Home studio--yay or nay?

[wyogirl]

I'm starting to consider the spare bedroom of my house as a home studio. Mostly I do newborn photos so the space is less of an issue there. I'd say the room is about 15x15 (I need to measure to be sure) and it has its own bathroom.... the shower of which is my darkroom.

The issue is that:
1. It will be a lot of work to get it together. Sell or give away bedroom furniture. I want to buy or make a backdrop storage system. And I gotta figure out where we would put my husbands gun safe. But these are all doable things.

2. The in-laws couldn't stay with us when they visit. (This is a bonus)

I guess my real question here is if you have a home studio does it work out for you....inviting people into your home? If you don't have a home studio, is there a reason against it? Talk to me people!

 

[tirediron]

15x15 is awfully small; it could work for newborns, but IMO, it sould stil be tight. Of more of a concern is ceiling height; do you have at least 10'? As for the whole home-studio idea, it certainly can work, but it means (or should mean) keeping your house, or at least the parts that clients will see absolutely spotless. I much prefer having a 'neutral' space to meet. Have you looked into sub-letting studio space from a dance or fitness studio? That can be quite inexpensive.

 

[wyogirl]

Jon, that is a good idea about dance studio sub-letting. No, my ceiling height is about 8 feet. At the moment, I do most newborn shoots in the client's home. Space wise in a client's home I have very minimal space and have to haul tons of stuff with me....lights, props, backdrops, floor drops etc.

I'll check locally with dance studios because I do think that at least one offers this. But I still want to explore the home option since it space wise, for newborns at least, I'm used to working with much less.

 

[KmH]

Yep. Ceiling height is important, but few think about that when contemplating a home studio. Granted it's less of a concern for only shooting newborns.
With careful consideration and room prep you should be able to make a 15 x 15 x 8 room work.

If you have a newborn 6 feet in front of your background and the background is right on the wall, you have 11 feet left which will limit the lens focal lengths you can use.
Being forced to use shorter focal length means having to be vary wary of distortion.

Does the room have a window, and if so which way does the window(s) face?
What color are the walls and ceiling?

 

[Trever1t]

I had a home studio in my living room. I mounted a bar on the wall using coat hooks (for the backdrop). It allowed me some place to learn a little about light and photography but ceiling hight and white walls were very limiting. Renting now and my studio work has jumped 5 levels just having more room and more natural setting but without the home studio I wouldn't have gotten to where I needed to be to take advantage of the new studio.

 

[Scatterbrained]

Space wise it will be tight, but for only newborns you should be able to make it work. My loft is about 14ft wide and a bit longer than 15ft and it works for me (still life, and portraits of my kids).



You can mount some background brackets right to the wall which should help, and keep everything in the closet.

 

[astroNikon]

2. The in-laws couldn't stay with us when they visit. (This is a bonus)

The real value even if you set up a fake home studio :lmao:

 

[Designer]

Be sure to take some test shots as if you had a client in there.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

I shoot out of my apartment :blushing:

as for a back drop system, we rigged this up at my school:










and it works quite well. It saves you from having to use stands that take up space

 

[JoeW]

I'm starting to consider the spare bedroom of my house as a home studio. Mostly I do newborn photos so the space is less of an issue there. I'd say the room is about 15x15 (I need to measure to be sure) and it has its own bathroom.... the shower of which is my darkroom.

The issue is that:
1. It will be a lot of work to get it together. Sell or give away bedroom furniture. I want to buy or make a backdrop storage system. And I gotta figure out where we would put my husbands gun safe. But these are all doable things.

2. The in-laws couldn't stay with us when they visit. (This is a bonus)

I guess my real question here is if you have a home studio does it work out for you....inviting people into your home? If you don't have a home studio, is there a reason against it? Talk to me people!

Many thoughts:

1. Consider the alternatives: (a) get temp space (i.e.: dance studios or renting studio space at other locations); (b) getting an outside studio; or (c) not having a studio. All of these are options but they have problems. With "a" you seem a bit fly-by-night, it's often expensive per shoot AND they may not be available when the client is. With "b" it's the most expensive option and for a one-person shop you are either tied to your studio or you have it locked up most of the time with a big sign that says "hey burglars...there is photo equipment in here and it's closed so you can break in and likely steal anything you can carry away!" And with "c" you end losing some business b/c you don't have a studio but the reality is that some shoots are always best at the client site (especially with newborns).

