Building a Custom Home Studio

 

Nothing is better than having your own studio.

Recently, I had a conversation with a very talented Photographer who shares my interest in Flower Photography.

During the course of our conversation, I learned  that she had a Custom Home Studio, very similar to mine.

If you love Photography, you owe it to yourself to invest in a home studio.

It IS money well spent.

Before I show you my home studio, I would like to share some of the work I have created there.

I love what I can create in my studio.

I am only limited by the amount of time I want to spend, and my imagination.

Having a home studio does give you the opportunity to get your shot just right, and you can shoot no matter what the weather outside is like.

 

Now, let’s take a look at my Home studio, and I will introduce you to my studio assistant.

 

 

 

Yes, I do have an assistant.

An assistant is someone who gets in your way constantly, and messes up your shot, right?

However, this IS my Home Studio.

A chair……. it’s really nice chair though.



Seriously, you can get some great finished works with very little investment and minimal set up time.

This is what makes up most of my home studio.

 

1. White fold out presentation board.
2. White Foam Poster board .
3.  (2) Black Foam Poster boards
4. Rattan … thing I got at a garage sale.

Total cost – $4.50

The tricks?

There really aren’t many.  Just set it up and shoot.

 

Watch your camera angles, and check for shadows.  Often using lower numbered f-stops is the way to go to narrow your depth of field.

When shooting with the rattan thing, I often go with a very narrow depth of field and just let whatever is in the background form innocuous shapes.

In post production, you clone out the corners and either lighten or darken as needed.  Adding texture layers is also a great was to jazz things up a bit

 

Oh, … yeah,  what about White Balance?  I’m always talking about White Balance.

You still do one.  In this case I often use the White board as a WB reference image.

Depending on the available light I have, sometimes the reference images can be a bit odd.

Other times, I have used a close up of a leaf  or petal when I’m shooting flowers.

 

Because my set up is easily moved, I can locate by windows for high key images like this.  This was shot right by a window on a very sunny day.

 

On the other hand, I can make the most of a darker area by simply going for a very long exposure.

This was a 2 minute exposure at f 8.0 and only worked because I had my “assistant” go in the other room.

One more, this was was a set of 3 exposures used to make an Infrared HDR.

 

I am constantly amazed by some of the interesting items that can be used to create studio quality images.

I’ve seen many photographers get great looks using ceramic tiles.  Just be mindful of the reflective quality of the tile.

The main point here is you can get a “pro” studio look without having to spend a fortune.

So, give it a try and if you find something that works well, let me know.