Simple Home Studio

[Pictures will be added soon]

Are you interested in a home studio, but don’t have much money to spend on expensive lights/flashes, reflectors and so on? Here are a few ideas for your own small home-studio to experient with things!

Setting up a simple home lighting studio does not need to be a difficult or expensive task.
Depending on the size of what you will be photographing, it can be as basic as having one or more halogen desk lamps, a large sheet of white paper or poster board, some books or some way to prop up the background and a tripod or even a beanbag for steadying your camera. (see also: Lighting podcast (show 57)).

Gather several desk lamps and take a large sheet of white paper or poster board and prop it up, creating a curved cove on which you can place the object you want to photograph (in the case of a small item.)

Position the first light to the side of the subject, and an additional light above and behind the subject to create highlights.
You may also need to use something additional to reflect light back onto the subject, and this can be done using various types of reflectors such as a sheet of styrofoam or even a folding visor available from an auto parts store, or make use of a nearby white wall to reflect light.

Because of the color temperature of the desk lamps, it is important to experiment and do a white balance, as their color tends to be yellow.

For larger subjects, another inexpensive lighting option would be purchasing stand mounted quartz halogen lights from a home improvement store, available in various wattage strengths.

But: You will need to remove the metal cages on the fronts of these lights, as they will cast a grid shadow on your subject!

For larger backgrounds you may wish to use a sheet or purchase muslin fabric, and instead of a stand, use gaffer’s tape to attach to a nearby wall, as it will not leave a residue when removed.

If possible, position your subject so that light from a north facing window can be used in lighting them. When using your hotshoe camera flash, be sure to bouce it off a white ceiling (or prepare some sheet of paper if you don’t have a white ceiling.)

• Lighting podcast (show 57)