A home studio

Learning goal

In a small room, on a limited budget, you will be able to design a home studio good enough to build the classic lighting patterns you learned in this module. By sharing the room's length between the camera, the subject and the backdrop, you will calculate which portraits the room depth makes possible, and use the window as the key light and one or two cheap artificial sources as evening light. You will see how wall bounce from white walls lowers contrast and cut it with a black surface, make reflectors and flags from foam boards, and build the whole arrangement as a collapsible setup that fits in a box. You will check what the walls in a small room do to the dark half of a dark and a light face, and complete the module's project in your own home studio.

The question

As you leave the large studio where you shot the band's cover, the drummer shows you their own home: a room with a low ceiling, three steps wide, five steps long. One window, white walls, a chandelier on the ceiling, a desk lamp in the corner. They want to shoot birthday portraits for their siblings here, product photos for their small business, perhaps even a test of their own album cover. But the room has no light stand, no backdrop, no large softbox.

In the first try you seat their sibling in front of the white wall and shoot with the light coming from the window. The light is soft and pleasant, but there is no contrast in the frame: the shadow side is almost the same brightness as the lit side, and the white wall behind competes with the face. Can you set up a studio at home? How much of what a large studio does can a five-step room do?

Context

Throughout this module you worked in a studio where you commanded the light's angle, size and power separately: a single light, named patterns, a multi-light setup, the backdrop, the ratio, two extreme atmospheres. Most of these tools aren't expensive or large; what is really needed is knowing what the light does. A small room, used together with this knowledge, can turn into a surprisingly flexible studio.

The limits of a home studio, on the other hand, are real: a narrow room makes it hard to move the backdrop away from the subject, and white walls make it hard to control the light. This lesson tells how to recognize each of these limits and get past them with a cheap, small, collapsible setup; and with the module's project, it closes studio lighting.

Simple explanation

How deep should the room be?

A home studio is an arrangement in a room of a home, permanent or one that can be packed away and set up again, good enough for shooting photos with controlled light. The first thing that limits it is room depth: the room's length available for lining up the camera, the subject and the backdrop on one line. This length is divided into three parts: the distance between the backdrop and the subject, the distance between the subject and the camera, and the place behind the camera where the photographer stands.

The distance between the backdrop and the subject is needed to control the backdrop's tone. If the subject is stuck to the backdrop, the key light lights the backdrop too and the shadow falls on the backdrop; a few steps of distance make it possible to darken the backdrop and take the shadow out of the frame. The distance between the subject and the camera, on the other hand, decides the shape of the face. When a face is shot from very close, the area closest to the camera, the nose, looks disproportionately large; moving back a little and shooting with a longer focal length keeps the face's proportions more natural. In a narrow room these two distances compete with each other; for head-and-shoulders portraits, using the room's longest diagonal is most often the best solution.

Where does the light come from?

The window is the strongest and cheapest key light of a home studio (Lesson 5.6). A window facing north or not getting direct sun gives a soft, consistent light all day. A sheer curtain stretched in front of a window the sun hits turns it into a large softbox. By turning the subject relative to the window, most of the patterns from earlier lessons can be built: a face half turned to the window gives Rembrandt or loop, a face turned fully sideways to the window gives split lighting.

In the evening and in winter, on the other hand, an artificial source is needed. A flash and an umbrella, or an LED panel with good color rendering, is enough to carry most setups. A low, white ceiling is a ready surface for bouncing. The chandelier and desk lamps in the home, on the other hand, are most often a problem: they mix with a light of a different color and split the face into two colors. Turning off the other lamps in the room before starting to shoot is the easiest solution to mixed light.

How are white walls controlled?

Wall bounce is light in a small room hitting the white walls, the ceiling and the floor and returning to the subject from every direction. In a large studio the walls are far away and most often dark; in a small room, on the other hand, they are close and white. That is why in a home studio, light fills from every direction even if you don't want it to: the shadow side opens, the ratio drops and building a dark setup becomes hard. This was the reason the contrast was lost in the portrait of the drummer's sibling.

The way to cut this bounce is to put a black surface on the subject's shadow side; the negative fill you met in an earlier module becomes the basic tool of the home studio here. A black cloth, a black card or the black side of a foam board swallows the reflection coming to the shadow side and brings back the ratio. A foam board is a light, cheap board that can have one white side and one black side; its white side is used as a reflector, its black side as a flag or negative fill. Taping two boards together like a book makes a panel that stands on its own.

For the backdrop, one wall of the room, a cloth stretched between two chairs, a roll of paper or a large painted board is enough. Because darkening the backdrop is hard in a narrow room, a dark cloth is more flexible than a light wall; when a light backdrop is wanted, the wall itself is most often enough.

A collapsible setup is an arrangement in which all the pieces, the light, the modifier, the boards, the clamps and the backdrop, can be packed away after the shoot to fit in a box or a cupboard and set up again within minutes. Used together with the lighting recipe from the earlier lesson, the same setup can be rebuilt weeks later with the same result. Cables and stands should be kept away from walkways, and lights should be secured; in a small room a toppled light can harm both the equipment and people.

