Light set up was - Main light was 500 w elinchrom with a 52 inch Octa Box to her right 1.5 meters away, background light was a 500 w elinchrom with a 20 degree honey comb.
My space is 10 x 15 ft (3 x 4.5 m) with 8 ft (2.4 m) ceilings. This is way too small to shoot human beings, but I do OK with headshots. Maybe I should sell passport photos. The shot of the blonde is about as close to a full body shot as I can manage.
I try to shoot as close to 85 mm (35 mm equivalent) as possible at F7.6.
The really sad thing is I own a 20% interest in a small warehouse but it's hundreds of miles away from me. It's got plenty of available room for any kind of studio I could afford. The ceiling is basically unlimited, it's air conditioned, and it's got a nice kitchen/bathroom area that is perfect for changing and makeup. I need to convince my wife that we should move.
My space is 10 x 15 ft (3 x 4.5 m) with 8 ft (2.4 m) ceilings. This is way too small to shoot human beings, but I do OK with headshots. Maybe I should sell passport photos. The shot of the blonde is about as close to a full body shot as I can manage.
I try to shoot as close to 85 mm (35 mm equivalent) as possible at F7.6.
The really sad thing is I own a 20% interest in a small warehouse but it's hundreds of miles away from me. It's got plenty of available room for any kind of studio I could afford. The ceiling is basically unlimited, it's air conditioned, and it's got a nice kitchen/bathroom area that is perfect for changing and makeup. I need to convince my wife that we should move.
The warehouse is in southwest Virginia so the chances of you or anyone living near it are very slim. I couldn't really rent it to anyone anyway because the building is in use for my business and although there is plenty of empty space available, there's no good way to partition the space. I'd have to add another entrance etc.
bandsaw wrote: wow what do you pay for a place like that?
That space is great! If you are single you could have shared it with another photographer or artist. I would have taken that place and found a roommate in a heartbeat. A space like that shared with the right mix of people could be GREAT! Good luck with your search. I went through the same thing last year and found nothing I could afford that I liked and couldn't find roommates to share it with either.
Tom: I think you have done quite well with the space constraints!
My space is sorta weird -- I have a dining room that is 11x10 that opens up into a large family room.............that has an immovable tournament size pool table! I can setup a camera on a tripod on the table and get about another 7 feet.
The other option is the garage, where I have about 18ft in width, and can put the camera as much as 22ft back from the backdrops... then nowhere to put 3 cars!
After 65 pages long thread and many hours of reading only can I say is whew!
When I found this thread was a 11 pages long 'baby' who transformed into a 65pages behemoth. Needless to say this thread put me into a the road for a pair of AB400's who I enjoyed for more than a month. Now I'm going for another pair of AB800 and some accy's from AB.
Is really addictive start shooting with studio lights. From the next second you pressed the fire button, you're lost without remedy. Now I'm managing to rent a place much suitable than the one I have. So... if you, innocent reader are you trying to continue reading... let me say you're lost...
This is a fantastic thread. I haven't had time to read through the entire thing, but it's been inspiring just to browse through and look at the different studios. It's interesting to see how people are making do with the space they have available. I'm still putting my home studio together but will try to post a shot when it's done. Fred should make this thread a sticky at the top of the stack.
J.A.F. That's a pretty nice setup you have there where you can switch your shooting direction and have backgrounds available on the different walls. Great idea.
Well let's put some life in this thread.
We are rebuilding at the moment so stay tuned for pictures.
This is the original setup.
2 stages with each 3 rols op paper.
New setup will be concentrated on one stage on the darkwalls left on the picture above.
The whole area will be made white and the carpet on the floor will be removed.
Today we removed the carpet and allready painted the large area arround 6x5.5 mtrs white for the first time.
here are the pictures without the paint.
The whole studio will be painted white and the new setup, a ceiling mount for 10 roles of paper, will be mounted on the wall with the 2 colors (see top picture) at the same location as now the 2 empty 3rol holders.
To make a nice transition between the wall and floor we will be using some paper and tape (which will be painted white) untill we figure out something better.
I don't have a studio or any big strobes--I really wish I did. :P
I do all of my product lighting with a 550ex, a homemade softbox, and some foamcore reflectors. Most of the time I'll turn off the lights in a room, hold open the shutter on my camera on bulb, and then walk around the subject and pop off some flashes. It takes a lot of time.
I just recently took some pictures of a double bass for my friend with this technique. Here's what came out:
Jimmy, you are to be commended for finding a way to make it happen. It only proves the point that it's not about how much gear you have but how you use the gear. Great Work.