Studio @ Home - Intro

Welcome to Studio @ Home.

Photography Studio @ HomeAfter three years and some change that this site is running I am getting a lot of feedback that makes me think that some order is needed.

True, over the last few years we've covered almost any aspect of home photography on a budget going through backdrops, light modifiers, and camera tweaks that will make your life easier when going on this long journey of getting a home studio. However, all the info was scattered all over wisely spread across the time line.

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NEXT- What Does It Take?

What Is This All About?

Studio@Home is designed to create an online resource for amateurs and pro's alike. I will try my best to share all that I have learned during the time I've been taking pictures at home, including the three years DIYP runs.

We'll start small with very little gear required (none other than camera and some stuff found at home, actually) and slowly grow to a full-fledged home brewed studio. 

We'll cover things like space, backdrops and lighting - going from simple and super cheap to more complex setups which cost more. In fact I'll run through some of the topics twice: once with the idea of a small product shot studio in mind and a second time targeting a full sized studio, equipped for shooting portraits or big items. Not to fear, you will never need to take a mortgage to accomplish any of the projects in this series.

I'll try to keep a weekly posting schedule on Wednesdays.

It Will Be A Collaborative Project

I am sure some of the ideas in this series will be familiar to some of you. I am also positive that some may have done similar projects in a better way than the one I will describe, or that have ideas to improve a setup.

To get the most out of Studio @ Home, I encourage you to ask questions, share, upload images to the Flickr pool and be an active participant. Obtaining critical mass will make this project bigger than the sum of its parts.

There will also be assignments. Once a subject is covered, we'll have an assignment to build (and by build I mean spend a few minutes with paper and scissors) practice and shoot with our new creation. Submission will be free and will be made via the DIYP Flickr group. If you do not have a Flickr account you can register now, it is free. If you already have a Flickr account you will need to join DIYP group to submit your stuff.

The way of the world is that photography studio has quite a bit to do with light and physics, I'll be referring to several resources:

Light Science and Magic - the best lighting book ever written (get it here)

Strobist.com - The best lighting site ever constructed (it is all free here).

Wikipedia - the best online encyclopedia ever written by the human race (made by you, here)

What Does It Take To Participate?

Not a lot actually. First, you will need to want to take better pictures with really frugal limited budget. Then you will need a camera. That's about it. Almost all the other stuff is either already at your home or can be bought at the local office supplies, art, or hardware store.

And most importantly, you need to want to have fun. Here we go.

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Comments

Fun!

Sounds really cool!

Great idea !

I had a similar idea a few weeks ago: I intended to gather every good DIY ideas into a kind of guide but never found enough time to do this :-/

I also wanted to translate those into french, because lots of people just don't speak english ...

Perfect Timing

My wife and I are building a house, and one room will be a studio / office. I hope :)

Strobist is the best complement !

Just a word to say that strobist is the best complement to diyphotography :)

The Lightning 101 courses are great, I've read it on about 2 hours.. And It is also in french, and some others languages :)

Bonjour de France !!

re: studio @ home

@ Anon & Josss - Thanks, hey, this is what I'm here for. This is going to be a great ride.

@ Gary Thom - I am building a house as well now. I got my wife "tricked" into having a studio in the basement. SO I thought this would be the perfect time to get all the ideas together.

@ Ludovic  - I love the Strobist. I learned so much from that site. As you may imagine, I am a Strobist at heart and follow the theme :). However David focuses mainly on light which he does extremely well. We'll get to lighting as well on this series, but from a different angle (pan not intended). Translation is not a bad option at all once we get all of this together.

Great

I've been using tips from both DIYP and strobist, but a nice step-by-step guide to finish with a DIY home studio. Looking forward to the first installment!

Finally a single location for home studio info!

It is awesome that you're working on this. You are correct in that information for setting up a home studio is scattered...finally having a nice one stop shop for home studio information will be of great benefit. I am really looking forward to the results!

Great Idea!

I'm really psyched about this! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

YAY

Sounds super cool. Looking forward to this :D

re: single location

@Alesa Dam & Ariston - Well, that is the general idea. While lots of info is already on DIYP it is not organized. Having a step by step guide will be a great way to focus.

re: studio @ home

I stumbled upon this post while reading other DIY tips. I look forward to seeing what tips are offered. As I will be serving in Afghanistan I am very interested to develope a studio "on the go" that I won't mind terribly having to leave behind when I am done. I will be especially interested to read any posts that optimize minimal floor space.

re: tips

Hi Rob,

I salute you. And wish you a safe service.

I guess the most challenging aspect will be light and lighting - those are hard to leave behind. You wouldn't want to leave strobes behind.

I'll be covering some "floor space" aspects on the next post, which (originally enough) is called space. Stay tuned.

When and where?

When and where does this start? It sounds *awesome* and would love to join!

re: When and where?

Just started. I'll be rolling them out on a weekly basis on Wednesdays.

The first one was a huge talk, we'll get more practical with the next posts.

Backdrop support

For a quick portable and collapsable backdrop support I use my projector screen left over from the slide days. i just set it up and either use the screen itself or drape a piece of black cloth over it. A couple of clothespin type clamps hold the cloth in place.

I'm In

You can count me in!

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