Small Space

[cargo]

Hi


Having recently taken some images of a person rather than dog's or our cat, it became apperant I have very limited space.

Don't get me wrong I were very pleased to get some images.


( I have uploaded some photos from those sessions in the people section a while back ) 2 posts.


I were hoping the folk in this section maybe able to give some guidance on lighting accessories to maybe help in this small area.


After being on here a good while. I know the height is way to low but I'll have to work with it as this is the room I have.

Obviously I'm not a professional so my photography is purely for fun/hobby.


I have always shot with one softbox and a reflector works great on the dogs & cats but not so on full length people in this small place.

With the last photos I tried two lights one softbox and one strip light I were really pleased to see the look of those.

The floor space for shooting is very narrow with two lights and stands in the width available.

Also I didn't quite get light on the subjects hair so I were thinking there maybe some kind of bracket for the wall that I could fix at the back of the subject/side wall that could maybe hold a flash with a reflector dish ?
I have not really got an idea as to what would be available for this or even if it would work.

Any help guidence/information/tips on shooting in this space would be more than welcomed.

Gear I own:
Softbox Lencarta softbox 70x100 " used for people.
Goddox 90x90 pop up softbox " my most used box" although cheap it seems to give a good look.
Lencarta Octa 120 not used often.
Lencarta 120x27 strip box.

Lights.
Goddox ad200
Goddox ad400pro
Goddox speedlight v860

Room View

 

[Scooter]

You can definitely shoot with people in that space Gary. Of course, it's not ideal, but 3/4 shots are definitely possible, and at 4.4m you can squeeze a usable full-length shot as long as your subject is right at the back of the space up against the backdrop. It's about the same size as my compact studio below. That's a 2m wide backdrop roll for reference.

Honeycombs (or grids) are your friend. Honeycomb grids for all of your reflectors, and egg-crate fabric grids for all of your softboxes. Cover the walls if you need to. for light control you should also paint the ceiling black, however, a white ceiling is fine as long as you keep the light off it. It also serves a purpose: you'll struggle to get a light in above a 5'8" human in there and with a white ceiling, you don't have to: you just project whatever size of light source you want onto the white ceiling. Make the floor black though (with black paper or vinyl).


(yes a 5' model can fit under there just about, but this is not the way to go)


For your AD200s by far and away the best light control tool is a pack of A4 black card. Use these to make tubes around your Ad200 and tape them up with black gaff. You can then slide them on and off and re-use them. Slide them back and forth to adjust the spread of light.

Also get some proper (matt black cloth) gaffer tape, some black foamcore boards to use as flags (see you have those ), and some cinefoil/blackwrap. If you scrunch this up, you can mold it to any shape you need to block light.

Also consider a projection attachment to really contain the light from a flash head.

The closer your lights are to the subject, the dimmer they can be and the darker everything else will get. Of course this also increases the fall-off rate, and spread so you'll need to decide what you prioritise, and accept that low fall-off rates and contained light, just need a bigger space.

Get a stool for your subjects to sit on - if you only need head and shoulders, sitting them on a stool will make everything easier.

Forget about brackets on the walls - they sound like a great idea to save space, but end up being a restriction. With the right grip, you can put a light anywhere. For a hair light just a stand will do off to one side, or if you do want it in the centre, an AD200 will be no problem for a simple extension arm and grip head. You can also clamp a light to the cross bar from a backdrop support system with a Superclamp.

Nearly 2kW of incandescent light here but the room is quite dark relative to the subject - in this case, down to barn doors on these Fresnel-equipped spotlights, but these do not really work with a reflector on a flash head - as the effective light source is as big as the barn doors. Grids are the answer for flash heads with reflectors.


See projection attachment (Lightblaster in this case) on the right for the backdrop pattern.

 

[cargo]

@Scooter

Hi Owen.

Can't thank you enough for the considerable time taken to give me such a detailed reply.
It's great to see your space. The BTS are a real insight as to how to go about things.

I do have grids for the boxes apart from the octa "which is to big if i'm honest" not really used the grids though.

Also have a couple of relectors for the lights with grids "again seldom used"

It seems I have quite a bit of kit. So I have no need to spend anymore cash but practice with what I have.

