Need advice on how to make my studio..... better

First off, I'm slowly getting into this.. especially since I have a 4 year old who is also pretty much with me 20 hours a day. I'm trying to get myself out there using family and friends, mainly we do outdoor sessions but I want to use this large space in an upstairs room at my husband's shop. I got a pic of it currently.
The walls are nasty, and hell to try and clean... I mean it's going to take a whole weekend to do that. I'd like to black out the windows but a few friends actually like the windows, but my biggest focus is the walls, the wood and crap to the left and maybe getting a large rug.. maybe, and anything else I need to do. I currently have a dark grey backdrop underneath this backdrop to keep the light from the windows coming through.... but other than that I just am not sure what else to do, I need this looking proper before late November/December since I've got a lot of family and friends wanting indoor family portraits for Christmas.
Any help is appreciated.

No great advice on the walls. Go over them with white Kilz or something. Set that aside for last; you can do that after the rest of the studio is prepped.

DON'T paint over the windows. Don't do it. Window light is great for many types of shooting. Instead, get blackout roller shades:
http://www.homedepot.c​om …kout/N-5yc1vZbt0wZ1z0yk9k

For a rapid setup for Christmas portraits, get just enough to do two or maybe three different little looks:
1) a white seamless paper with white tileboard floor
2) a themed set with a neutral backdrop, the existing wood floor, and some holiday decor - a tree with neutral/non-distracting trim, some empty boxes wrapped with tasteful paper and bows, a nice-looking tree skirt, some coordinated pillows, fabrics, white plushy faux fur, etc.
3) Optional: Some other lightly-themed stuff - maybe Hanukkah if you have Jewish friends, or a little bit of non-holiday props (seating and drapery are always good).

Those will get you through practically all your shoots for the next couple of months while you fix up your studio space.


Now iron those backdrops, and either store them hanging or loosely crumple them into a back. Lots of small light wrinkles are fine; hard straight fold-creases are not fine.

Yeah, I had bought that one like 6 months ago bit didn't unfold it until 2 days ago..... I'm sure that didn't help.

Looks like you've got some really nice potential here.

Dirty walls can give it some character. You're not shooting the walls, but rather the backdrop. But, if the walls are going to be really difficult to clean and you don't want the grungy-look then you might pick up some cheap paint...whisk the walls off and cover them with a fresh coat of paint. Buy some heavy drop-cloths to protect the floor...afterwards turn the drop cloths into backdrops, reflectors, rugs, etc., with some more paint.

Some type of shading for the windows might be good but I certainly wouldn't do anything that would be difficult to "un-do". Shoot at night maybe for reduced ambient light. Use those used dropcloths to reduce the amount of light coming in. That's some really large lighting you have there. Which direction are the walls of windows facing?

Some of the roll-out backdrop material might be something to look at to give you a seamless background.

Scrap wood and stuff to the left might be used to build backdrop frames/props. If nothing else, you could cover them with a couple of tarps or build a "bench" out of some of the 2x4's and some plywood...then hide the rest beneath the bench...paint it, wrap it in cloth, and throw some cushions on it, etc.,.

Check out yardsales, junkshops and streetside for different props...furniture, what-nots, odd items.

Those are nice wood floors. Those used dropcloths from painting the walls could be used as rugs in front of the backdrop.

Just some thoughts. I'm jealous of what you have to work with.

Ed

Intheswamp wrote in post #18167569
Looks like you've got some really nice potential here.

Dirty walls can give it some character. You're not shooting the walls, but rather the backdrop. But, if the walls are going to be really difficult to clean and you don't want the grungy-look then you might pick up some cheap paint...whisk the walls off and cover them with a fresh coat of paint. Buy some heavy drop-cloths to protect the floor...afterwards turn the drop cloths into backdrops, reflectors, rugs, etc., with some more paint.

Some type of shading for the windows might be good but I certainly wouldn't do anything that would be difficult to "un-do". Shoot at night maybe for reduced ambient light. Use those used dropcloths to reduce the amount of light coming in. That's some really large lighting you have there. Which direction are the walls of windows facing?

Some of the roll-out backdrop material might be something to look at to give you a seamless background.

Scrap wood and stuff to the left might be used to build backdrop frames/props. If nothing else, you could cover them with a couple of tarps or build a "bench" out of some of the 2x4's and some plywood...then hide the rest beneath the bench...paint it, wrap it in cloth, and throw some cushions on it, etc.,.

Check out yardsales, junkshops and streetside for different props...furniture, what-nots, odd items.

Those are nice wood floors. Those used dropcloths from painting the walls could be used as rugs in front of the backdrop.

Just some thoughts. I'm jealous of what you have to work with.

