10'Wide x 40'Long room in attic, what would you do?

[medic583]

A dozen years ago I managed to pick up this gorgeous piece of property on the lake in town. Little did I know at the time, the two houses on the 3 acres of land were in a deplorable state (yes... young and over my head at the time, didn't know how to put two pieces of wood together yet fell in love with the property). Over the last 12 years the two houses were re-built from the ground up with me learning each and every aspect along the way, wiring/plumbing/thicker walls, metal siding/roofing, furnaces, you name it (only the basement cement walls remain original). Yes... should have bulldozed them at the start... but heh... had to live somewhere while paying for the property and heh... I sure learned a LOT :).

Skip forward a dozen years, rental house sold and main house is expanding :) Best of all... after all these years... I had the chance to delve into photography where I'd always wanted to (instead of buying/installing doors or whatever... I got to pick up a camera and learn) and am now building the shop I've always wanted to go along with my house.

The main floor of my shop is going to be 30' deep x 40' wide with 10' walls. This gives me a 30' deep by 16' wide metal working shop and a 30' deep x 24' wide woodworking shop. But... the chance at adding a room upstairs also popped up while the material purchasing discussion took place and I took it. Seriously... cheaper than adding onto the house, the shop is all in-floor heating, seperate from the living areas... why not do it while I can right?

Upstairs the "room in attic" trusses work out to 10' deep x 40' wide and 8' high ceilings. I've added a couple of double hung windows upstairs on the south side for light and ventilation and a set of double doors on the north for light/access (no choice on going reverse sides on this unfortunately).

Now... my question to all of you, what would you do with this room photography wise?

I have been delving in as much as possible with learning all aspects of photography and still have a LONG ways to go, but my thought with the little studio area would be for unique/edgy style portraits, and maybe some product type shots of equipment and such (thinking for PR of our EMS system which I work in).

I have three Elinchrom 400BX's (have 580's for the outdoor work) with stands/umbrellas/small softboxes, cybersyncs and am using a Canon 50D (XTi is my backup). Sorry... no FF but the length of the room should allow me some space to compensate for the crop factor (?). Lenses include my Tokina 12-24, 50mm 1.4, 70-200 f/4...

I've included a rough set up of what's in my head:

8' wide backdrop that the paper/muslim can be rolled out onto the floor?
3/4" hickory is going down on the floor for the entire upstairs.
Unfortunately/fortunately there will be a trap door/little lift-hoist set up in the middle of the shop which I was thinking of covering with a mobile desk for tethering the laptop.
Windows can be used for natural light portraits?
Walls can be painted white/grey/black, maybe only half the room, where and what would you suggest?
Unfortunately only 8' ceilings so getting height out of the strobes is going to be difficult.


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So... what do you all think... painting recomendations, set up of small light box area, hang strobes somehow instead of on stands, hang backdrop from ceiling instead of those stand style, couches/chairs... anything, it's all a blank canvas right now (ok the materials are being delivered this afternoon so it's not even up yet.. but heh... it will be VERY soon :)).

Thanks again everyone for taking a look at this... the transport is on it's way right now and we'll be framing next week... kind of excited/nervous but sure looking forward to having somewhere to shoot this winter when it hits -40C :)

[Robert Armbrust]

If you have the money for it, I've seen some pretty cool tracks that mount on the ceiling with arms to hold monolights. I think Adorama has them.

[hawk911]

I'd paint a corner of the room in a brick pattern or some other cool scheme. Frank Doorhof has a video on having his studio wall painted and images taken using the wall. Pretty cool stuff.

[Wilt]

Not sufficient width or height to position lighting, particularly softboxes. If you are content with couples sitting as subjects it could work.

[Pixel Boy]

If you have the money for it, I've seen some pretty cool tracks that mount on the ceiling with arms to hold monolights. I think Adorama has them.

the system your talking about is made by bowens if you check out theyr website its there and its around 3k in the uk...

[SkipD]

Not sufficient width or height to position lighting, particularly softboxes. If you are content with couples sitting as subjects it could work.Ditto.

For a full-fledged portrait studio, my minimum requirements would be 14 feet wide by 20 feet long and 10 foot ceiling. In addition to that, I would need storage space, dressing room space, etc., to make it functional for any serious or commercial work.

[Drozz119]

Upstairs the "room in attic" trusses work out to 10' deep x 40' wide and 8' high ceilings.
Unfortunately only 8' ceilings so getting height out of the strobes is going to be difficult.When you say the 'room in attic" trusses are 8' height.. Is the drywall or plaster attached directly to the trusses? Also, Is it a pitched roof? If it is, I'm assuming the trusses are 30' and run from east to west.

If the drywall is attached to a framed ceiling(bottom of truss), you could remove the drywall above the backdrop(say 20' from windows to the center of the room. Then you would have exposed the backside of the roof(plywood) which, depending on your pitch, should be about 12' height.

Then you have the issue with the framing(bottom of truss).. It should either be 16" OC, or 24" OC. These can be cut out, but ONLY AFTER you 'sister in' new joists (at about 11') and kick back to your existing josts. This would essentially turn a regular truss into a cathedral truss.