Thanks for clearing wall bracket idea up. I didn't really fancy screwing lots of stuff into the walls only to find out it was in the wrong place.

I can see the A4 cards being great for the AD200. Thanks for that tip.


Thanks again Owen

Gaz

 

[Scooter]

Just remembered this short video from a fashion shoot in that small space:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdpZYy6cjAg


The key light for the gothic set was an AD200 with a half cut of CTO and a black card tube. I even squeezed in a full-length shot - with edge lights!! (which means the model wasn't right at the back of the room)

 

[cargo]

@Scooter
Thanks for this Owen. Really enjoyed watching that over breakfast.
Remarkable to see what can be achieved when you know what your doing.
Watched a few more on your channel too.
All very inspirational.

Gaz

 

[juggler]

@Scooter's said it all, really.

I like Pringles tubes on speedlites (or AD200s); they give good control with a nice diffuse edge to the spot and you can tweak the spread by inserting a piece of black craft foam.

Cinefoil is really handy sometimes too. Attach it with masking tape or clothes pegs, I've tried using duct tape as a flag but the glue tends to soften when it gets warm and then it falls off.

I like gridded stripboxes in small spaces. Hugely versatile, you don't need to use them just horizontally or vertically.

 

[cargo]

@juggler

Thanks for the Pringles suggestion.
I'll be sure to try that. Your correct re stripbox I've never thought to use it horizontally.

Gaz

 

[juggler]

@juggler

Thanks for the Pringles suggestion.
I'll be sure to try that. Your correct re stripbox I've never thought to use it horizontally.

Gaz

or diagonally

 

[Scooter]

or diagonally

Or South African style - poking out from the wall

Using a gridded stripbox as the main light - Tangents

Using a gridded stripbox as the main light As I show in the video clip how to use gridded strip boxes as the main light, I love how I can flexibly shape the light falling on and around my subject. Specifically in the studio, I mostly use the large gridded Profoto 1’x6 strip-box (B&H / Amazon)...

neilvn.com

I've tried this and it is quite an interesting result:-

https://flic.kr/p/o9Mpsd

View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/14539239796/in/dateposted-public/

 

[Deleted member 95430]

You have loads more space than me and I would instead trying to create something where you can take every shot possible, use the space you can and get whatever shots you can. I took my profile pic in my very large london kitchen lol

 

[cargo]

or diagonally

@Scooter I'd say amazing results Owen. Fogot all about the Tangents blog. Such a wealth of information on there.
@acrobatic_Citron
Hi There. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your knowledge. Great to see your tiny place. You did a great job on your profile pic.
Top marks for gtting your dog in the image too.

Gaz

 

[juggler]

I've shot in tiny downstairs loos a few times. That's been fun. But I've been fortunate to have shot in some really quite large spaces too,
I've found that no matter how big, they're not big enough.

Until they get *really* large - and then they're too big. Just moving around the space takes ages, every single adjustment takes minutes rather than seconds.

 

[juggler]

Or South African style - poking out from the wall

Using a gridded stripbox as the main light - Tangents

Using a gridded stripbox as the main light As I show in the video clip how to use gridded strip boxes as the main light, I love how I can flexibly shape the light falling on and around my subject. Specifically in the studio, I mostly use the large gridded Profoto 1’x6 strip-box (B&H / Amazon)...

neilvn.com

I've tried this and it is quite an interesting result:-

https://flic.kr/p/o9Mpsd

View: https://www.flickr.com/photos/owenlloyd/14539239796/in/dateposted-public/

I've tried that and while it was interesting I'm not convinced it was useful! But my extra long stripbox is a bit crap, one light doesn't really fill it.

I was thinking more of angling rim lights. I often end up tweaking things to allow the light to creep round the subject a bit more at the bottom & to be more of hairlight at the top.

 

[juggler]

Just remembered this short video from a fashion shoot in that small space:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdpZYy6cjAg


The key light for the gothic set was an AD200 with a half cut of CTO and a black card tube. I even squeezed in a full-length shot - with edge lights!! (which means the model wasn't right at the back of the room)

Great video! My brain just doesn't think in terms of moving images as well as stills.