How big a room for portraits?

great thanks, i'll have a read.
Basically we have an old stables, one of the rooms inside is 11ft by 10ft and thought I could move all the motorbikes out and make a studio...
 
Yes it all depends on what you are doing or intend to do reallly. I bet whatever size you go for.... you will always wish you had made it bigger.
 
Sounds ideal, I've managed in a room smaller than that but struggle a little with full length portraits. If you set up a background, leave 5-6 feet between model and background that means you are only 5-6 feet away yourself. Hence it starts to get a little tight for room if you want to shoot full length. One other good one you can do is to shoot your model on the floor. Get a selection of flooring materials and you can change the background. Works a treat and provides an instant facelift too :)
 
When the white floor in front of the subject is going to be in the image too.... ie, if they are on the floor, how do you meter to get the front floor white and blown without overexposing the face, because its coming from the same light isnt it. :shrug:
 
When I shoot on the floor Janice I don't shoot white :) I know it's cheating! I have the model lie on their back, sort their hair and off you go. I use wooden floor boards on a diagonal which are nice and sometimes use various materials to complement hair colour. Then I get on the stepladders and use a single light with a beauty dish to light them. Quite simple really.
 
Thanks for that. Yes I can see it would be easy enough as long as you are not doing white ;)
 
Well unless you can hide a 500w studio light in their hair you just shoot it exactly the same. You can't get a nicely blown background that way because you can't light it, you can only use the same light as is hitting your model. There IS no separation between model and background. A slight overexposure is about as good as you are going to get.
 
I use the same kit in my dinning room... with the table removed. I do have to set the camera up in the conservatory though so as to be able to put a bit of distance between the subject and backdrop. The dinning room is about 12' x 15' probably a bit small but doable.

Mel:love:
 
Hi been reading this thread with interest we are looking at 550 sq feet to 654 sq feet for the whole studio with at least 260 sq feet for the main stdio it;s self, this would accommodate changing rooms editing suite and the area to shoot in. would this be big enough
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Regards Mark.
 
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