Thinking of hiring a local village hall...

D_Fivehundred

D_Fivehundred

Suspended / Banned
Messages
752
Name
Darren
Edit My Images
Yes
I'm thinking of hiring a village hall close to me, with a view to setting up my Lencarta SmartFlash kit (2x lights and softboxes) and getting some practice in. The village hall costs £7 per hour to hire, so there's minimal cost involved.

My idea was to hire the hall for a few hours then get friends and family to come along for a free shoot... images for them, practice for me.

The hall is around 30 foot by 50 foot with a vaulted ceiling. It's painted white or some other bright colour, which is the main downside and it has a few windows with vertical blinds. Power is on hand and there's even a kitchen and toilets... some of my wife's friends would probably bring more than one outfit.

I would need to get a background stand as I don't have one yet, and perhaps something more substantial than the black and white double bed sheets I've been hanging at home.

Any thoughts on this, good or bad... advice or options, things I haven't thought of...? Would the white walls make that much of a difference?

I've also got an SB600 and SB800 and was thinking of some strobist gear so I could utilise those also.
 
Last edited:
brill idea. just shame i am so far a way :( I would help with another lencarta gear...
 
The white walls will be less of a problem in a space that size. Think in terms of how far unwanted light has to travel to a wall, then bounce back again, and the amount of energy it will lose in the process.
 
Sounds like a grand idea :thumbs:

Ambient light may be a problem. Overcast day where you can draw blinds/curtains will be okay, but bright sun through bare windows will be a nightmare.
 
D_Ninety said:
The village hall costs £7 per hour to hire, so there's minimal cost involved....

...Any thoughts on this, good or bad... advice or options, things I haven't thought of...? Would the white walls make that much of a difference?...
Click to expand...

The best advise I could offer is what have you got to lose? At £7 per hour it will cost you buttons to work out very quickly whether or not it will work.

You won't be able to provide quite the same experience as some of the dedicated studios but then your price can reflect such. I'd say it's better than using your living room though! :)
 
I have been doing the same as well, one of the halls I have used has 3 photographers doing the same thing!
You could try using the bed sheets on the windows to block some of the light?
cheap muslin background off ebay could be order of the day? Ive found mostly I dont even need to take a background stand, I have managed to use clamps to secure it
 
£7 per hour sounds quite good, show us how you did later. :) I would be interested to see the inside of the hall, maybe I could rent it one day as well when I need space. :)
 
Which village hall is this ? I seem to remember you're local to me :-)

£7 is buttons..... Go for it :thumbs:
 
I'm about to try this out today, doing a dry run for a band shoot next week. I work at a sports complex so should be able to get discounted (free ;)) use of the hall.

Backdrops aren't exactly expensive, the Lencarta setup will set you back about £100 inc supports, worth it if you're using it every weekend or so!

But for £7ph, supposing you hang around for 2 or 3 hours, hardly going to cost the world! And would be worth it so you know for future.
 
I've been on three shoots like this, each at a different hired location. White walls have not been a problem and neither has ambient light. The only problem was at one venue when a large, curtainless window was behind a black muslin and it was a problem to make the window light vanish, requiring a bit of PP after the shoot.

You can see potos of the setup from our first shoot here - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=241020&id=22619655859&ref=mf

More pictures from and of the shoot here - http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=248260.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the replies folks. I appreciate my post may have been a bit vague... I was just trying to get some feedback on whether people thought it was a good idea or not... and it seems it is, and also if there was anything obvious I had hadn't thought of which may have made the whole thing a bad idea :)

I've been thinking about those measurements though... it may be a bit smaller, although I can't see it making much difference.

Brian, the village hall is in Childer Thornton, next to the church on the A41 just before the junction with the A550. I can book it through my Borther-in-law as he is active with the church, although I believe Mollington village hall can also be hired by the hour, and from what i remember from my childhood... it's a darker place (that makes it sound weird)!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top