" reflector from Amvona's ebay store for $27.00 (good deal I thought).
My lights are 3 Vivitar 285HV's I picked up from ebay really cheap. I also picked up 3 Quantum 1 packs cheap. I use a cheap radio trigger with recievers to fire the flashes. The key light is firing into a cheap Amvona umbrelsoft. The only issue I have with it is that I have to clone out the shadow from the light stand in the catch lights.
Behind the step ladder is a 285 with a foamcore reflector I use to blow out the backround.
The picture of the 285 is to show how I mount the flash heads on light stands. I picked this tip up from Chucks site. I epoxied a 3/8" t-nut to the back of the flash and screw it on to the 3/8" stud on the umbrella adapter. Rock solid and no worries about breaking the weak plastic flash foot, thanks Chuck, brilliant.
Thought some of you studio beginners like me would like to see a cheap setup to learn lighting. This setup is also very portable and completely wireless. The Quantums provide a good amount of flash per charge.
Eventually I will pick up an AB 800 but this will keep me busy in the mean time. Thanks for all who have contributed before me, very educational.
Not sure why the pictures are not embedded. If you click on the it will take you to the link.
