Buying/Renting Studio Space

[Adi85]

I'm currently at a stage where i outgrew my home studio space and now i'm thinking of either renting or buying my own studio space.

Since i have no clue about commercial real estate, i was wondering if any of you have experience in this matter?

I don't know wether i need to get a warehouse, office or something else? I know there are certain classes to commercial properties and what one can do in each class ?

What do photographers usually use?

Many thanks in advance!

 

[Scooter]

Hi Adi,

I think there's a couple of things to consider!

Whether you need to take on this overhead at all: you'll need to cover at least £1000 per month for a space that allows work you can't do in a small home studio. Of course, if it's for purely artistic work - then the cost is the cost and only you can know whether it's worth the results you'll then get. There are plenty of established studios you can rent for £100 per day and up though, so the economics come down to how often you need to use the space each month. It's the classic rent vs buy - ie pay-per-use, or a fixed overhead, which may work out cheaper as long as there is a constant stream of work to pay for it. For many businesses, large and small, this calculation plays out for just about any resource you care to mention as a mixture of fixed assets sized for just a bit more than the average demand, and for the excess, they rent. (Eg for compute capacity, many large corporations have their own data centres for the core hosting work, and rent from suppliers like AWS, and Azure where the application experiences a less predictable demand). For people, they may have permanent staff, plus contract staff, and then for the ultra chaotic unpredictable work, managed service personnel. For studio space, you may find it best to have your own permanent space for the mainstream work, and rent bigger places for the odd outlandish job (say photographing a car, or a plane, or something involving big fireballs etc)

The second thing to consider is the type of space and I think this is really determined by the most common type of work you do.

For me, no one type of job meets the bar to justify as a fixed overhead. I have a small studio on the top of the house, but rarely use it, due to the size. I can rent a suitable place that works for 80% of the pictures I shoot, for £100 per day. (although tbf, I do bring all of the equipment - never trust the kit in a rental studio if it matters to the success of the shoot!) For workshops, I'll rent a larger space for £150-£200. I also rent locations for shoots and these are normally around the £150 to £200 per day mark. I could do that 5 times a month, for the same cost as a small industrial unit. Another reason to go for a rental model is a variety of props. Say, for example, say I need classic leather Chesterfield sofa for a shoot: I find it's easier to just rent a studio that has one, rather than rent/buy a sofa and transport it to my own space.

Costs spiral with the size and this will be determined by your technical needs and volume of work. As another case study, consider Karl Taylor. Massive studio, with a staff of ~5, but Karl has the volume of work coming in and the facilities he has enables him to get that work done quickly and efficiently.

On the other hand, Joe McNally gave up his studio in downtown Manhattan, and just rents when he needs one. He kept all of the equipment though which is neatly maintained and stored in his garage. This is the model I've adopted - my studio is mostly used as an assembly area where I lay out the gear needed for a shoot somewhere else. (think of it like The Construct in The Matrix "We're gonna need lights. Lots of lights.."

I hope that helps - if you google for industrial units in your area you'll get an idea of the actual costs (and don't forget to factor in rates and utilities)

 

[Garry Edwards]

It's hard to be specific because you haven't told us what type of work you actually do, or anything else would help.

Generally though, I agree with everything that Owen has said. And no single hire studio can ever be ideal, if you hire one that has the facilities needed for every job then it will be much too large and much too expensive for most jobs.

Also, many/most hire studios cater mainly for amateur and "glamour" use, with white walls, white ceilings and crap lighting, so even finding the right type of space can be a challenge and, as Owen pointed out, you will nearly always need to bring your own lighting gear - which means that you'll need to be able to drive a van into the studio.

 

[juggler]

Also, many/most hire studios cater mainly for amateur and "glamour" use, with white walls, white ceilings and crap lighting, so even finding the right type of space can be a challenge and, as Owen pointed out, you will nearly always need to bring your own lighting gear - which means that you'll need to be able to drive a van into the studio.

I suspect the market has moved on a bit since you last looked in detail. There are a good number of amateur & glamour studios which are really well thought out and equipped.

I used to take equipment with me to studios but that's not often necessary any more.

I can rent a suitable place that works for 80% of the pictures I shoot, for £100 per day. (although tbf, I do bring all of the equipment - never trust the kit in a rental studio if it matters to the success of the shoot!) For workshops, I'll rent a larger space for £150-£200. I also rent locations for shoots and these are normally around the £150 to £200 per day mark.

I'm with Scooter, a studio is really just somewhere to leave your lights out and repair stuff.

He's considerably further north than me; I find renting a bare space like a village hall is typically £25ph. Equipped studios are closer to £35ph for non-commercial work; interesting spaces start at £360/day (and go up to £5k+ but that's another story).

For the last few years I've compromised by sharing studio spaces. I currently share a dance & yoga studio. I've got a backdrop system, blackout blinds and a big cupboard. It's a PITA in the get everything out and put it away but I can live with it, especially as I'm now doing more location work.

Similarly, a number of photography studios offer deals whereby you get so many flexible hours per month for a very reasonable fee.

But as Garry said - it depends what you shoot. e.g. If you're a high end boudoir photographer then you need to sell the whole package and shiny premises matter. If you do headshots then you don't need a studio at all.

