Archives For studio

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From Living Room to Studio – Here’s How We Do It

Varina Patel —  September 13, 2012

We don’t do a whole lot of studio photography – but it’s great having a studio in our home so that we have the freedom to shoot whatever and whenever we choose! I recently mentioned our studio setup on Google+, and I ended up with an inbox full of emails requesting photos of our photography workspace. So, I’ll give you one better. Here’s a video showing how it all comes together.

Almost everything in our studio is built or made from scratch. It’s not necessary to spend a fortune to build a simple studio. A large roll of paper hangs above the window. We hung it with two hooks, a couple of carabiners (generally used for climbing), and a hollow metal pipe (more often used for plumbing). When it’s rolled up, nobody notices it. More hooks hold the large black curtains – which are made from sheets of heavy fabric. When they aren’t in use, they are neatly rolled up and hidden away in the closet. The floor panels are just sheets of thick plywood – with two shiny wallboard panels on top. They spend their down time in the basement – stacked against a wall and out of the way. It’s an incredibly simple solution for us – and it only take a few minutes to set it all up.

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Portrait Photography – Baby Lucas

Varina Patel —  August 7, 2012

Portrait photography is fun – and photographing babies is the best. Check out this cutie! I photographed Lucas (and his big brother, Dylan) in my living room/studio. We have a very simple home studio that tears down so that our living room can return to normal. A roll of paper hung from the ceiling that nobody notices when it’s rolled up… shiny, white panels for the floor that are stacked in the basement when we aren’t using them… black curtains that hang from hooks and get rolled up and stored at the back of the coat closet… and flash units, umbrellas, and stands that disappear into a nice little trunk in the corner when I don’t need them. Our furniture is easy to move aside, and the room is wide open with lots of windows for natural lighting – and blinds that close easily for when I don’t want natural light. The whole setup is very simple and it takes me about ten minutes to get the whole thing ready.

We’ve used this setup for thousands of photo shoots – everything from portraits to stock to product photography.

So – what about you? How do you set up for indoor photography? Do you have a studio in your home? Do you drape a sheet and use natural light from a window? Do you just grab a camera and to heck with the light or the background?

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