Starting Home Studio--Suggestions

[design_girl]

Hi, does anyone have a good resource for setting up home studio (book, website, etc...)? I want to take stock photo shots of small/medium sized objects. I don't have a lot of money and want a pretty good set-up. Thanks for your help!

[aam1234]

It will be very interesting to hear experts suggestions & recommendations as I'm planning to have a studio in the not so near future (9-10 months from now). So help us out experts :D

[Conk]

I couldn't suggest any one site or studio setups. It sounds that you are considering product photography. In that case google is a good pace to start. There are a few ways to photograph product but a product table id the desirable way to go. For inexpensive lighting you may want to try alienbees.com As far as technique goes, there are many studio photographers right here to help including myself. However, mine is limited.

[cmM]

a shooting tent could work too, and a couple of flashes, depending on the size of the objects you want to photograph.
... if u want studio strobes and some more advanced lighting schemes, you can check out www.lightingmagic.com, amazing resource.

[chris.bailey]

A shooting tent is fine but does tend to produce the flat looking product picture found in brochures rather than anything more stylish.

What does small to medium objects mean. Assuming you mean table top items then I would look to collect lots of semi junk items.

Bits of white and coloured card, some perspex sheet, glass sheet, bits of flat polystyrene etc. All can be used to create interesting placements and reflectors. If you can find a sign manufacturer they always have offcuts of coloured perspex bound for the skip and they make great gels etc. I would then look to spend your money on a decent ring flash and a couple of other small flash units with slaves. If you are only talking table top objects you can have too much flash power so you are forced to stop down hard possibly creating too much depth of field. I have a couple of big Bowens Flash Units that are just too darn powerful for product photography even with the wick turned right down. A couple of 550EX's would be good as they are easy to control, have good colour and last for ages on a set of rechargeables.

[GoguenPhoto]

Hello all!!

The best way to research this is to read, "The Business of Studio Photography: How to Start and Run a Successful Photography Studio" by Edward R. Lilley. Its a good read and is actually helping in myself making the jump from freelance photography to a home studio. Take care all !!!

[PhotosGuy]

I'm with Chris re "then I would look to collect lots of semi junk items." You can do a LOT with 3 quartz lights, which I prefer as I can see the effect in real tile. Seen these?
Lighting Set-Up Links –illustrations of real world examples (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=66140)