Controling light in a smaller home studio

BobbyMarshall

I don't have the privilege of shooting in a studio type setting with tall ceilings. My shooting room is in a basement that is about 15x15x8.

My question is, would it help eliminate un-necessary reflections by draping a black material across the ceiling and walls?

I am hoping that something like this would work, and not cost too much. Then I can fold or roll up the material when not in use, and unroll or unfold and set up the material when absolute light control is needed.

if this would work, what type of material is recommended?

Thanks

pathfinder

Some small studios have all the walls painted flat black. Looks like a coal mine or a cave until you get the lights shining on your subject.

Or you can just try to get by with black gobos and such.

I use flat black vinyl or velvet sometimes to kill reflected light.

jeffreaux2

Scott Quier has an interesting set up for a room in his home. I bet he will chime in to offer you ideas. Til then, check out this thread...

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=117746

Also...keep in mind that softboxes will spill less light than a shoot through umbrella.

ChatKat

Studio
I have a street front studio that is a front office, shooting room, bathroom and a small dressing area/coffee bar.

My shooting room is 18x16x10. It's tight, but it works. I met a photographer at WPPI who spoke for Bay Photo and he said his studio was 10x10x10.

You can make it work if you are creative. I've done kids, pets, couples, families, boudoir and products in my little space. Oh - and I painted the walls 18% gray. I took my grey card to the paint store. There are a number of boudoir photographers who shoot in hotel rooms and they are pretty small too.

Editing to add that I have some black curtains I got at Target to block light and tomorrow I am doing black bifold doors for gobos.

Scott_Quier

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Scott Quier has an interesting set up for a room in his home. I bet he will chime in to offer you ideas. Til then, check out this thread...

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=117746

Also...keep in mind that softboxes will spill less light than a shoot through umbrella.

That setup is actually not in my home, but in a small room I rent from my wife. If it were in my home, those side walls and ceiling would be painted flat black. It's easy to add light, hard to subtract it.

That studio setup in the link was for hi-key shots - where light spill wasn't such an issue. What you can't see so well is the black fabric drapes that I use to cover 2/3 of the wall on the left and another set of drapes for the closet door and 1/2 wall on the right.

As for what to use - I would visit a fabric store website. Get some light-weight muslin and dye it black. This will be less reflective than most other choices and will be quite cheap. Here's a link to get you started.

divamum

Scott_Quier wrote:

That setup is actually not in my home, but in a small room I rent from my wife. If it were in my home, those side walls and ceiling would be painted flat black. It's easy to add light, hard to subtract it.

That studio setup in the link was for hi-key shots - where light spill wasn't such an issue. What you can't see so well is the black fabric drapes that I use to cover 2/3 of the wall on the left and another set of drapes for the closet door and 1/2 wall on the right.

As for what to use - I would visit a fabric store website. Get some light-weight muslin and dye it black. This will be less reflective than most other choices and will be quite cheap. Here's a link to get you started.

Or (depending on how much you need, and dimensions required) check out discount stores such as Burlington Coat Factory, Ross (even Walmart and the dollar store) for black velvet curtain pairs and/or shower curtains, which often work out cheaper than by-the-yard fabric. Seems that black is "in" right now (or was a year or so ago) and there's a fairly good selection for low $. A lot of these curtains are thick and even thickly lined sometimes, so will provide good light baffling properties. These stores also often have bedding at really cheap prices, and I'd have thought matte black quilting fabric would be excellent for light-baffling (it's what they often use in theaters, along with heavy velvet or heavy felt).

Just brainstorming

ziggy53

At my previous employer we only had a small area to set up for product photography and I bucked the trend to use black everything and I specified a "white room". Everything in the room was white; ceiling, walls, floor tiles, filing cabinets, all either purchased white or painted white. (The ceiling tiles were not white enough so we painted them.)

This allowed me to bounce light off the ceiling and walls and spread the light much faster than otherwise. Even though the ceiling was 8 foot, when the light was bounced I could get much better angles for those times when I shot the occasional standing person portrait.

I used black "flags" and such to provide subtractive lighting, and barn doors provided light spill control for those lights not otherwise controlled.

You have to think a little differently setting up the lights but it worked pretty well.

BobbyMarshall

Quite a few options given/linked here for small spaces. Thanks.

Currently, the walls and ceiling are a off white, makes it appear bigger and open. It is a basement ceiling, so its not a flat surface like a normal one. It has beams every 16" or so, which make me think that the light is getting thrown in random directions.

I think that if I paint the ceiling a flat black, I would leave the walls white, then buy or dye some muslin, curtains, or something similar and run a line similar to what Scott had in the thread of his that was linked. That way I could use the walls as a bounced light source, or a non reflective source.