I have been in awe of most of the studio setups I have seen in this thread. So now I will add to the collection my ghetto fabulous studio setup for poor people with expensive hobbies. Believe it or not, this is actually a huge upgrade from what I had been shooting with. :-)
Tricia, your "ghetto" setup has a whole lot more going for it than my tiny "studio" which is actually my crowded little living room. Maybe I'll snap a few shots of my space next weekend so you can see how good you've really got it!
alright, my turn - finally:
after i have lurked around this most valuable thread for the longest time (and consecutively changed my planned setup in my living room) i am ready:
got strobes over the last months, got myself a ceiling rail system, rearranged my living room, mounted everything (detachable), and finally yesterday had a good friend visiting - my very very first "model" session!
BTW: thanks to every contributor so far!
below now the overview pic: the white ladder stands ithere in the middle in place of the model. left top: hairlight w/ minispot, right top: bg light with homemade honeycomb grid & NDs - both EL500s.
left to ladder/model: photoflex multidome medium on a ceiling extension, right: elinchrom recta 170*75 cm on a boom stand.
bottom left: styrofoam/foamcore reflectors, bottom right: addtl. BG muslins.
front right, in shadow: treadmill, tilted up ;-) - pls ignore.
railsystem is mounted on two beams - can be taken down and stored in 10 mintues.
ceiling heighth is approx. 11 ft (old building)
http://www.roalds.com/images/studio_setup.jpg
and here are some samples from my "studio premiere":
overall i am rather pleased - however i am aware of dozens of little things & issues and faults i newbie overlooked during the shoot - i.e. hairlight's separation & pop effect "disappeared" due to not readjusting lamp to different pose, awkwardly looking body parts like the shoulder blades & arms in sample 4, etc.
but that will surely improve with experience.
one great little gimmick i got the day of the shoot was an elinchrom radio transmitter off ebay: makes "shooting life" i.e. on the ladder so much more easier compared to a 15 ft release cable... ;-)
WOW! Just got finished with this thread finally after a few drinks of some good 'ol southern sweet tea to keep me awake. One word in response to it all:
AWESOME!
John E. Thanks for all of your informative responses and incredibly inspiring photos! I hope one day to produce some great looking pieces myself. To everyone else absolutely great. Just absolutely great. This thread has been ore informative than the Lighting Cookbook ever was in ways. I had another thread asking about what lighting setup to buy with AB's and now after reading all of this I pretty much have a set idea now solid finally as to what would be needed to serve my needs. I hope the thread doesn't die soon. And I hope that others (including myself if I remember) post their studios after they get them setup and show the results as they are really helpful to those of us who are starting out.
and here are some samples from my "studio premiere":
overall i am rather pleased - however i am aware of dozens of little things & issues and faults i newbie overlooked during the shoot - i.e. hairlight's separation & pop effect "disappeared" due to not readjusting lamp to different pose, awkwardly looking body parts like the shoulder blades & arms in sample 4, etc.
but that will surely improve with experience.
I like them, and when it comes to composed shots.....I am terrible. That is why I came here. My "real" studio is the world as I do mostly photojournalism. Last weekend I had to jostle with seven other newspaper photographers to get a shot of a controversial wedding. I also had to get a shot cropped and such from a split second opportunity given to me by a participant of a protest march. Here, check this out:
The sword she is carrying reflects off here face and such.....but I like this shot and was an ironic lead photo to one of my stories and will appear in our little paper in a few weeks. In this realm you have to make do with what you have; but in studio you are responsible for everything it seems and this makes you a better photographer technically.....that is why I am here.
So its been a few months since I updated on my setup to you all in this fabulous thread!
I want to thank you all again, this is probably the best thread of any forum ever that I have read and participated in.
It helped me all the way from my strobe purchase and accessory selections to converting my garage into a studio and even a little with my first lighting and model shoots. I don't think any book can bost that.
Well, here is what it looks like now, I broke down and am using more space now, hard not to really.
I have had some models in so some samples are posted below from my first 4 shoots. Go easy on me, I am still learning!
I think this is the longest thread in the lighting & studio forum, however, overall the feedback thread in the buy & sell forum is 930+ pages now and has been effect for almost 18 months now.
Anyway, to stay on topic, this thread has been very helpful and maybe if I get a big enough space, I'll be able to post my own studio pictures one of these days. Keep up the good work everyone.
Ok.....I will fess up and show you my lighting and the resultant pics that were used in an album I am just about to release. The reason I did not post it in my initial showing of our studio was because it was based on lighting errors and should not be copied.....
This was the basic setup for the shoot, though I gave up on the flashes and just used pot and tung/halo continuous lighting:
Here is one uncropped photo of Dave being shot by me. I let the guy sing and play the guitar and just shot him like crazy hoping for a good shot. I mixed the tung/halo with the white light bulbs (i.e. the blue Photofloods) which should be a major mistake.....but the artist picked the photos anyway and we went with the unorthodox lighted pics.....
The back will look like this (no before picture as it was only a slight crop on the bottom):
I did not rely on a carefully prepared setup; I simply rolled the dice and shot like crazy and tried to get something the artist would like. We are a very small and poor media company so I had to do this myself or I would have had a pro do it. That is one of the reasons I am here guys.....
Oh - and I will throw in some personal reality in here guys. The artist you see below is a rock and roll artist with pre-existing material I have the rights to, and I am on the verge of releasing. I get to use this professional photo from that era ( 1980s to 1990s ) as the cover:
I needed a more modern photo for general promotion, so this lead singer/guitarist - Dan; was supposed to show up at my studio for pictures. We had a power failure and the whole thing was cancelled. Plus if you deal with real rock and roll guys.....well.....they are not the most reliable. So I had to barge in on him the next day at his house and take these pictures. This is just a quicke for my website, not a careful crop, but this series will have to do if I have to pull up a picture for someone.....
