Setting Up a Small In-Home Studio on a Large Budget

[DwightMcCann]

I am in my new house, finally. I have my own den, finally. I also have been granted exclusive use of an "extra" room by my wife for use as a studio. It shares a hallway with my den and a full bathroom. I have not managed to unpack/find my tape measure yet, but the room is about 10' wide, 20' long (more or less) with a 9' ceiling. The room has two windows, one south and one west with entry door on the east. It has a darkish wooden floor and "contractor white" walls.

I have a Bowens QUADX 3000 w/s studio flash unit with four heads, two with extension cords. I also have a few light stands, a softbox, a couple of umbrellas, reflectors with grids, etc. I also have a PhotoFlex three roll adjustable backdrop setup with white and black seamless paper and one neutral gray muslin backdrop with some innocuous design.

I would like to do individual portraits and maybe a little glamour work along with occasional product photography for things like wine bottles/glasses (I have a winery client.)

I am interested in getting input on such things as possible light support fixtures, camera stand, and any/all manner of accessories. I may not do anything to the room immediately (won't even be unpacked for a couple of months I guess) but don't want to do anything I will regret quickly, such as painting the walls black. Also, I guess I would like to know if this room just isn't going to be useful and I should set it up to do matting and framing rather than screwing with it to make it a studio. I know there is a full range of opinions and I would like to hear them all. Oh, I added that bit about "Large Budget" more as an eye catcher than anything else, but I will, over the longer term, have ample funds to do whatever looks the most useful.

Surfkahana is going to come over tomorrow night to show me how to clean my sensor and we could take some pictures of the room, although it has a few boxes sitting on the floor.