Workshop / photo studio.

GreenNinja67

GreenNinja67

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Terry
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Learned chaps and ladies.

I'm moving to a "new" house soon and will be having a 20x10 workshop built as we are downsizing from a house with a garage, summerhouse and big shed.

This will be the total storage area.

I'm hoping to be able to put a stud wall in so I'll have a dual purpose building.

Any idea of minimum dimensions I'm going to be looking at for portraits?

I intend to use 2 Lencarta Smartflash 2's and a background of some description for now.

Thanks in advance,

Terry.
 
Yep, 20X10 sounds a great space for the studio !!:exit:
But seriously, it depends on your subjects, and the lenses you have at your disposal to shoot them with.
Whether head and shoulders or full/half length etc.
I can guarantee however big you make it, given time you'll want bigger !!
 
Yes Gary, 20x10 would be great if the building was JUST for a studio.

Unfortunately I'm having to use it as storage as well.
I don't think I'm going to have enough room in there to be honest. Unless I throw some things away (shudder!)

I'll have to see how it goes.

Thanks for your input.
 
20x10 (feet?) is small but easily big enough for head & shoulders portraits. As it happens I recently posted on the subject of creating high key head and shoulders shots in a small space. The main problem is likely to be headroom; getting modifiers above your subjects takes higher-than-average ceilings.
 
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juggler said:
20x10 is small but easily big enough for head & shoulders portraits.
Click to expand...
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+1
At this time, my studio is 4 X 8.6m. With all the gear in there… I would need
some 4 or 5 sq. m more. But then, I do more than portraits.
 
The short answer is that as far as space goes, bigger is always better - much better.
And, the more space you have, the wider the range of shots that you can produce well.
What is really important is ceiling height, the difference in the options that you have with a ceiling height of say 7' against a ceiling height of say 10' is massive.

But, you can still produce outstanding work in a small space, just limit yourself to smaller subjects. And, if ceiling height is a problem, just don't photograph people when they're standing up:)
To get the most lighting control from a small space, avoid white paint like the plague, in a perfect world the entire studio should be painted matt black - that can be a depressing work environment and maybe not practical, but it allows you to produce the most creative types of lighting, because you won't get unwanted light reflecting into places you don't want it to go.
 
Out of curiosity if you had black walls, and presumably ceiling what would you do to the floor Garry? And what type of internal lighting?
 
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I preferred my walls mat white since it is cheaper to block light than produce it;
and the floor is pretty much irrelevant for me but grey is ok!
Light wise, I installed 6 strips ot diodes to the ceiling. Hope that helps!
 
AdamTudor said:
Out of curiosity if you had black walls, and presumably ceiling what would you do to the floor Garry? And what type of internal lighting?
Click to expand...
Well, the floor needs to be neutral too, a coloured floor would reflect light of that colour back onto the subject. So, in a pro studio, we generally use grey floorpaint, simply because it's devoid of colour and not light enough to reflect much light. And then add whatever is needed for a specific shot, for example white vinyl - obviously whatever we use for the shot can cause its own problems, but the size of it will be restricted as far as possible, i.e. it will only be big enough for the framing of the shot.

As far as interior lighting is concerned, it doesn't matter as long as studio flash is being used, the relative power of the flash will totally overwhelm the effect of any other lighting, assuming that a reasonable shutter speed is used.
 
Thanks mate, it's nothing I'm considering (anytime soon) but was just curious
 
Thanks for the advice chaps.

Shed's being erected next Friday so Garry I'll be in touch soon to order some Lencarta's.

Terry.
 
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