Temp studio size for kids only.

I'm in the process of cleaning out a basement to set up a small studio. I will be shooting kids, age 6 and under, one kid at a time and was wondering if the space I have is big enough.

Ceiling height is 6' which is too short for adults but maybe good enough for kids?

The room is 10' wide and 19' long. So it will it be tight for my 107" seamless.
My concern is will I be able to have enough room for background lights and stand on both sides?
I know the ideal studio size for adults but what about kids. I will set up once the room is clear. Anybody have a 107" seamless in a small room with enough space for 2 background lights?

not trying to take away from your specific needs and questions, but you should definitely check out this guy's setup and more importantly, results.

https://photography-on-the.net …ighlight=apartm​ent+studio

my "studio" is probably around 18x20 but I have a pool table on one side of it. Like you, my ceiling is only 6'4". I put some large eyebolts into the ceiling and then used some 1/2" electrical conduit to span a seven foot distance between the eyebolts. The conduit sagged a bit in the middle, so I took a larger piece of conduit and threaded the smaller conduit through it. I hang my background on this so it is only an inch or two from the ceiling.

my next step will to be to add more conduit "rails" on the sides so that i can either span the ceiling with black/white paper or hang lights on it to save floor space.

Nothing about studio size or anything - we have what we have and have to make the best of it.

If this is dedicated to photographing kids, do make sure that any and all cables (especially) are

1. Out of reach if utterly possible. The ideal (impractical here, I know) would be to have everything hanging off a rail system on the ceiling.
   
2. Taped down securely if they are in the least accessible. Something likethis Hama product is ideal - or duct tape! Bet you can't get your cables as organised as this though! Nor can I.
   
3. Light stands, etc are sandbagged.
   

Whortleberry wrote in post #16630226
Nothing about studio size or anything - we have what we have and have to make the best of it.

If this is dedicated to photographing kids, do make sure that any and all cables (especially) are

1. Out of reach if utterly possible. The ideal (impractical here, I know) would be to have everything hanging off a rail system on the ceiling.
   
2. Taped down securely if they are in the least accessible. Something likethis Hama product is ideal - or duct tape! Bet you can't get your cables as organised as this though! Nor can I.
   
3. Light stands, etc are sandbagged.
   

Mommy's little angel can wreak havoc and also damage themselves if you're not hyper-careful and then what was a pleasant exercise becomes a nightmare. You'd be amazed the devastation that a sweet little 2 year old can visit on you in a nanosecond or two. We may reasonably expect a little spatial awareness in adults (no, you misread that - I said "reasonably EXPECT" not actually GET) but kids have more important things in their lives and bumping into stuff or tripping up is a normal part of their lives.

Have fun!

catching one of my five year olds crawling UNDER my tripod with new 6D and 70-200 on top almost caused a coronary event. For both me and him! Thank god he didn't try to stand up.

hes gone wrote in post #16630262
=he's gone;16630262]

catching one of my five year olds crawling UNDER my tripod with new 6D and 70-200 on top almost caused a coronary event. For both me and him! Thank god he didn't try to stand up.

And it's amazingly difficult trying to poke your heart back down your throat afterwards. However, there's a degree of satisfaction in catching the child (nicely, of course) and uttering that wonderful phrase "Madam, I believe that this is yours" as you hand them back.

Kids - who'd have 'em, eh? A lot of us, seemingly. At least with other people's, you don't have to buy all the shoes.

OneDeep wrote in post #16629381
I'm in the process of cleaning out a basement to set up a small studio. I will be shooting kids, age 6 and under, one kid at a time and was wondering if the space I have is big enough.

Ceiling height is 6' which is too short for adults but maybe good enough for kids?

The room is 10' wide and 19' long. So it will it be tight for my 107" seamless.
My concern is will I be able to have enough room for background lights and stand on both sides?
I know the ideal studio size for adults but what about kids. I will set up once the room is clear. Anybody have a 107" seamless in a small room with enough space for 2 background lights?

You are going to have problems getting your lights high enough to make sure your shadows fall behind the subject. The rest of that can be handled with some creative solutions like mounting your background lights on a wall/ceiling mount of some sort, but if you use modifiers you are going to have issues getting high enough to work.

don't forget in small room light is spilling everywhere and make sure your strobe can be set to minimal power too. Otherwise you cannot shoot kids at F2.8 to blur background is another issues as you might not have enough space between subject and background.

So you need to lookup on "flags" AND use softbox instead of umbrealla. For easy setup those umbrella-box thingie is good too. I start off with lightstand and my basement is soooooo small and height is less than 6 feet. End up using a boom arm mostly OR a very large octa to fill the whole room(not nice tho).

Also, for kids, it's very hard to set the light RIGHT because they will move. If you set key and fill once they turn face to fill side you will have dark pics. Maybe just a hotshoe bounce is 10x better in those cases.

thats my 2cents.

The overall size should work. Get a really big soft light source for main and another for fill. Or even just a reflector. 6 foot ceiling is the biggest problem but having a light up high behind a ceiling to floor diffusion panel should work even standing for a kid 4 feet of less.

Or consider putting up white foam board and bouncing the strobe off of where it is - 6 foot ceiling is going to be really tough, even with kids - but this may help getting some soft light instead of wrestling with the modifiers against the ceiling. Just a thought.

So for the backgrounds lights I should use a soft box instead of an umbrella? I was thinking buying 2 umbrellas with black backing on both side and use my strobe and soft box for the main light. I was looking for an all white background with my seamless

OneDeep wrote in post #16631319
So for the backgrounds lights I should use a soft box instead of an umbrella? I was thinking buying 2 umbrellas with black backing on both side and use my strobe and soft box for the main light. I was looking for an all white background with my seamless

Its difficult to control spill with umbrellas so if you must use a modifier for the background lights its probably best to use a softbox. Often the standars reflector on a strobe is enough as you only need to control the spread of light with no regard for softening the light. Your proposed setup seems to be lacking a fill light. Using only one main for front lighting means choosing between flat on axis lighting or some degree of side shadowing with no ability to control shadow depth.