Gentle reader,
I want to thank you all for your continued viewing of my blog. With all there is to see on the Internet, that so many of you have taken the time to read what I've written and view the accompanying photos, it truly humbles me. It's well over 85,000 page views so far!
I was given a cheap plastic camera as a child in the late 1960s. It used what is called "roll film" which is 70mm wide and has a paper backing. One loads in into the camera, closes the back and then winds it until "1" appears in the small red window in the center of the film door on the back of the camera. I will look in a bit to find a picture of one like it that I once had in my camera collection.* That ANY pictures turned out from my young hands and that cheap camera astounds me. But the photos did turn out.
My wife and I (we are both in our second-and-final marriage) refer to the times of those unions as, "In a former life.....". So, in a former life all we could afford was a simple 110 film camera. 110 film is 16mm wide and also has paper backing but like it's larger predecessor, 126 film, is inside plastic cartridges that simply dropped into the back of their respective camera's film door. One winded it until "1" appeared in the window. Most 110 and 126 film cameras automatically stopped at "1".
It wasn't until April, 1995 after our divorces that I was finally able to buy what I called a "real camera", a 35mm SLR. It was an Olympus OM-10 with a 50mm f1.8 lens and generic flash. Cost me $100 at a pawn shop. (One similar to it is pictured at the bottom of this post.)
Fast-forward twenty-one years and hundreds of cameras (yes, hundreds, see the bottom of this blog page to see most of them) later, I now have five or six digital cameras. Only one of which is a DSLR, a Nikon D70S. In digital terms, it is ancient, only 6.3 megapixels. Nonetheless, since I seldom print photos and can only print 8 1/2 by 11 pictures, that is plenty.
When I had only film cameras, I experimented with home studio photography. I made a background cross bar from copper water piping and used two matching light stands to hold the bar and the blue fabric background fabric. I won't go into what was involved in setting everything up back then, but it was a lot of steps, including ironing the background!
Whew! That all being said, I will now show you how you can set up a photo studio in your own home in a bedroom or other small room. On the cheap. Below is the background and attendant pieces to hold it.
You probably recognize this as the den or "listening room" as I like to call it. The stereo components are behind this background stand arrangement. The background components, except the seamless paper, all came in a kit in a nice fabric bag via eBay for less than $30.00, shipping included. I was skeptical about the quality for that price.
Simply type "background stand" in the search bar on eBay on under the "Cameras and Photography" category and literally hundreds of choices will appear. I wanted to buy it in the USA and found several sellers offering the EXACT same kit here with free shipping as the multitude that were in Asia. I chose one that is seven feet tall by five OR ten feet wide. It arrived quickly and I was well pleased with the quality and sturdiness of all the parts of it.
"Seamless paper" is what I have unrolled from the crossbar. It was given to me by a friend some years ago and I have never tried it until today. Here is the first picture I shot:
It is brighter than the one above because I had zoomed in and more of the light hit the subject and sensor as a result. However, for people pictures, one needs to orient the camera vertically to better fit the sensor and thus use more pixels for the subject and less needed to crop.
There are MANY "studio" flashes available and I had used many back in the day. Below is what is now a vintage flash from a long defunct company:
Those clever readers will note that Spiratone (the J.C.Whitney of the photo world then) used four shoe-mount (slides on the adapter on top of the camera) flashes arranged north,east,south and west around the opening for the "model light" socket hole. The model light is used to set up the flash without having to shoot some pictures, develop and print them, etc. Remember, these are from LONG before digital cameras were ever even dreamt of.
There would be a power cable plugged into it on the lower right and a "Sync cord" from the camera's "PC" socket. No, that does not mean "politically correct".
Here it is from the side. That silver doohickey on the bottom slips into the angle-adjustable adapter that fits atop a sturdy light stand.
Above and below, you can see it attached to the light stand and the 60 inch reflector umbrella is held by the adapter as well.
You may be thinking, "Since you have this fancy flash, why aren't you using it?" Because my modern digital SLR camera is not equipped with a PC socket and big flashes like this can tend to have more voltage when they fire than what the camera is designed to handle with a top-of-the-camera mounted flash. Thus, one could fry the circuits of their digital camera. Provided one could even figure out how to set their DSLR up with the right aperture setting and such an ancient flash.
"So what IS the answer?" I'm glad you asked. First off, you will need a light stand and an umbrella holder-adapter attached to it and the aforementioned flash umbrella. Many companies make all of the above and sell them for a wide variety of prices. EBay is my go-to source for many things, so I recommend looking there first. ALSO, you will need a tripod, a Digital SLR camera and the correct flash for it that reads the flash off the sensor, this is called "TTL" for Through The Lens which most modern cameras do have. The flash MUST be able to rotate AND tilt the flash head in order for the use of a reflective umbrella.
See how I set it up below for both horizontal and vertical flash uses. The first picture below shows it set up for vertical shots. The flash head is rotated and tilted to aim at the center of the umbrella.
The device that is attached to the camera and tripod is something I came across years ago and set up for this tripod. Tripods are designed to allow the camera to tilt, as this one does to, but I like my device better.
You can clearly see the lightstand adapter on the left above and the umbrella's shaft coming through it.
My wife and I have almost opposite work schedules, so unless this Nikon has a self-timer, I'm going to have to wait until we are both home to make the images of one of my collections for a future edition of this blog. Why? Well, I'll be wearing the collection. So you will finally get to see what I look like.
To conclude, you will need: A digital SLR camera and lenses, dedicated flash for it which has a rotating and tilting head, a sturdy tripod for both, a light stand and adapter for an umbrella and a flash-reflecting umbrella. Plus, of course the background stand kit and either seamless paper or a fabric background. ALL of the above one can find on eBay and elsewhere on the Internet.
Good luck in building your home studio, and once again, thanks for looking!
Scott
*I promised a picture of a green plastic camera like I had as a kid, and here it is:
It was actually more green than this photo shows, too much flash, ironically! They were sold as a Sears model as well. Since I've added this, below is an Olympus OM-10 like my first "real" camera:
'Tis the one on the right. Actually, mine was "chrome" on the top and bottom. This all-black one was a little more expensive when new. Also, the dial-thing on the right side on the front was an option and allowed one to choose the shutter speed.