 

[Garry Edwards]

I suspect the market has moved on a bit since you last looked in detail. There are a good number of amateur & glamour studios which are really well thought out and equipped.

I used to take equipment with me to studios but that's not often necessary any more.


I'm with Scooter, a studio is really just somewhere to leave your lights out and repair stuff.

He's considerably further north than me; I find renting a bare space like a village hall is typically £25ph. Equipped studios are closer to £35ph for non-commercial work; interesting spaces start at £360/day (and go up to £5k+ but that's another story).

For the last few years I've compromised by sharing studio spaces. I currently share a dance & yoga studio. I've got a backdrop system, blackout blinds and a big cupboard. It's a PITA in the get everything out and put it away but I can live with it, especially as I'm now doing more location work.

Similarly, a number of photography studios offer deals whereby you get so many flexible hours per month for a very reasonable fee.

But as Garry said - it depends what you shoot. e.g. If you're a high end boudoir photographer then you need to sell the whole package and shiny premises matter. If you do headshots then you don't need a studio at all.

I don't think that the market has changed, it has always included a very wide range of offerings and prices.
The OP hasn't told us anything useful, all that he said is

I'm currently at a stage where i outgrew my home studio space and now i'm thinking of either renting or buying my own studio space.

So, I based my reply on the assumption that he's looking for something a bit bigger and better than whatever he has at home.

 

[swanseamale47]

Are you looking for passing trade or do you have a customer base who will come to you where ever? Is it business or a "fun" studio for your own shooting? Theres a lot of variables.
From a business point of view premises tend to work out expensive, rent, business rates (more than the rent in some cases) electric ect. Dare I say starting up as a business now with a recession on and many studios closing could be a risky idea money wise.
Just my 2p worth.

 

[Scooter]

I used to take equipment with me to studios but that's not often necessary any more.

Just to explain a bit why I said you need to take your own equipment to a studio

There are studios with usable lights, of course, and if you can choose one of those then no, you wouldn't need to take your own kit. However I don't always get to choose where we're shooting (or I make the choice based on other priorities such as location, size etc). This is often the case for workshops.

Most studios will have a number of flash heads however I also find a lot of them are old, voltage-regulated units with a long flash duration, or just too low an output. The triggering systems are often a mish-mash of half-working devices, and we would have to rely on slave-eye triggering etc. Some will have Elinchrom flash heads and tbh, nobody has time to deal with that

They will almost certainly have some softboxes. Your mileage will vary on the grids though. The front panels of these softboxes will be random colour temperatures

I do realise that some of the things I take are just down to what I shoot and my requirements are not necessarily mainstream - and so it's unreasonable to expect a studio to have these things, however I have adopted this maxim: if anything is critical to the success of the shoot, bring it yourself. This applies to wardrobe, props, lights etc.

Just to add some perspective though, the other reason why *I* take my own lights to studios, is that I've worked out ways of working quickly with the equipment I have, and some of those methods probably invalidate any warranty on the flash head. For instance, I use a bag full of pre-formed gel hats that fit over the glass domes on my Lencarta SF600 lights (and others). This blocks the ventilation holes. In ten years this has never been an issue, however, I would be a bit uneasy doing this to someone else's lights. I often put lights outside in the rain, covered with clear plastic bags, and over the years they've been covered in fake blood, oil, hand prints in silver paint, and showered with sparks.. I tend to take more risks with my own gear, and would not have attempted many of the shots I've made with the studio's own equipment.

If you can choose a well-stocked studio that maintains its equipment though, you could just turn up with your camera.

 

[juggler]

Just to explain a bit why I said you need to take your own equipment to a studio


Most studios will have a number of flash heads however I also find a lot of them are old, voltage-regulated units with a long flash duration, or just too low an output. The triggering systems are often a mish-mash of half-working devices, and we would have to rely on slave-eye triggering etc. Some will have Elinchrom flash heads and tbh, nobody has time to deal with that

They will almost certainly have some softboxes. Your mileage will vary on the grids though. The front panels of these softboxes will be random colour temperatures

This used to be my experience too. Studios often didn't even have black / white polyboards.

Things have changed.

I often put lights outside in the rain, covered with clear plastic bags, and over the years they've been covered in fake blood, oil, hand prints in silver paint, and showered with sparks.. I tend to take more risks with my own gear, and would not have attempted many of the shots I've made with the studio's own equipment.

I'm fairly robust with my own kit but that trumps me!

 

[Abdichoudxyz]

I can't even imagine the cost of a permanent studio space here in London, and never need one, but one aspect I think has to be considered is security. Are you going to leave expensive equipment there? Then of course there's comfort; many places are freezing in winter, so is there adequate heating? Hot water? Decent toilets? Somewhere to wash up? Many people I know who use studios lack certain essentials, and it can be miserable working there. Finding a decent space which has all these things is like finding the holy grail.

 

[CharleyL]

Maybe a smaller storefront could be found that is off the main stream for sales locations. A less than desirable sales location should go will much lower rent. Has it been listed "For Rent" for a long time? Maybe they would be willing to rent much cheaper just to have someone using it. How about a 2nd floor walk-up? These also are less desired and can frequently be rented for much less.

Charley