Before you get started in building your home studio, you have to first identify the room in your house that you will be using for your studio. Ideally choose a room which is not being used. Make sure that the room is big enough to accommodate photography and lighting equipment. Think of it as an office where you can work and focus on your photography. It would be ideal if you can have the computer that you use for storing your photos on, as well as post processing set up in that room. It would be more convenient to be able to immediately transfer files to your computer from your camera after each photo shoot, instead of having to run back to your bedroom from your home studio just to transfer and work on your photos. You will definitely be able to save yourself a lot of running back and forth when you have your computer set up in your home studio.
Once things get going with your home studio you can also start decorating, perhaps get a couch and a coffee table, so that you can also entertain guests and clients. To add a personal touch, you can also decorate your home studio with your past works and photographs. Make sure to choose the best and have them framed, these will be great conversation pieces and will also a good opportunity for you to show your talent to guests and clients.
After choosing your room and thinking about some of the interior design elements, you need to consider how the room will function as a photography studio. You can do that by blacking out any light coming from the outside (if you decide on having a blacked out studio). You can use black garbage bags to cover the windows, no need to spend money on anything expensive, as long as it gets the job done and covers the light from the windows, then you are good to go.
Get a white backdrop (fabric or paper) and place it at the back of the room, make sure that it runs from the ceiling to the floor and try to get a white backdrop that does not have any creases in it. You can then place your lighting equipment in front of your white backdrop and you can start experimenting with effects, and start shooting! If you are financially able, there are backdrop stands with either paper or fabric that can be ordered at fairly reasonable prices online.
One of the decisions you have to make while setting up your home photography studio is whether you would want to work with continuous lighting, or flash heads. Like everything else, there is always an advantage and disadvantage to both; it really boils down to how you will make the most of it.
Continuous lighting costs relatively less than flash heads and also offers a good option for a budget, if you need to work with one. Because the light is always on, you can easily assess and examine a scene to see where the shadows are and what the lights are doing in relation to your subject. From there you will be able to work on manipulating the light in your studio.
Now the biggest disadvantage when using continuous lighting is that it actually emanates and produces a lot of heat compared to flash systems, and this can actually heat up your studio and the models or subjects you are working with. Sometimes it can get hot and uncomfortable under these lighting circumstances.
If you will consider or opt to use a flash system instead, you will get to work with greater power and have more control of your lighting settings in your studio. Flash systems will also have more consistency. If you are just starting setting up your studio and purchasing equipment it is actually ideal to start with a lighting kit which will be discussed throughout the ebook.
Your Three Basic Studio Lighting Choices
Now that you have already chosen a room to be your home studio and are starting to research the first few items of photography lighting equipment to purchase, you might want to consider the three basic studio lighting choices. Because there are so many out there we will be discussing what you should consider investing in.
When it comes to your photography lighting, you will have three basic choices. These will be the hot lights, cool lights, and of course, the flash or strobes. Every one of these has their own characteristics, so before you figure a lighting source as being good no matter what; you need to keep some important points in mind like control, power output, and area of coverage, as well as quality of light. All of these will be discussed further on.
Cool lights, are not necessarily "cool" but it refers to the temperature emitted from the light, which is almost none compared to hot lights, which warm up within minutes of use. Cool lights use fluorescent light, which is why the light doesn't heat up. While being the less versatile of the choices, they tend to be a safe choice. These lights are fluorescent and have some adjustability by turning off and on the bulbs as you need them; however they cannot be adjusted like hot lights. Being about the same color as daylight, they can be used easily if natural daylight is present.
Using this form of lighting in conjunction with bright natural daylight creates an intensified effect, creating beautiful photographs with natural tones and colors nicely accented. Unfortunately, the problem with this form of lighting is the lack of power it offers. If you are taking a full room shot, you may need to have several of these lights in place, and this can get incredibly crowded very quickly. This will help with cameras that have high ISO settings and a slow shutter speed. If you find that the camera continues to struggle, you can always use the flash in combination with this form of lighting.
You will sometimes see these listed as tungsten lights. Their nickname of hot lights comes from the fact that they burn extremely hot. These are usually 500 & 800 watt quartz Halogen bulbs that will deliver a solid, continuous light source. This is the reason that this lighting source is so very popular among photographers. It generally requires far less to achieve a very polished look, providing that you are working with scenes that require a consistent light source, like still life and video. Should you desire to be successful with this form of lighting, you need to have a very high ISO and then have your shutter at a very slow setting, hence the restrictions on subject type.
Another advantage of the continuous light is that you can meter it as is, and you can use your camera to meter to get the correct exposure.
*Note: Both cool and hot lights have an odd color that you have to consider since it directly affects your output and the color of your exposure will be too blue, too orange or yellow. Ensure that you set your white balance to the correct setting, or plan to adjust that during the post production of your work flow of your images.
This can be a photographer’s best friend or constant nemesis depending on how you choose to utilize it. Like any other piece of equipment you choose to use, it is a tool and nothing more. This can be a decent choice because they are easier to use, can allow pictures to be set up faster and remove all the limitations one may encounter with hot or cold lights enabling you to take the sorts of photos you would prefer, rather than being tied down to one style.
