Is it possible to have a studio this size?

<p>My office (in my apartment) has 15 feet by 8 feet of available space. Is this big enough to use as a studio for portraits? I don't have room to store 7 foot softboxes (nor the money to buy them). What, if anything is, feasible in a space this size?<br>

For lighting, I have six 65w overhead floods and two halogen floorlamps. For speedlights, I have a Pentax 540FGZ, a Vivitar 283 and a Nikon SB-E.<br>

I was thinking that an umbrella or two and maybe a medium softbox with a few stands for those and remote flashes (with optical triggers). I will need a backdrop and a stand. <br>

Does this make any sense?<br>

Your opinions and info would be appreciated. Thanks.</p>

<p>You did not mention how high the ceilings are? </p>

<p>You can do head and shoulder portraits in that length/width space but probably not full length shots or groups ... which would force use of wider angle focal length and result in unflattering distortion.</p>

<p>Forget about using the overhead floods which I assume are fixed, and the floor lamps. The speed-lights you have are daylight color temperature while the floods and floor lamps are a different color temp. You do no want mixed color temperatures when shooting portraits (need consistent skin tones).</p>

<p>The speed-lights will need some sort of optical trigger or radio system. </p>

<p>Umbrellas in a smaller area are too hard to control and will spill light all over the place. There are now more soft-box solutions with speed-light mounts ... used in concert with reflector panels for bounce can work quite nicely.</p>

<p>At 8 feet wide, I'd devise a way to avoid using a background stand and opt for a wall mount solution for maximum width backdrops ... which allows you to move around the subject a bit more without running out of background.<br>

-Marc</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Think about this way, for portraits your subjects need to be at least 5 feet from the background. That cuts your studio down to 10 feet vertically. The lamps need to be about 4-5 feet from the subject, that cuts down the room you have horizontally by half. You might be able to get away with some individual or small group 3/4 sit-and-grin portrait sessions, but that's about it.</p>

<p>I would recommend using small umbrellas for your set up probably the 32" inch kind. Anything bigger and you will be tripping all over the equipment. The Halogen lamps will only make things hot and stuffy so I would stick to speedlights. You also might need a hair light and/or background light so keep that in mind.</p>

<p>Trying to get good color balance with 3 different types of speedlights might become an issue. To keep your sanity and your head of hair, you are better off using the same power, same brand speed lights for each shoot.</p>

<p>You probably wont need remote since you will only be a few feet from everything. Just a couple of lamps with slaves and a syncord to the camera.</p>

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<p>What color are the walls? In a space that small, if they are anything other than pure white, pure gray, or black, you will likely have an on-going annoyance with the color balance.</p>

<p>For the best control of lighting, paint the walls and ceiling black. You can always use foamcore or hang white fabric on parts of the walls if you want to add some reflections. Of course, a black room looks odd and some subjects (and your family) might find it odd / depressing, so some photographers opt for an intermediate approach such as having the rear wall black, leaving the remaining walls mid-gray, opting to hang black cloth over them when needed for high lighting ratio setups.</p>

<p>In contrast, if you start out with all the walls and the ceiling white, it will be like shooting inside a giant light cube -- it's nice for some looks, and greatly reduces the power the strobes need to put out, but it's difficult to modify, and you'll likely get tired of the nearly shadowless look you'll automatically get unless you go to considerable lengths to control the light hitting the subject. Even then, it might be difficult to achieve high ratio, dramatic lighting. Heed Mark W's caution about the spill from umbrellas used in a small space.</p>

<p>Think of it this way: If the walls and ceiling are all white, say, with 90% reflectivity, spill light will bounce around for 6 or 7 bounces before it gets reduced by one stop. In contrast, with all gray surfaces, say with 50%, unwanted spill will only be around for one bounce before it is down by 1 stop.</p>

<p>Of course, the design of a studio space is a very personal decision and has been known to trigger very heated discussions, so take the above with a grain of salt. :-)</p>

<p>Tom M</p>

<p>I've successfully done head and shoulders portraits across a 10 foot wide living room without any issues. I'd debate that the lights need to be 4 or 5 ft away, since a small diffuse source actually needs to be quite close in to keep the quality of light soft. A 70cm square softbox only needs to be 2 or 3 ft away from the subject. The only problem you'll maybe face is placing a hair light or kicker behind the sitter.</p>

<p>For modifiers you can do a lot worse than look at umbrella-style softboxes. They put up and knock down like a normal umbrella, but form an octagonal softbox when erected. Very compact and efficient, and the light doesn't spill out the back like a shoot-through brolly.</p>

<p>I'd forget about using the mottley collection of strobes that you already have and get a matched set of 3. My own favourites are Nikon SB-25s; very versatile units with a quality build, excellent power and extremely fast recycle time. Expect to pay around $50-60 each (used) for them, which is cheaper than the going rate for a crappy Vivitar 285.</p>

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<p>Marc - The ceiling is 10 feet high.<br>

<br />Thanks for all the information guys, it gives me a lot to chew on. I don't think I'll be painting the walls black or grey - it would be too depressing to be in when not being used as a studio and I don't think my wife would love the idea.<br>

<br />My camera is a Pentax K-5. My "portrait" lenses are a 55-200 f/4-5.6, 55-300 f/4-5.6, 85mm f/1.4. 18-55 f/4-5.6</p>

<p>If you google around the web, you will find several good sites on small studios. Adorama TV has a segment on one guy that built something in his house thats about your size using fence railing along the walls and overhead to hang lights off of - no stands needed. Saves space. And the walls are "virtual" in that they can be repositioned. <br>

Height to me is the most important characteristic. I've shot in people's homes and garages to shoot more of an at home environmental portrait and height is the killer not width and depth per se. I currently use a portion of one of my garages since it has 13 ft ceilings. Floor space is 12x24 but I can fudge a foot here and there since I'm occupying a "space" within a space so to speak. <br>

If a background gets to be too defined and there isn't the separation, there is always Photoshop/Lightroom. <br>

Good luck. </p>