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

Aressem wrote in post #13791694
Ok guys - I have a question. I want to set up a studio in my living room in the next couple months. I've already decided to go with the Manfrotto Autopoles but here's the kicker. I have carpet . I want to find a way to get a hard floor down so that I can pull bg's down and drag them across the floor to walk on. With carpet, this will be an issue. I was thinking that I could get some bricks/blocks and spread them out to support the corners and centers of some 4'x8' sheets of plywood or something but I was hoping maybe some of you have also encountered this challenge and have come up with some other innovative ideas. All suggestions greatly appreciated (especially those with photos )

I just added the autopoles with booms mounted to them to my living room studio and have carpet as well. I had previously purchased two sheets of the white tile board ($11.88 per sheet) that everyone uses for a pure white background. So, when shooting white seamless, I use those. They are thin and heels or stand legs can punch a hole through them if you are not careful. If I shoot a different color, I just keep the tileboard flat on the carpet, rather than overlapped, and pull the paper over it. It works ok, you just have to be a little careful.

This is a good, cheap, short term solution. I will be pulling out the carpet and putting in hardwood soon. Hardwood flooring with a laminated pre-finish is under $500 if you install it yourself. Pick a flat finish, not shiny.

Aressem wrote in post #13791694
Ok guys - I have a question. I want to set up a studio in my living room in the next couple months. I've already decided to go with the Manfrotto Autopoles but here's the kicker. I have carpet . I want to find a way to get a hard floor down so that I can pull bg's down and drag them across the floor to walk on. With carpet, this will be an issue. I was thinking that I could get some bricks/blocks and spread them out to support the corners and centers of some 4'x8' sheets of plywood or something but I was hoping maybe some of you have also encountered this challenge and have come up with some other innovative ideas. All suggestions greatly appreciated (especially those with photos )

Killjoy's suggestions are what I would try if I had that situation. If you go with plywood, why not just lay it directly on the carpet? That would be better and easier than trying to set up blocks/bricks to support it.

If you want wall or ceiling rails cheaply buy DIY disabled handles/rails (the long ones are best). Put them in strategic positions where you want to mount lights etc. then us Manfrotto superclamps to put up the lights/equipment you want.

Been a while since I've posted, sorry. I am going to be doing some work in the studio this weekend with my 10 year old and will try to get some BTS images.

great, always enjoy the bts shots, been getting happier with my results and workarounds with the space limitations.

thanks for all the help.

Well, that didn't go so well ... been over a year since I've been here by the looks of it. The studio hasn't changed much although I now have a second pair of Profoto D1 Air 1000's. My body collection has changed a fair bit and I need to reshoot them: 2 x 1DX, 2 x 1D4, 5D3 and 1Ds3. Some small lens changes. I'll add doing a new composite of equipment to my list of things promised but not delivered, sigh.

Well, after about ten years of professional photography, I am going through a divorce in which the mediator seems to feel that my business is bringing in huge sums of money that I am somehow hiding. In response, I am shuttering my business. This, sadly, brought out veiled threats, but since I am 69 with heart disease it is impossible for her to suggest that I should somehow have to keep working! I am more amicable with my wife than with this "mediator" who does not seem to be neutral in the least but I will get through this by being firm.

sorry to hear this Dwight, hope everything works out for you, take care