DIY | Working w/the space you’re given
A studio….. ahhh a girl can dream, right?
NAH! You CAN have a studio!
Maybe not the glorious one of your dreams, but all you need is a small space…. a back drop stand and you have the basic needs for a makeshift studio! And even more amazing… your tiny & seemingly silly studio, can result in BEAUTIFUL portraits!
Now I dont have a large house, I dont even have a basement… but, I do have a living room and a storage room!
Many a times, I’ve move my couch back, pulled my blinds wide open and set up my back drop stand and seamless paper! Most people would never even know my set up, unless seeing my SOOC shots.
Being that I live in Chicago… which means “gloomy days and long winters”, I also invested in a soft box (I have the med Alien Bee and the AB400 light). An investment well worth my dollars! However, I also use natural light with this set up many times as well. Below, you will see my setup when I use my living room… I only have my back drop stand (savage portable), seamless paper 53″, and my AB light to left of camera…. and large window with natural light to the right of camera.
Using this simple set up… and portable set up… results in studio quality portraits!!! (yes, that’s me! lol)
A few more pics I’ve taken using this space, and this same set up:
Now I also have a small room in our house as well… used to be my sewing room, but I’ve turned it into a makeshift studio. Literally… this room is 12×10… so NOT big by any means!
In this room, I do a similar set up: back drop stand, seamless paper, and due to fact that hardly a glimmer of light makes it way through the tiny windows, I always use my AB in here.
You can see how tiny my space is… (and my prop addition truely shows it’s colors, lol). Where I am sitting at, and taking this picture from.. is the doorway!
However… I LOVE the way my pictures turn out in this tiny, light filtered room!
So as you can see… you dont need to dream big to acheive your goals!
Just a small investment, a few props… and you CAN have your studio!
Don’t get me wrong… I do dream of that large, gorgeous, chic & urban studio… but for now, I LOVE having my home studio.
It’s cozy, easy access, and “homey” 
Gotta run… a client is walking for their “home studio” session!!!!
~Tracy & Gina
thanks for the info!! can’t wait to try it out!
Love it! thank you for sharing with us.
Oh did I ever need this encouragement!! This is exactly what I have minus the AB but I am working my way towards that too!
Thanks girls!
Stephanie.. I only got my AB a few (maybe 3mos) ago.. so before then, I was using ONLY my window light
It works wonderful just the same!
Move your couch, and set up that stand!
Where did you buy your lights from?
Thanks so much for this! It’s nice to know that I CAN have a studio without really having a “studio”!
DO you use a wireless transmitter or is it just the light source.
Living in Michigan I know what you mean. I do nothing in the winter so I’m hoping before winter starts this year I can have everything to have my own in house “studio”. I am looking to buy a softbox to use as well as the natural light coming in through my door wall in my dining room.
so I’m not the only one with “not enough” space? good to know! thank you for sharing, perfect!
Thanks for the inspiration!! I have been setting up and tearing down in my living room, lugging all of my props from downstaris to upstairs. My prop addiction looks a bit like yours… It takes forever to get it all up here!! I was just thinking last night of designating a room to shooting.
I so dream of the big studio as well. I’ve tried setting up in my home with just natural light and my pictures seem grainy or have a lot of noise. I adjust ISO to 400 then 800 same thing. Are you using a 50mm lens? Could you publish a link of exactly what soft box and light you purchased?? Thank you so much!! This is great information!
Thank you so much for sharing your set up! Where do you set up your AB in the sewing room “studio”?
Great DIY blog…I have the camera, tripod, some backgrounds and a dark but large livingroom that no one uses (we have a family/tv room). I wasn’t sure that it could be used like that and get the great results you get……not I’m up for trying it out…..maybe the lense fund can go for the light or the background holder…..thanks for the kick in the butt!
I totally agree. My house is rather small, but I pull the couch to the kitchen and set up my “studio” in its place, lol! I hope to someday have a real studio, but til then, I’ll work with this.
You can totally make this work-I have an ab 800 and 400 and I have been shooting with almost this same setup in my basement for 3 years. Works great and u would never guess looking at my images that it’s not a real studio! Work with what you got I say!