In a small room the walls leave a trace on skin too. Bounce from white walls opens the shadow side and the eye sockets of dark skin on its own; this is most often a gain, but if a dark setup is wanted, it needs to be cut with a black surface. On light skin the same bounce can flatten the face; negative fill brings the shape back here. If the wall is colored, it adds its color to the light: a yellow wall yellows the skin, a green wall grays it. Putting a white or black board in front of colored walls prevents this shift. The final word is said by the face enlarged on the screen.

Visual evidence

In the drummer's room you seat their sibling half turned toward the window; a sheer curtain is stretched in front of the window. You move the camera to the opposite corner of the room and use the room's diagonal; this way their sibling is two steps from the backdrop and three steps from the camera. Behind them you hang a dark gray blanket stretched between two chairs. In the first frame the contrast is still low: the white walls are filling the shadow side. On their sibling's shadow side, a meter from their face, you lean the black side of a foam board. The shadow side deepens and the shape of their cheek appears; on their dark skin the area under their eyes is still open with the light from the walls.

When evening comes you rebuild the same setup with a flash and an umbrella. You turn off the chandelier and the desk lamp and put the umbrella in the window's place. You turn the foam board's white side to use it as a reflector, its black side to use it as a flag. Within an hour, in the same room, you shoot a one-light portrait, a Rembrandt, a loop, a split and a clamshell; you write each one's diagram and recipe in a notebook. When the shoot is over, the whole setup fits in one bag and one roll of cloth.

Common mistakes

Summary

A home studio can be set up in a small room on a low budget; the room depth is shared between backdrop and subject and between subject and camera, and in a narrow room the diagonal gives the longest line. The window is the strongest and cheapest key light, and for the evening a flash or an LED with good color rendering is enough; the other lamps in the home are turned off so they don't create mixed light. Wall bounce from white walls lowers contrast and is cut with a black surface, foam boards work as reflectors, flags and negative fill; the whole setup is built in a collapsible way, and the walls' effect on skin is checked by enlarging the face.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will set up a home studio in your own room and complete the module's project.

1. Measure the room's length and its diagonal; draw the distances for the backdrop, the subject and the camera on a sheet of paper.
2. Shoot a portrait with window light; then put a black surface on the shadow side, repeat the same frame and compare how the contrast changes.
3. Prepare a reflector, a flag and a backdrop from foam board, card or a sheet; after the shoot, pack them all into a box or a bag.
4. Module project: in your home studio, or a studio you can access, build five classic lighting patterns, for example one light, Rembrandt, butterfly, loop or split, and clamshell or three-point; share each one together with a lighting diagram drawing seen from above and a lighting recipe.

Check yourself

• Looking at the room's size, can you say which portraits you can shoot and at what distances?
• Were you able to notice the white walls' bounce and cut it with a black surface?
• In your project frames, did you check the shadow side of the face and the skin by enlarging, in every setup?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. In a narrow room, which way best meets the distances between backdrop and subject and between subject and camera?

• A) Sticking the subject to the backdrop
• B) Shooting from very close with the widest lens
• C) Putting the camera in the middle of the room
• D) Using the room's longest diagonal

2. What is the most likely reason for low contrast in a portrait shot with window light in a small room?

• A) The window being small
• B) Light from the white walls filling the shadow side
• C) The aperture being wide open
• D) The subject being far from the window

3. What is the black side of a foam board for in a home studio?

• A) It changes the light's color
• B) It opens the backdrop's color
• C) It becomes negative fill or a flag by swallowing the reflection coming to the shadow side
• D) It hardens the window light

4. In a portrait shot in front of a wall painted yellow, a light-skinned person's face looks yellowed. Which is the most fitting solution?

• A) Cut the reflection by putting a white or black board in front of the wall
• B) Raise saturation
• C) Turn on the chandelier
• D) Bring the subject closer to the wall

Answers

1. D — The diagonal is the room's longest line; it leaves the most room for the backdrop and camera distances.
2. B — In a small room white walls send light back from every direction and lower the ratio.
3. C — A black surface doesn't reflect light; by cutting the reflection coming to the shadow side, it brings the contrast back.
4. A — A colored wall adds its color to the light; a board put in front of it cuts this reflection.

Summary card

• Share the room depth between backdrop, subject and camera; use the diagonal.
• The window is the strongest and cheapest key light; for the evening a flash or a good LED.
• Turn off the other lamps; don't let them create mixed light.
• Cut white wall bounce with a black surface; a foam board does every job.
• Build the setup collapsible; check the walls' effect on skin by enlarging the face.

Bridge to the next lesson

The portraits you shot in the drummer's room were soft on the screen but looked a little dull: the white walls' bounce hadn't cut the shadows completely, the blacks were slightly grayed, and the bright areas didn't quite shine. When you bent a single line into an S shape in the editing program, the photo suddenly came to life: the blacks deepened, the highlights shone, the face stood out. When you lifted the end of the same line, on the other hand, the blacks took on a deliberately faded, hazy air. How does a single curve create contrast? The next lesson opens the advanced editing module, with the tone curve, the S-curve, faded blacks and color channels.