Time for a studio

jamesoliverstone

jamesoliverstone

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Well, its time I got my own studio as I think I am ready for the challenge. Unfortunately, I am still in full time employment ( boooo :( ) but the portrait work is starting to pick up so I think I have found the right balance.

Instead of opening a high street studio just yet, I am going to convert my garage into a studio and office to run my business from. This way I can practise and develop my abilities even further as often as I like in a studio environment, and pick and choose my jobs because I dont have any overheads :D

So, I am going to take a week off work to start clearing the garage in preperation for the conversion.

I have a couple of questions for anyone who has undertaken a conversion before such as this....

1.) Insulation.
I assume I will have to not only insulate the ceiling, but the brick walls as well otherwise I could get condensation if there is a temp difference? What is the best stuff to use?

2.) Weather Sealing.
I need to seal the garage door from the inside (rather than removing and bricking up) as I want to be able to reverse it should we decide to sell and the new owners want a garage again. I was thinking of basically building a plasterboard wall behind the garage door so that it looks like a normal room from the inside, but how would you weather seal the existing door?

3.) Best colour for walls
I assume that a light grey would be the best colour for studio walls? I reckon that white would be too bright and just end up bouncing light all over the place?

I will take pictures from start to finish in the hope of helping others who want to attempt such a thing.

Wish me luck :D
 
Good luck James.

Be interesting to follow your progress, if I think of any answers to your questions I'll let you know.

Steve
 
i have a shop which i have far to much room in the store area so i am thinking of turning into a studio. i hope you have great success with your project.:)
 
Give us a shot of what you have got to work with.

I was a builder in the UK but that was over 9 years ago, been building in France since then, I'll see if I can help.
 
jamesoliverstone said:
I will take pictures from start to finish in the hope of helping others who want to attempt such a thing.
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I can't help with any questions. I just wanted to wish you luck and express interest in seeing your photos. I've considered doing the same but i think my garage is just a tad too small :)
 
Check out one of the many threads in the Talk Lighting section (i think)
Dean:)
 
Wall wise just about every studio I've been in has been either black or white, or a combination of the two
 
Hi James - this is interesting! I guess a studio is something most of us would like to be able to have the space for. Please post your progress, maybe with some pics.

Good luck,

Mark.
 
I seem to remember a few threads that where people were blogging their progress on studio conversions... posting pictures etc... if I remember right there was a lot of talk about how to level the floor. Anyway - I'm sure if you search you'll come up with a few. Good luck ;)
 
It might be a good idea to have a quick chat with a solicitor to see how using the garage to run a business from could impact on your house.

And check your mortgage agreement etc and what the council's position is.

You could get into all kinds of legal difficulties so definitely check it out.
 
petersmart said:
It might be a good idea to have a quick chat with a solicitor to see how using the garage to run a business from could impact on your house.

And check your mortgage agreement etc and what the council's position is.

You could get into all kinds of legal difficulties so definitely check it out.
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That is a very good point - your home buildings/contents insurer would also need to be made aware.
 
Sounds you know which direction your career will eventually lead too, and I wish you the best of luck with your new studio project. It will be good to see how you progress in the conversion.
A few other things you should consider if you are going to have paying customers coming into the studio for portraits etc..............
You will need Public liability insurance, and please check with your house contents and buildings insurers as your policy may be void if you are running a commercial business from home. This also applies if you have a mortgage, good idea to let them know what you are planning to do. Maybe inform your Local Authority that you will be running a business from home, you may need to get Building Regs /Planning Permission ( Please remember , if you are marketing your new business, not only will your potential customers hear about you, so will your council)
I once did as you are planning to do and didn’t bother with a lot of the above. I did get found out and the consequences were not pleasant.
Once again, good luck with your new studio.
 
check out Zack Arias's blog he did a potentially useful post on white bg stuff and sensible flooring, also dd posted about that a while back
 
OK I have the week off work next week to get started with the clearout and prep for the conversion.

I have had a couple of builders come round to give quotes for the conversion, and they have ranged from 3k-9k depending on how far I go with it.

I think I may try and work out how to do most of it myself and give it a go, (after all, I can always get a builder in to fix my failures ;))

I will post up some pics and dimensions next week once the clearance starts :D
 
James, the one HERE is a cradle to grave affair by MMCP... :D ...alright it is not a garage conversion as much as a purpose built unit but a lot of the work Mike has done should give you the clues you seek... :shrug:

I recently had my garage converted but it was for an office rather than a studio although much of the same principles will apply... :thinking: ...you quotes seem to be representative and similar to what I paid including all the insulation for floors, walls and ceiling and a stud wall at the garage door end... oh and including a new double barn door replacement for the old up-and-over garage door... :D


HTH and I will also be watching your project with interest... ;)





:p
 
incapete said:
Check out EdinburghGary's thread about the work he's doing to open his new shop and studio. Should give you some ideas!
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Venomator said:
James, the one HERE is a cradle to grave affair by MMCP... :D ...alright it is not a garage conversion as much as a purpose built unit but a lot of the work Mike has done should give you the clues you seek... :shrug:
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I have been watching these threads with keen interest :thumbs:

Venomator said:
I recently had my garage converted but it was for an office rather than a studio although much of the same principles will apply... :thinking: ...you quotes seem to be representative and similar to what I paid including all the insulation for floors, walls and ceiling and a stud wall at the garage door end... oh and including a new double barn door replacement for the old up-and-over garage door... :D

HTH and I will also be watching your project with interest... ;)

:p
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Cool, thats basically what I am trying to do. I am qoing to have the back part of the garage as an office for my post production (and a quiet haven from the wife and kids ;)) and the rest as my studio. Just ordering up lighting gear as we speak :D

For the size of the studio, I am thinking I can light my studio perfectly with my 2 SB900's and 550EX :thumbs:
 
To answer your question about wall color the main thing is choice, try to allow in your budget for black curtains that can be pulled when you don't want light reflecting everywhere. I'm sorry to say that a totally black studio is the best but oh so depressing!
As to other things a makeup bay , and you can never have enough wall plugs, in a small area you must be able to avoid having wires running all over the floor.
 
Phillip Mac said:
To answer your question about wall color the main thing is choice, try to allow in your budget for black curtains that can be pulled when you don't want light reflecting everywhere. I'm sorry to say that a totally black studio is the best but oh so depressing!
As to other things a makeup bay , and you can never have enough wall plugs, in a small area you must be able to avoid having wires running all over the floor.
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Cheers :)

I have looked up prices on black curtains as this is probably the best idea.

I dont have space for a makeup bay or anything like that, but I will have plenty of electrics :)

Good thing is, I intend to light using SB's with radio triggers, so I shouldnt have any wires anywhere :thumbs:
 
Great thread - I had thought about doing this but wasn't sure if I had enough head room etc...What would be the ideal minimum size for a studio - at the moment I am working out of my kitchen/dining room which is where all my portraits have been taken up to press excluding the location stuff of course! lol
www.fineimagephotography.co.uk

Good luck with your project
 
Well, I am not sure if this will work as well as I have hoped in my head, it is after all a single garage (albeit slightly longer).

Even still, should be plenty workable. I am using the highlite for maximised shooting room, but I will have paper on a roll too hanging above.
 
jamesoliverstone said:
Well, I am not sure if this will work as well as I have hoped in my head, it is after all a single garage (albeit slightly longer).
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I would have thought headroom may be a problem James... :shrug: ...especially if you have to raise the floor to insulate it as I did... :suspect:

Just small problems to get over really... :D





:p
 
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