2. For you, make sure you have enough parking (which surprisingly enough, can be a huge issue for home studios if you have an apartment or townhouse with restricted parking and 3-4 cars show up). Make sure the room is big enough and your ceiling is high enough. The deal breaker/maker for me would be the presence of natural light. If the room has good soft natural light then I'd make it work. If it doesn't, I'd consider moving your bedroom (if that has better light). And if it doesn't, I'm not sure it's worth the hassle. You know the value of soft light for baby photography.

 

[CCericola]

Just a few things to check on. 1. Are you legally allowed to run a business out of your home? (HOA's, Town ordinances, zoning, etc...) 2. Are you the kind of person that can keep their house SPOTLESS because clients can and will just drop by at anytime if they have questions? 3. Will you lose any business because you don't offer in-home shoots anymore?

 

[imagemaker46]

Do you have enough shoots to justify the costs involved and the loss of a room if the work isn't there? The space for what you want to do can work, you will need to have a change table, chairs, desk. The bathroom is a bonus. I work out of my home, although I don't have use for a studio. Home based businesses that don't have a sign outside saying they are a business don't often have any issues with zoning. It's not like you're going to have a neon light flashing outside, and I imagine you won't have a constant stream of people lined up outside your home.

Also it is still your home, and if for some reason you have a client that gets really upset over a shoot, they will know where you live.

 

[tirediron]

Just to add on to Christina's comment - what about your home insurance? Will you still be covered, or will you have to change it significantly (and by 'significantly' I mean 'expensive'!)?

 

[wyogirl]

I have a license to run a business out of my home already because its at my home that I do the book keeping for my photography. And no, my house is never spotless but we mostly live in the basement The upstairs where clients would be can be maintained fairly easily since no one uses any room except for the kitchen and my son's bathroom which isnt the bathroom that clients would use. As far as justifing the loss of space if I'm not shooting.... well that room just tends to be the "dump all" room and having it as a studio would force that to stop. Also, any out of town visitors would need a hotel and that is just fine with me.:mrgreen:

I've had clients in my home before, but I've just set up and torn down equipment and hosted them in the upstairs living room. My only real reason for wanting a dedicated studio space is so that I can do newborn shoots without dragging half my house with me. Newborns take a lot of props, blankets and backdrops. I feel like I could cut down my time and increase productivity if I didn't have to travel with my stuff.

Imagemaker46, you have a good point about a changing table and I'm kicking myself for selling mine last year. I think a trip to Ikea is in order anyway so that I can have organized storage. I guess I can add changing table to the list.

I don't plan to advertise studio work for anything but newborns since the space is so small. I would consider small children, but wouldn't advertise that. I do most of my work outside at parks and such. I find there are fewer people looking for studio work except for in the newborn category.

And to be honest, I'm not a full time photographer. I'm more a hobbyist that happens to actually pay taxes and have the proper licensing in my state to legally call myself a business. I live in a town of 25k people and about 5000 people who identify as photographers. Some are really good. Some are ok and some are just bad... but there are lots of options out there so I'm not planning on trying to make it full time.

 

[keyseddie]

Keep in mind the positive tax benefits. Whatever the square footage of the space, it's a percentage of your home. So that percentage of utilities is a biz expense. Any furniture you buy for that room is also deductible. If you have the resources, building an adddition is better. Ceilings can be what you want, and you could have dual usage, using it as part of your home.
An example: Back when I was making money I built an addition of approx 1200 square ft with 14' ceilings. Outfitted it with all the studio lighting and equipment. Also sofas and other furniture for the reception area and a baby grand for a prop. It has separate utilities from the house and had a separate mortgage. It doubled as living space. In fact it was and still is the nicest part of our home and now is a "home gallery," dining room and kiddie play area. If you are making money or plan on doing so it's worth considering.