How to Create a Home Photo Studio on a Budget

Photography Tips  •  Studio Photography

Have you dreamed of setting up your own home studio but have always found the cost too high? Fear not; help is at hand. All you need is the space to take photographs and some basic equipment. The tips in this article will have you up and running in no time at all.

Photo captured by Christopher Seufert

1. Check Out the Free Ads in Your Area

See if somebody is upgrading and selling their used home studio equipment. I bought my first lighting set-up, a set of Courtenay studio lights, in just this way. Also check out if they are selling any other accessories like flash meters and synchronization (sync) cords.

2. Create Your Own Backdrops

You can create your own backdrops for very little cost:

• Get a sheet of 9 ft x 9 ft. muslin and tie-dye it (remember the grand-dad shirts of the ’60s?) for a great professional looking backdrop.
• Get a canvas sheet (size as above) and dye that—this will be heavy and will need a lot of dye.
• Check out eBay for great bargain backdrops.

3. Use Natural Lighting

The simplest, cheapest (it’s free), and often the best lighting source is natural window light. Utilize voile to get a soft diffused light or allow direct light for more dramatic effects.

4. Make Your Own Reflector

You can create an inexpensive reflector from a piece of cardboard (break up an old cardboard box), silver foil, white paper. and spray adhesive. Use the spray adhesive to stick the foil to one side of the cardboard and white paper to the other and hey presto, you have a cheap reflector. This can then be used to bounce the light and thus act as a second light or fill light. This is how I made my first reflectors in my early home studio setups, before I bought a set of reflectors.

5. Find Inexpensive Lights

You don’t need an expensive lighting setup for your home studio:

• Check out Interfit gear, it’s cheap and cheerful but does the job.
• Once again look on eBay for a studio kit.
• A good setup, if you can find it, is the Nissin 340T kit. This consists of two hot-shoe flashes, a main swivel head unit, and a smaller fixed head fill unit.

6. Tackle Some Home Studio DIY Projects

Here are a few suggestions for DIY projects:

1. Create your own backdrop.
2. Make yourself a bounce reflector.
3. Construct a softbox from an old cardboard box, silver foil, muslin, and spray adhesive.
4. Build yourself a still life table.

By thinking outside the box you, can build a home studio on a very small budget with careful planning. While this is not your dream studio. it will enable you to practice and hone your skills. In time as you improve your studio techniques, you will be able to get some commissions and use this to upgrade your setup.

About the Author:
Article written by Charles Demain from www.creativeslrphotography.com.