Equipment for Home Photography Studio

[mapinchinat]

Hello All,

I'm looking to set up a photography studio in my home and I was hoping for some advice on what equipment to purchase. I'm looking to get a:

1) Heavy Duty Backdrop stand ($300 limit). It would be nice to not have to add weights to the base to keep the stand sturdy.

2) Heavy Duty light stand ($200/ea. limit)

3) Strobe ($900/ea. limit)

4) Softbox ($100/ea. limit)

Your advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks...

 

[ac12]

If you can put the backdrop onto the wall, then you don't have the issue with the stand.

Get an air-cushion light stand. That way if you accidentally release the lock, it won't come crashing straight down, possibly breaking the flash.

Determine HOW you are going to trigger the flash/strobe, optical or RF.

The SPACE you have and the HEIGHT will affect your selection of light modifiers.

Adjustable posing stools.

How many lights will you use?
Determine the power requirements of the strobes. Will you have to have an electrician put in another circuit.

Make-up table and mirror.
Changing screen or room.

A LOT more that I have not thought of.
Look for a book on home studio.

 

[ClintLloyd]

Get an air-cushion light stand. That way if you accidentally release the lock, it won't come crashing straight down, possibly breaking the flash.

This is one of those things which absolutely makes your life better! At around the US$200 mark I think almost all of them will be air cushioned too.

 

[Dale H. Cook]

What you buy depends upon how you are using it. My home studio is a tabletop studio used to photograph vintage electronics which I have collected. My backdrop is a two-sided gray collapsible backdrop with stand. Because it has a spring frame it does not need weights. It is a Savage purchased at my local camera shop:

Savage Collapsible Backdrops

My LED softboxes are collapsible, come with stands, and are also Savage, purchased at my local camera shop. They appear to now be discontinued, but were similar to these except that their only color is daylight (of adjustable intensity):

Savage RGB Portrait Kit

My table is a Black and Decker Workmate 200 which folds up. I purchased sections of cloth at a local fabric store which are good matches to the two colors of gray on the backdrop, and are used to drape the Workmate.

My studio is simple and fairly inexpensive but it suits my needs. It has a major advantage for me in that it can be packed up and stored in a fairly small space.

 

[smoke665]

As mentioned above: 1) what you intend to shoot and 2) the space you have to work with, is what determines your best equipment choice. I have a dining area roughly 10x10 with 8' ceiling that I setup for table top work. Gives me room for a couple lights with smaller modifiers around the table and the ability to move around without tripping over stuff.

My studio is 18x25 with 10' ceiling. My backdrops are mounted on rollers overhead. The space is sufficient for full length shots of one to two people. In studio my go to key light modifier is a 72" brolley w/diffusion, that's something that would be out of the question with an 8' ceiling. My space works for what I mostly do, but there's still times when I long for bigger.

 

[JoeW]

Hello All,

I'm looking to set up a photography studio in my home and I was hoping for some advice on what equipment to purchase. I'm looking to get a:

1) Heavy Duty Backdrop stand ($300 limit). It would be nice to not have to add weights to the base to keep the stand sturdy.

2) Heavy Duty light stand ($200/ea. limit)

3) Strobe ($900/ea. limit)

4) Softbox ($100/ea. limit)

Your advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks...

1. What type of photography? A good studio for boudoir will be different from a good studio for pet photography which will be different from a good studio for youth sports teams which will be different from HS Graduation shots which will be different from food photography. The needs, props, and backdrops will be different for each of these.

2. Look at tax and business registration issues. Most localities will require you to get a business license and there may be restrictions on home businesses in some areas. How is your parking situation?

3. Depending upon the type of photography you're doing you may need: a makeup station, a changing room, or a waiting room (where a parent or escort or friend might wait and not make the person you're shooting feel self-conscious. You say "but I've got a house--it's got a bathroom, a living room, etc." Right, do you want to have a total stranger with access to your house while you're in the basement shooting someone?

4. See if you can mount brackets in the ceiling instead of using a backdrop stand. That way you can mount 2-4 rolls of backdrop paper--switching backdrops is so easy that way. And you could even throw a cloth/fabric backdrop over one of the rolls of seamless paper.

5. Depending upon what you're shooting and your experience level, you may want to consider continuous lighting (LEDs) rather than strobes.

6. The type of photography you're going to do will influence the pricing of the products you're looking at. For instance, if you're shooting models of any kind, I recommend a giant 7 foot by 7 foot soft box as a background--very soft light that wraps around the person and makes everyone look thinner.

7. The space matters a lot. I like to shoot portraits with an 85mm prime lens. That requires some space in order to shoot a full-figure shot. Additionally, I often bounce light off of surfaces--so a flat white ceiling and walls with no possible hot spots is important.