How to Make a Home Photo Studio
By making your own home photo studio, you can save the money you spend on family portraits. It can also allow you to set up your own business from the comfort of your own home. A home photo studio can be a great way to make some extra cash on the side, too. To start off, you'll need some backdrops, which can be made from old linens, some clamps and the right lighting.
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Instructions
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Find a room in your home with enough space to accommodate a photo studio. It will need to be long enough to allow you to move near and far from your subject.
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Set up your backdrops. Normal studio backdrops are usually a long roll of paper, but opaque bedsheets can give you the same effect. Tack the bedsheets to a wall, or better yet, clamp them to a tall rack. A wide clothing rack with an adjustable height would work well in this scenario. Make sure that you have enough of the sheet left to spread on the ground. This setup will allow you to take full head-to-toe portraits.
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Look into your lighting. See the Resources below for some tips on how to put together a home studio for $75 or so. You will need several bright lights, some diffusers, a few deflectors, a tripod for your lights and a light meter. You can find many of these items at a hardware store. For example, flood lights rigged with different light bulbs can achieve the same effect as fancy (and expensive) portrait-specific lights. Old black-and-white umbrellas can also serve as diffusers for your lights.
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Set up your lights a fair distance away from your subject. Your lights will be moving frequently, depending on your subject's position and the effect you wish to achieve, so make sure that you have enough room to move them.
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Set up your camera and tripod in the center of the room, and start taking pictures.
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Tips & Warnings
To avoid conflicting types of light, try to pick a room without windows or shoot photos when light is dim. This will make sure your lights have an even warmth and your white balance is not thrown off.
