How to create a DIY circus setup in your tiny home studio

I believe that all of us would connect circus with a giant tent. However, with some imagination and DIY magic you can turn even the smallest home studio into a circus. In this video from Adorama, Gavin Hoey will show you how to bring circus into your studio space, no matter how small it may be.

Gavin starts with the background, which, you’ll agree, should definitely be striped. You can find fabric with red and white stripes, or invest some time into painting red stripes onto a sheet of white fabric. But if you only need this occasionally – you can get a sheet of red and a sheet of white fabric, cut both into thin strips and hang them on the wall when you need to shoot.

As for the model, you should choose an actor or simply a model who can really get in the role. I like Gavin’s model Brian because he is very expressive and interesting, as you can see in the video.

Now that you have the background and the model, you need a suit and props. You are most likely to find a suit like this in a costume hire store. A local dollar store could be a good choice for props, depending on what exactly you need. And of course, Amazon is also a good place to look for suits and props.

In this video, Gavin also guides you through the lighting setup, building it step by step. For the key light he uses a Godox AD200 paired with Glow ParaPop 28″ softbox. He adds two more bare Godox AD200 strobes behind the model to create some flare and a kind of theatrical look. He adds a blue and a red gel to the background lights, which creates more of the colorful, circus-like atmosphere. And finally, there’s some smoke, too.

After shooting comes, of course, the editing. In the video above you can even follow the editing process for one of the photos if you need some inspiration. But Gavin also shares a bonus video for creating another version of the circus-themed setup.

This time, there are no key light or colored backlights. The light is more theatrical and it looks like Brian is standing under a spotlight. To achieve this effect, Gavin uses a Light Blaster and projects a circle of light onto his model. The effect is very dramatic, and Gavin adds a little bit of ambient light by adding a Godox AD200 with a softbox set on very low power. Check out this setup in the video below.