Anyone here do portraits?

portellimagery

Anyone here do portrait photograpgy? I have been asked to do a set of senoir portraits. I have been reading like crazy. Thanks to selling my themes, i had enough to cover what I "initally" wanted. I went with Alien Bees,4 of the AB800, a couple of umbrellas and two soft boxes. Since they have a 60 day satisfaction guarantee, I can try everything out. I bought three light stands, a boom, background stands, 4 hand painted muslins, and three more soft boxes off of ebay. I also got a Sekonic 358 meter.

I am now debating converting my garage (costly and probably "alot" of work) or using my family room as a studio. Does anyone here do portraits from a home studio. I mentioned it to a guy at work today and he thought it sounded strange. I figure if this fails I can always sell everything since I actually got some great deals (a 48" x 36" softbox for $14... woohoo) Thanks.

Micheal

Nikolai

My rookie experience
I did a few portraits recently at my place.
I was using the common room instead of garage.
The reasoning:

• garage is full of junk
• garage has a low ceiling, 6-7 ft: enough for Doormaster, but not enough to put the lights high enough for a proper lighting
• common room was pretty much empty - big dining table, but I moved it aside
• common room has a "vaulted" (or "cathedral") ceiling, going at an angle from 6-7 ft on one side to about 20 ft on the other, thus providing plenty of headroom for lights and the backdrop supports (I have 8x14 collapsible Boteros). I was also using the ceiling as a light source - I pointed my 1500wt worklight on it, so it reflected back on the "scene" area
• it was a generally nicer view/better light overall

HTH

hollyc

I convert my 2-car garage into a studio on a regular basis. I use paper backgrounds and the concrete floor makes sure there's no bumps in the paper when people stand on it (carpet everywhere else). It also gives me plenty of room to move about and there's just not another room in my house that could give me that kind of space. I cut up some used black paper and put it over the windows to make sure I get even light night or day. I've even added a window air conditioner for those hot summer days. I also have a ceiling mounted paper-holder thingy so I can just pull a chain for the paper to come down. The main problem for me is the garage door ceiling bars actually get in my shot at times, which is a pain in photoshop. Full conversion from garage use to nice studio is only as long as it takes me to put out all my lights and set up the stands (about 20 minutes).

Of course, my dream would be to build a studio on the back of my lot and just use my garage as a garage, but I have a feeling that's a long way off for me...

Good luck!

Shay Stephens

Portraits can and do get taken from anywhere and everywhere. City streets, parks, hotel rooms, lobbies, studios, back yards, the middle of no where, you name it. So in your case, home is where you hang your hat if you know what I mean.

Space is the most important factor. Shoot where you have space for whatever you will be using and for the lenses you will be using.

I shoot product at home in the living room, and people everywhere else. But when I was doing studio type portraits, I did them where I had the space to setup the background and lights. So shoot where you need to, and don't worry about where that place happens to be.

HoofClix

Simplify......
I do a protrait of every guest my wife and I have over to our house for dinner.. Have collected quite a few. I just have them go up to the teak bench in the woods behind our house, and I then use my 70-200 set at f2.8, and shoot away. I prefer to get them done just before sundown so that the sun, usually coming from behind them from about their 8 or 8:30. I use an SB-800 flash, and I minus flash compensate a few shots until the sparkle disappears from their eyes, and then pop it back up one to get a slight sparkle back..

So you don't always need to convert a room to get it done..

portellimagery wrote:

Anyone here do portrait photograpgy? I have been asked to do a set of senoir portraits. I have been reading like crazy. Thanks to selling my themes, i had enough to cover what I "initally" wanted. I went with Alien Bees,4 of the AB800, a couple of umbrellas and two soft boxes. Since they have a 60 day satisfaction guarantee, I can try everything out. I bought three light stands, a boom, background stands, 4 hand painted muslins, and three more soft boxes off of ebay. I also got a Sekonic 358 meter.

I am now debating converting my garage (costly and probably "alot" of work) or using my family room as a studio. Does anyone here do portraits from a home studio. I mentioned it to a guy at work today and he thought it sounded strange. I figure if this fails I can always sell everything since I actually got some great deals (a 48" x 36" softbox for $14... woohoo) Thanks.

Micheal

portellimagery

Thanks for the replies. I ended up with doing them in the garage. I had planned them in the family room but the garage ceiling was heigher and I had a wider space to set up. My clients love the photos so far and have said they are going to have a tough time choosing. I do believe that I am going to convert the garage fully in the spring. Sam's club has some wood laminate flooring that I want for the fllow and I an thinking of placing sliding doors down both sides of the garage to store everything out of sight.

I will also say that the set of Alien Bees AB800's I bought are excellent. I got four (since they have a 60 day guarantee) The pictures are great. The only problem was the client's glasses. So far so good though. I am so glad that I opted for the studio strobes over hot lights.

Micheal