Ideal size for a studio?

Ok, so this will be a few years off when we actually start building a house,

but my husband and I are starting to look through plan books to get a feel for

what we want. One thing that I HAVE to have is an in home studio. What I want

is a shooting space for portaits (1-3 people) on one side of the room and a

sitting area/workspace for meeting with clients, proofing, etc on the other. I

really have no idea how much space I will need. So, if any of you have a

similar set up in your home, how big is the room? Thanks so much!

as big as your budget will allow. Bigger, if you're a creative thinker (and motivated). <p>60 ft deep, 30 ft wide. 15 ft ceilings. nice<p>You will like having as much room behind your subjects as you have between your camera and them, and it would be nice to have that much room again, behind you. <p>Make one wall old brick, one wall homasote, one wall with a garage door, one wall a cyc wall. And put a deck on the roof and a walled courtyard outside the garage door that wraps around one corner and make the exterior stucco... t <p>(otherwise 600 sq. ft. will do. Ha.)

According to old KODAK literature on this subject. The minimum size is 20 feet of camera to subject distance. Plus the behind the camera space, and the distance from the background to the subject. This would mean at least 30-40 feet minimum. This is for 35mm or medium format photography, with typical portrait lenses. And they suggest at least 10-14 foot ceilings to allow room for lighting for standing subjects.

I went down this road a few years ago. I really wanted to have a home based studio so that after a shoot I could do all of my post processing in the comfort of my home, rather than in some building down town away from my family. We came up with a studio sized about 30x30 12' tall. It was going to be one large room, with all of the ammenities around the edges and the shooting in the center. When we starting checking around, getting permits and what not, the zoning board told us that a home based business cannot be in a space that exceeds 25% of the house. There were 25 other ridiculous rules I had to follow, but the size thing killed us, the size of our house is only 1800sqft, so this studio is about half of that. The biggest studio I can have at this house is 20x20, which is not near enough for the full service space I was hoping for.

 

So then we decided to build an outbuilding on our property the size we wanted and they shot that down too. Outbuildings can only be used for businesses in agricultural zoned areas. I'm in residential.

 

So just check with your zoning board FIRST before you get blue prints drawn including something you're not allowed to have. Although, your kids might love it if they end up with a 40x40 playroom.

Ryan is right check your zoning laws for home based business also check out local city

ordinances you might find it is cheaper to rent or buy a building downtown. Some cities hate

home based businesses. I would think about adding a bathroom and a place to change

clothing, and hair and make-up. My studio set up is mobile since I do mainly location and

environmental work. I would strongly recommend shooting tethered or WIFI. I use a WIFI set

up with my D2X for studio work that FTPs my images to my work station where I use bridge

and Photoshop to view my images as shot. Things I would look at would be widows for

window light. May be a wall that has gradual curving sloping to the floor. That you can use as

a backdrop. Well good luck.

In most jurisdictions you can apply for a variance from the zoning regulations. Since a photo studio doesn't generate much traffic parking isn't a problem. You won't have delivery trucks coming and going or be making a lot of noise. You won't be using hundreds of gallons of water each day or have loud machinery. Go to your building and zoning department and talk to them. They might be able to issue what's called an administrative variance. If not you'll have to go in front of a board and present your case. This might be called the Board of Adjusment or the Zoning Appeals Board or something similar. Should that fail you can probably appeal the decision to the city or town council.

 

I spent about a dozen years on my city's Planning Commision, and the past half dozen on the Board of Adjustment, so I'm quite familiar with the system, but the particulars vary from place to place. Good luck.

Can you not just have a large playroom or utility room with portable studio equipment. Then the studio can't be calissified as a permanent feature.

<p>The smallest I'd build is 24' x 24'. I've shot in a 24' x 24' quite comfortably for a long time ... with a 24-70mm and 70-200mm.</p>