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My living room which I intend to use for some studio work has 1 wall width of the room and a small bit on either sides in glass. These are North and North West. While they are great for natural portraits I am wondering what I should do with them when using studio lights. The background will be the opposite side of the room and its about 18' long. At the moment I have some blinds that diffuse the light but don't block the light.
 
Button said:
My living room which I intend to use for some studio work has 1 wall width of the room and a small bit on either sides in glass. These are North and North West. While they are great for natural portraits I am wondering what I should do with them when using studio lights. The background will be the opposite side of the room and its about 18' long. At the moment I have some blinds that diffuse the light but don't block the light.
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More control over the light the better. Keep the ambience down to a minimum.
 
Agreed. Whilst natural light can be great, it's much easier to take it out of the equasion when using studio lights, and removing it also avoids the problems of using light of different colour temperatures
 
I know this is going to sound a bit "heath robinson" but I made some panels which fit the window frames - out of plywood and pipe insulation.

Cut a sheet of plywood so there's a small gap all around. Then angle the ends of the pipe insulation at 45 degrees, pop it on the plywood, wedge it in the window and hey presto - no more light. If you get it right (it did take me a couple of attempts, progressively cutting more off the ply until it fitted perfectly) then you should pretty much be able to block out all the light coming in, because the pipe insulation is foam, it will conform to the shape of the frame. Easy to see if you have been successful by turning off all the lights.

Other option is to get some material used for blackout curtains - which strangely is mostly white in colour. You can then utilise any method you fancy (tape, blue tack etc) to attach it to the frame.

If you're near a "Range" store, they sell it for about £4.50/metre.
 
if you have a big/lot of windows get 2 sets of blinds/curtains made 1 black to block the light, the other a white to diffuse the light, and all of a sudden you have a daylight studio as well as a flash studio

Daylight can actually be really nice to work with in the studio with reflectors and stuffs
 
david1701 said:
if you have a big/lot of windows get 2 sets of blinds/curtains made 1 black to block the light, the other a white to diffuse the light, and all of a sudden you have a daylight studio as well as a flash studio

Daylight can actually be really nice to work with in the studio with reflectors and stuffs
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Just making curtains out of black material won't block light - you need something that's got 3 layers of material to totally block light.

Of course, it depends on how much natural light you want to block.
 
The blackout blind sound like a good solution. There is blinds on windows at the moment, it would be very handy if I could just replace those with another set when I need to use the room as a studio. I might check out IKEA to see whats available.

david1701 most of the time the room has lovely diffused light alright and I often hang shower curtains to diffuse it a bit more.
 
RipStop nylon diffuses light pretty well - I think it's what's used in softboxes.

It's pretty expensive though I think.
 
You could use blackout roller blinds, the b/o material has a pvc type of coating on the window side & is 100% blackout. However , if the are fitted inside the recess you will get a small gap at the sides . they are best fitted outside the recess with a 60mm overlap each side.

You can get b/o blinds in a range of colours .
 
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All that diffusion material does is to diffuse the light, which won't help if you want to reduce the quantity to a negligable amount.

The answer is some kind of blind or panel, stopping the light from passing from the outside to the inside, but it isn't necessary to stop ALL of the light, so any heavy curtains should be good enough.
 
Simple test, shut the curtains and take a shot at f8/f11 and 1/160 or 1/200....notice any ambient light? you shouldn't unless they are net curtains :lol:
 
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Garry Edwards said:
All that diffusion material does is to diffuse the light, which won't help if you want to reduce the quantity to a negligable amount.

The answer is some kind of blind or panel, stopping the light from passing from the outside to the inside, but it isn't necessary to stop ALL of the light, so any heavy curtains should be good enough.
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hence having diffusion curtains for daylight shooting and blackout curtains for flash shooting
 
We can't actually have curtains on the windows or nothing with any weight anyway.
foggy4ever when the blinds are closed there still is plenty of light in the room so I probably do need to get some solution. I think a set of replacement blinds will be the best option
 
You would be surprised how studio flash can over power ambient light, have a test and see what settings you get to reduce light quiet significantly. I was told this by someone who knows what he talking about ;)

I have cream curtains on patio doors and wooden Venetian blinds at the opposite end and have no problems at all with quite a lot of ambient light shooting in the middle of the day.
 
well, if the windows in the right place, and you can diffuse the light nicley, then use them - there is a bit of revival in daylight shooting. Artists often used attics, and use roof windows for lighting

Downside - weather is very variable in the UK
Upside - the light quality can be very good, especially when used with diffusers and reflectors
 
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