Question about a preferred studio space (hypothetical)

All other things being more or less equal (flooring, walls, square footage, etc), and 99% of your work is fashion/beauty and portraits, both natural light and studio light, and you work at all different times of day, which would you prefer:

1. A studio with a large, 8' x 9' south or west facing window, set about 3 feet up off the floor; or
2. A studio with no window but a pretty large skylight (like, 7' x 7' or thereabouts) that is pyramid shaped (jutting out of the roof).

#1 is my current space - 525 square feet, hardwood floor, one long brick wall, one long white wall with the window at the end - and there may be an opportunity in the coming months to move into a new space that is more like #2. I'm just kind of daydreaming out loud and curious what other people would prefer.

Take this with a grain of salt because I do very little studio work. I think it might be fun to play with a skylight, but I also think it might be slightly harder to control. I understand your ability to nullify or "control" ambient light with studio lighting but the standard window might just make it easier because you can easily block it. Reminds me of a friend that took an apartment with a skylight in the master bedroom. He loved it for the first month or so, then one night the full moon hit him in the face at 2 a.m.

I would care more about the length and ceiling height more than anything else. Width I can handle less say 20 feet but length I would want 30 feet minimum. Ceilings 12 feet if not higher.

I've often dreamed of my own studio space. My ideal would be about ten feet by twenty feet, perhaps a bit larger, and eight to ten foot ceilings. All four walls, and floor and ceiling would be totally textureless, non-reflective, flat black. I can make my own light. Generating darkness is much more difficult.

Unless you have a good way to BLOCK sun coming in thru southern or western exposure windows, I would prefer a windowless place!.
Northern exposure window would be preferred, for best ability to control it (when you do not want it!)

15' x 23' would be minimum, and needing 10-12' ceilings would be best.

• 2' wall to backdrop
  
• 6' backdrop to subject
  
• 1' for a single subject (nobody is totally flat!)
  
• 9-10' subject to camera for good perspective
  
• 4' behind camera for photographer
  

I have a studio with both South facing windows and a skylight and I will tell you I hate that skylight. There are times when the sun comes through just right and all you get is a slice of intense light across your work space. I have to use large panels to try and block the light or just move everything to another section of the studio. A big pain in the you know what. The windows all have shades I can easily control, the skylight I can't.

Skylight sounds like a nightmare.

Of course, when shooting I usually put black out fabric over my studio windows,

That's something you might want to look into Duck. It really does block all light, and is light and easy to fold up and store.

I appreciate the thought, but at 14' to the ceiling for a 12'x6' skylight, it's not as easy a task as getting on a ladder to pin and unpin some plastic.

I tried making a Roman shade to slide back and forth but because of the long expanse gravity takes the shade and clumps it toward the center. Like I mentioned, I deal with it with 4'x8' reflective panels that I move around or I simply find a place in the studio where there is not so much light contamination. A pain but I deal with it. That's why anyone who thinks a skylight might be a cool idea (I thought so too) I tell them of my experience.

12x6? Dang, "skylight" does not sufficiently describe the glass dome on your roof.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18488588
12x6? Dang, "skylight" does not sufficiently describe the glass dome on your roof.

The benefits of a 1000sq ft of studio space on the third floor. I do get my exercise.

Thanks everyone! Not being able to block light from a skylight is definitely one of my concerns. I can overcome that to a large extent with my strobes if necessary, plus I have several different things to place overhead to block it, but needing to do that would of course be a pain. But that said when I've worked in a place where I had natural light coming in from above, the results were ridiculously gorgeous.

Here are a couple of shots of my current space. (It's both for photography and painting and this was just after I moved in, it's more organized now.) I love it, but it's only 9'8" wide at the window end and I can *juuuust* barely make it work with seamless because of autopoles. If I didn't have those things, forget it.

and a couple more...

As an artist myself I'm taken by the paintings on the wall. I see you are influenced by traditional Chinese and Japanese art.

Thanks! And yes, very much. A bit of Indian and South East Asian influence as well.

You've created a really very pleasant piece of space.