Your new drywall would be hung at about 11' depending on the pitch of your roof.

A good framing carpenter could frame that in a day.. I would suggest getting at LEAST two opinions of Engineers/Builders before you tackle something like that.. as it is structural framing.

[medic583]

Heh all... thanks for the replies... and sorry haven't been on to reply earlier but these overtime shifts are diggin' into the fun.

Robert, I haven't looked into the cost but was thinking along the lines of those overhead rails as well (cost is a big issue though). My thoughts were it would give me more room to play with the lights, but with the ceiling only being only 8' high... would it even be worth it compared to throwing them on the stands?

hawk911, ahhh... never thought of something unique on the walls as I was thinking along the lines of the white or grey and wasn't sure... but that... hmm... that sounds interesting. The building itself I'm building in metal so figure I can work in some outdoor shots during the summer (as well as I have my buddies wharehouse to work in when I want) but never thought of painting a wall inside... hmmm...

Wilt... you hit the biggest nail on the head with this room.... the ceiling height :cry: When I first looked at building the "shop" I had to decide on going cheap or adding the room-in-attic trusses. Honestly I couldn't add onto the house and get the same space as I would for the cost of the trusses so decided what the heck. Unfortunately... limited to 8' high interior upstairs. Understanding this I know I will be extremely limited to what I can do up there... but... ha... how could I resist having a "play room" just to learn more about photography? :)

Yet... it should be good for sitting subjects... maybe standing if I can hang the backdrop from the ceiling? What about the lights... would a track up high work better than the stands for that extra inch here and there? Ceiling and walls white, grey or would it even make a difference painting it all so the walls/ceiling blend together?

Pixel Boy... ouch... way out of the price range for this rookie on the track.... still wondering if it is possible to weld something up, some sort of rail with justin clamps or similar type to get that extra height... hmmm. Ha... yep... 40 g's so far going into the shop without the new 3hp table saw/sliding table... so considering it's just for us learning really have to keep an eye on the costs...

SkipD, would love to have the extra room... but for this guy... well... the 10' high woodshop/metal shop downstairs gets the space first as I'm still renovating and working on my other toys primarily (1975 Jeep CJ5 is the main winter project). This space is more for personal use... living in a small town we are very limited to what we have available for courses/learning and such so a group of us get together often and experiment with various techniques and gear. Just rookies playing, learning... and if need be we still can move downstairs to get the extra height or width in the 24x30 main shop...

Although... I was thinking it would be nice to have some breakdown tables upstairs, maybe fold up/hinged plywood on the wall where we can try lighting small objects, the windows/door could be used for natural light sitting portraits, backdrop could be dropped down with some seamless onto the floor and....???

Drozz119, due to city/town bylaws... I was lucky enough to get away with the size of shop I did along with the type of trusses. Having the acreage in town allowed me to build it bigger than the house and since the neighbours are a few hundred feet away I was allowed to go with a 10/12 pitch and the room in attic trusses. Unfortunately though... stuck with what was available... and requires an engineers stamp which in turn... they can't be modified :(

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So... stuck with the drywall attaching to the bottom of the trusses at 8' interior... but they are at 24" OC so do have the option of skylights and such if wanted :) Mind you we're required to have R40 in the attic and with these it's going to be a tight squeeze do the design... so even thinking of trying to get extra space will be a nightmare. But... again... will have the downstairs with the 10' ceilings and 30' depth if needed so do have that option but am kind of stuck upstairs to existing size.

Anyhow... white walls, grey walls, ceiling colour, those modelling chairs/stands, muslims, paper or vinyl backdrops, tubing on ceiling with justin style clamps or just use stands, curtains and/or flags/reflectors... what can I do with the space or what else can ya come up with me for the "dog house" :)

Thanks all for your replies... we're getting our first snowfall right now and we'll be starting the framing when I come off shift on Tuesday morning... hoping to have the building enclosed within a week at most :) Electrical hookup and Natural gas for the infloor heating after that... then time to work on the play room so us local amatuers can learn more (beats moving my living room furniture about each time). :)

[Cathpah]

I'd turn it into a bowling alley!

[Dbix]

Make a dark room and shoot film.

[Wilt]

The issue with white walls or white ceiling is that you give up 'total control' of your lighting, because they can reflect back spill from your lights. You, not the ceiling and walls, should control what light you want where. Its there a way for you to leave some of the ceiling in a somewhat unfinished state that permit lighting (softboxes, hair light) to protrude up into the unfinished spaces so you have more than 8' of overhead in some spots?

[tetrode]

I'd consider moving the metal or woodworking shop to the attic and using the downstairs shop space as the studio.

Dave F.

[medic583]

Wilt.... thanks... I can sure imagine a lot of spill light from having all the walls, ceilings painted white, moreso because of the confined space than anything I guess.

Unfortunately because the trusses offer so little room above them to the peak I don't think I can even sneak in a few inches above... but will have to pull out the tape to see what can be done.

Would a neutral grey be a better idea in this cavern... have the walls eat up some light instead of them reflecting it?

Ha... Dave F... everything in the woodshop is going on wheels so there will be... ahem... expansion room for times needed :)