The first type of flash that you should look at is the hotshoe, sometimes called a speedlight. This is the piece that attaches to the flashguns on the top of your camera. While this can take a quick, easy picture, you will find that 90% of the time, the image isn’t going to be what you are looking for; it’s just not meant to work like that.
Hotshoe Flash (or Speed light) Mounted on Camera
In fact, the best way to use the hotshoe flash is to remove it from the camera entirely and set them up as you need to on fitted stands. This will give you far more portability and many more options. Then you can add umbrella stands in order to create more diffuse effects. For many, this makes a good choice since they are inexpensive, portable, and can be operated on batteries when you are on the go. Make the battery power go further by adding rechargeable batteries and a charger that you can take with you on location.
Some studio photographers find that they have nothing but problems with the hotshoe flash. For example, you have a limited range of power; it will only deliver a maximum of 60 Joules. At the same time, you can’t limit the amount of flash power (higher quality hot shoe flashes can be adjusted) and since the flash needs to be individually triggered, you might not get quite the picture you are looking for. In addition, some use a product called a slave flash, which when set up to other flash units, triggers a signal which causes the other flash units to fire. There can be quite a lot of success with this type of system, but it does require a very precise setup.
Because of how problematic they can be, many professionals will use this form of flash for journalism photographs on the go, as it’s the best possible use for this common lighting option.
Most new photographers often wonder if all studio lighting will work for them in the same way. The easiest response is yes, each piece of equipment will do what it was designed to do with the adjustments that are natural to its function. However, the different types have different ways they are going to be used. This includes the following lighting types:
Main Power Self Contained
Main Power Separates
Battery Powered
Mono Light
The cheapest is the monolights or main powered separates. Sometimes called Pack & Head lights, this is a battery-powered solution that will have a pack that rests on the floor. From it, you can put as many flash heads into the device as needed to deliver the right image quality for your project.
Let’s go over what these terms mean, both types can be searched for at amazon.com or other suppliers as well:
Main powered monolights are the most popular with people just starting out, probably because they’re much less expensive than the other choices. These will contain all of the “works” within the flash head itself. Just plug it in, and off you go! The new photographer could do far worse than to get several of these when they are starting out since they are so versatile.
Main powered separates also called Pack & Head lights have several advantages over monolights, not the least of these being that they are far more powerful, however are also more expensive. All of the controls are set on the pack itself, which is always much easier and more convenient than when they are on the head, and will offer more choices for set up.
Battery powered pack & head lights are useful because they can be used for location shoots where there is no power available, including outdoor use where high power (not available from hotshoe flashes) is needed to overwhelm the daylight and create different effects. If coupled with rechargeable batteries, then they become a wonderful “Pack and go” solution.
You might be relieved to find out that there are packages on the market which are ideal for beginning photographers. You would just need to do your research so that you can find a package ideal for beginning photographers setting up a studio. Some of my favorite suppliers are amazon.com, http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ and http://www.adorama.com/ although there are many excellent suppliers out there. I list the three here simply because I have personally purchased from them with good results.
You don’t have to get discouraged when you see the expensive lighting packages out on the market, for there are some really great ones available for reasonable prices.
When you are looking into setting up your photography studio in your home, it is important to understand the concept of lighting, and with that comes knowledge of hard light and soft light, and the difference between the two.
Hard light creates shadows and transitions from light to dark and is very stark. Basically, it is light in its truest form without any form of diffusion. Hard light is ideal for textures since it casts hard shadows and high contrast. Hard light would usually come from a small source if you will be comparing it to the subject. Bright, mid-day sunlight typically creates hard light, the shadows being very strongly defined with hard lines.
On the other hand, soft light comes from a larger source than the subject and is more complimentary to people. The effect of soft light is achieved because soft light wraps light around the subject which fills shadows and lowers contrast. In natural daylight, a cloudy day casts soft shadows (if at all) with soft, blurred lines if shadows are there.
Working in your own home studio would mean that you should understand how hard light and soft light works. Now whether light that is falling on a subject or object that you are photographing is hard or soft, would depend on the size of the light source and of course your subject. A large source of light will wrap light around a small subject filling the shadows and lowering the contrast while a small source of light will direct light on a large subject (or object) and create hard shadows and high contrast. By understanding how soft and hard light work, you should be able to manipulate your light source in order to compliment your subject and get the desired effect you are aiming for.
Now there are two ways to soften light indoors. The first is moving the light source closer to your subject (remember the first rule however, this light needs to be bigger than your subject), and the second is using reflectors and diffusers. These are other photography lighting equipment you might want to consider purchasing or investing in. When shooting subjects, a softer light gives them a more complimentary and natural glow, and this can be achieved through light modifiers.
Here is an example of one type of light diffuser / reflector panel, but there are many types available, some of which are to be set on your speedlight flash units.
In order to get a harder light, you would then have to move the source of light farther from the subject, and instead of using reflectors and diffusers, you would need to use a bare bulb or a bare bulb flash. To understand this better, picture a bulb that is mounted in a reflector. It is actually the larger reflector that becomes the light source. This happens because a bare bulb actually has no reflector, so the light is then much smaller. Because it is more of a point source it then casts a harder light on the subject. It lacks a reflector to focus light since the range is shorter than other kinds of light.