Ed

Thanks, If I can remember I'll take a picture of the entire room. I'm currently sharing it with my husband's sons' band practice.... which could make things interesting when I have families with young children up there. The building is one of the oldest manufacturing buildings in Evansville, IN and that wood has taken some hits without being taken care of. The windows pretty much wrap around this room, except for the Western end which does not have any windows going to the outside.

Some pics of the room. First one is the west end, 2ND is the sout end or to the right of the backdrop.

Next two, first one is the east end and 2nd is the northeast end. Pretty much a lot of windows, dirty windows but a lot of natural light.

Now I'm really jealous! I didn't realize it was that large! That is a goldmine of natural light. I would seriously be studying up on using natural light indoors for portraits. You could even build all kinds of sets to use that light with. As for the bad equipment and kids...buy several sheets and drape them over the equipment...they might be a little curious about it all but at least most of the buttons, dials, and shiny things will be out of sight, thus less of a magnet for them.

Best wishes, you've got a great place!
Ed

That is an AWESOME space. And yes please please please don't do anything to permanently black out those gorgeous (even if they are dirty) windows. Roller shades would be fine, but also if you're shooting at a high enough power on your strobes - are those strobes or constant lights? - it should theoretically overpower the window light if you need that. (Or shoot when it's dark.) However, I think you'll probably get more mileage out of combining the window light with some directional constant light. I have a 9-foot tall, 8-foot wide window in my space, and I use it in combination with my strobes about 50% of the time.

I wouldn't worry about the walls either, maybe just kind of dust them off or something but because they take up so little of the wall, it would be a lot of work for something that doesn't show up all that much in your shots. Just my opinion.

Good luck! Totally jealous!

I am so grateful my husband is allowing me to use this space and hope it doesn't become needed space for his shop anytime soon. The only bad part with the windows is mainly because of the thinness of the backdrops, I have to use an extra behind the one that would be in the images otherwise you can just about see everything behind it. The room or space that I have definitely has potential, I just have to learn how to use it.
Here are a couple images from my experimenting with my son and myself yesterday, my remote isn't working so I had to use the timer on the camera.......... and let me tell you, that isn't easy with a 4 1/2 year old boy......
I also experimented a little with those DPS Portrait Presets in lightroom. Again, these two are just experimenting and goofing off.

Were you using your softboxes with these images?

Intheswamp wrote in post #18167974
Were you using your softboxes with these images?

Yes, and my 430EX II flash. Too bright?

They're not too bright, but the light is too low and hard - you need to get the light up higher above them and probably closer as well. You may want to add some fill light in there either via window or reflector; also, you have a TON of room, so have your subjects sit at least 4 to 5 feet away from that backdrop to get rid of the hard shadow. This will blur the background a bit more which will cause a nice separation of the subject away from the background, right now it looks like they're leaning up against a nicely painted bed sheet. With the 430EX II in a softbox, you probably can shoot on low enough power to use a relatively low aperture too, so experiment with that and see what you get.

As other said, your light source is very harsh at the moment, even with the softboxes.

Place the softboxes further away from your subject and raise them up.

Additionally you have a lot of space, so have your subject stand a good distance from the backdrop to create a bit more separation between them and it.

Freesoul, I'm serious about that natural light. If it was my room I would turn the backdrop around to face one of those banks of windows...experiment with the backdrop and your subjects at different angles to the incoming light. Your lighting should become incredibly soft and beautiful. The larger your light source (closer to the windows) the softer the light should be. Getting more separation between subject and backdrop will indeed soften up the background. Something else you can do is hang a sheet in front of the windows....will soften the light even more! All of this, of course, will only work during daylight hours, though.

At night you need to get the softboxes as close to the subjects as possible as again, the closer/larger the light source the softer the lighting (and shadows) will be...more wrap-around lighting rather than sharp shadows. Again, you could put a large sheet between the softbox and subject to create a "larger" light...but, your light power will be decreased so experiment and see what works.

Here are a couple of youtube videos that you might want to spend some time with regarding portraits and lighting. The first one is more working with lighting techniques. The second one is a short but informative basic portrait lighting video. The third/last one goes into depth about model/subject posing. Both of these use strobes rather than speedlights so we won't don't have the benefit of the modeling lights but these will give you some good food for thought.

https://youtu.be/gfqhz​-nh4Gc

https://youtu.be/NNA5-FMhBYo

https://youtu.be/DxPkx​S_ezVg

Btw, what color is that ceiling...bouncing those speedlights off a light colored ceiling creates a decent sized light source, but be aware of any color in the ceiling as it may add an undesirable (or maybe a desirable!) tint to your images.

Best wishes,
Ed