How to turn a small home studio into a concert stage

If we’re shooting in a small home studio, it can be a challenge to make images that look new and interesting. You often shoot the same images over and over because you’re limited on space. But there is hope! In this video, Gavin Hoey simulates what he says is a small pub stage, but I’ve seen similar shots to these from huge gigs in the past, too.

Gavin sets the stage, if you’ll pardon the pun, using Godox AD200 strobes, V850II speedlights and a fog machine. He starts by blacking out the walls, and then using a lot of careful lighting and some fast dissipating fog in the fog machine. Gavin’s shown us his fog machine and the different types of fluids you can get for it before.

The fog machine makes a massive difference to how the images look, even with just a single light. But Gavin builds up the shot one light at a time, explaining the reasoning for each light and modifier, until he achieves each of his final looks.

We also see some of Gavin’s post workflow. How he cleans up some of the issues of working in such a small space – like seeing the light stands and the edges of his black background due to light falling on them.

There’s a lot you can do with a small space. It just sometimes takes a little creative thinking.