You got a studio?!

[Bram]

Hello TPF how are all of you doing? Hope you got your christmas shopping done.

Alright so, i've been on the MM forums a bit here and there and I see people talking about "Their studio". Now i'm curious as to the normal people here on TPF if you have your own studio as well? Now but your own studio I mean, is it at home? Is it in your basement? Is it a spare bedroom? Do you rent a space nearby? What's going on exactly I know it's a little personal but i'm just a curious little teenager looking for his own.

Thanks or your time and happy holidays.

 

[Light Artisan]

The world is my studio... Ok, a 50 mile radius of it anyway.

 

[Professional]

I have a studio at home, in our old house it was upstair in the open space hall, now in this new house we moved about 6 months ago the only place is one room empty nice space, but i can't tell when this room will be used later, then i can use studio anywhere at home for short time, say portable.

 

[Studio7Four]

My studio is my 2-car garage. A few different rolls of seamless with a backdrop support, a few strobes with modifiers (softboxes, umbrellas)...it can all be broken down and moved so I can actually put cars in the garage. I've also built some simple caps to put over my garage windows when shooting so that I totally control the light when I want to use my strobes.

You've been perusing MM so I'm guessing you either do or want to work with models. Think of what kind of shots you want to do in a "studio". There's a big difference in the space needed to do beauty shots (headshots) compared with something like posing a model on a vintage couch. Then you can decide if you have enough space, and what equipment is appropriate to put in it.

(By the way, I'm up front about mine being a home studio out in the garage. Yeah, I've probably had some models who have assumed I'm just a GWC and chosen not to work with me, but those who have have known exactly what to expect and been completely relaxed at the shoot.)

 

[Bram]

Yeah see that's what I was afraid of. I would hate for somebody to assume i'm just a GWC I mean yeah my port sucks and doesn't have great photos but I mean everybody starts somewhere right?

 

[MichiganFarts]

I never had the space to have a permanent set up when I was a teen, and I still don't. But it didn't stop me from getting studio equipment that was easy to transport.

I had a 500w photogenic strobe, a Nikon SB28, and a generic 100w slave flash when I was 18. Along with a background stand, they were all pretty easy to transport around in my pontiac sunbird, and set up wherever I had space.

You don't need a permanent set up to get good shots. If you got space for it though...kudos 'cause I'd be jealous of any teenager who can have a permanent studio set up lol.

 

[Bram]

Yeah very true I mean i'm 19 now and ill be 20 in May, I know still 5 months away but that's less then a year. Anywhoo i'm looking to turnt he basement into a semi permanent studio for the time being.

 

[MichiganFarts]

Yeah very true I mean i'm 19 now and ill be 20 in May, I know still 5 months away but that's less then a year. Anywhoo i'm looking to turnt he basement into a semi permanent studio for the time being.

You so lucky! Have fun with it! I'm 30 now...maybe I should take advantage of my mom and dad's huge basement and put up a semi-permanent studio in there too...'cause I don't have the space at my own house...3 little kids take up a lot of room lol.

 

[Bram]

Yeah I bet eh. Well I got an older brother whose threatenign to take it over so i have to hurry up and renovate already haha. My rents said they were okay with it and they would even advertise for me and make my business cards, they run a UPS store downtown here so.

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

I've got a kitchen... Thats my studio at the moment... I have a couple umbrellas and am looking at getting a background stand/support that will accommodate some paper or a muslin BG.

I am limited in space and funds... But I try to make do with what I have.

 

[oldmacman]

It's wherever I have enough energy to drag my bag of gear. Usually my living room.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Yeah see that's what I was afraid of. I would hate for somebody to assume i'm just a GWC I mean yeah my port sucks and doesn't have great photos but I mean everybody starts somewhere right?

Don't know what GWC means but it doesn't matter. You are absolutely right that everybody starts somewhere.

Today I have a studio large enough to shoot tractors (as in the power unit of a tractor trailer) but my very first studio was in my basement. I called it my learning studio because, as soon as I was ready to shoot commercial on my own, I moved into a larger space.

But I learned a lot in that basement. And with few limitations. I did a lot of product photography and some with models, including some paid jobs. With models, I just made sure they were short, lol, or I shot them either in a sitting or horizontal position.

No matter what your basement is like, you can shoot there as long as you are realistic about what you can and cannot do there. Good luck to you.

 

[Professional]

I am now trying to have a mobile studio, first with portable lighting, then later i will try with portable background, not sure that will help me but in my bad country it is very difficult to have own studio for clients or even friends because of family issue here, and i need a lot of money to have my own space somewhere, and at the end my clients are just family or relatives and some friends who are not able to pay a lot so they will never help me to earn good enough, and those models or companies/agencies will never use me if i don't have my own pro or good studio, and i am 30 now, so i don't know what i really should do to go further in my studio portraiture photography.

 

[Bram]

Yeah I hear ya guys. GWC means guy with camera, just a guy who wants to look at hot models and fantasize away. That's not me, I know i'm young and a child but I have never been more serious about this hobby. For now it's a hobby hopefully be more in the future. On MM everybody is "pro" so to speak, I opened a thread about owning a studio it got 150 hits in a matter of hours. Like it's nuts! Here I am looking for models in my area, some I know from school but they wouldn't shoot with me cuz i'm just a GWC to them. I have been into photography for a year and half or so now. I have never done portraiture therefore i'm a noob in MM'ers eyes. It sucks! So i'm trying to get a studio set going so I can get started.

 

[kundalini]

My SO, partner, GF, whatever you want to call it has recently given me the room above the detached garage. Lots of crap to be removed first, then repair and paint. Walls angled inwards kills quite a bit of the vertical space. But...... it's more than I have now. Santa's gonna be nice to her this year.