Plenty of room for small product photography if you only have one set up at a time.
When I did portraiture in my apartment years ago, had a 12 x 24 living room with patio doors on the narrow end, I often used the out of focus drapes in as a background, or seemless paper on a portable background holder. However that was before the dyed cloth backgrounds became popular. A perminent background (your wallpaper) wants to be pretty plain as that is more versatile, and far enough back that you can throw it out of focus.
You can get by with one light (umbrella) + a relector, but a pro setup is Main light, Fill light, Back/Background light, and Hair light. The Main and Fill pretty much need a lightstand to get them high enough (used lightstands are usually pretty cheap). Background light wants to be down behind the model so you probably can get by witha tripod for it. The hair light would normally be on a boom but you could tack it to the ceiling.
Hope this give you some ideas.
-- Lasse Karlsson wrote:
Hi all, I've got this spare room around 4 x 2.7 meters (ca 13 x 9 feet) (yes Stan - in case you're reading, the one you used for a guest room) and I was thinking of trying to use it for some sort of a portrait studio (or maybe for shooting smaller products, in case there will be a demand for it).
Later on I'm planning to also (or instead) use (part of) my garage for a studio.
I will probably put up new wall paper with shooting pictures in mind. I plan to attach some "holders" for backgrounds to a few a the walls.
Initially I will simply try it out shooting some models, using and "calibrating" whatever flashes I have.
(I have the MZ5 (autofocus doesn't work), a Chinon K-body and a bunch of lenses. (Yes some very old cheap MF cameras too that I might have a play with). Probably I will buy the Canon 300D digital soon.)
I've got the Pentax 500FTZ, as well as some five-six small basic flashes, another slave trigger as well as a number of tripods.
I am sure that quite a few of you have had some experience in trying something similar and I've got a few questions for you.
1. Choosing wall paper - texture and color. Any good ideas - things that work, things that won't? (I thought about repainting but figured any paint will still be prone to cause reflections when using flash.)
2. Will I be able to find wall fitted photo background "holders" (is there another word for them?) ?
3. How far will I be able to get using flashes only? When (photographically speaking) will I find some sort studio lights a necessity? (Don't even remember the various types of them)
4. (I don't want big stuff, and I don't have much money). What would be a low budget, but still useable, (type of) studio light(ing) to start off with?
5. The thought of using and mastering multi-flash set ups is intriguing. However how tricky will it be to learn, and to use it in practical shooting? Is there any obvious way to go about achieving this? (Types of flashes, slaves, connectors, cables or IR remotes etc.)
Thanks for any input on any of my questions, or on things and aspects I may have overlooked. (Or should I join the local photo club and start using their studio?)
Lasse
-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com
"You might as well accept people as they are, you are not going to be able to change them anyway."
