Shooting in a Small Studio Space

Today’s Post by Joe Farace

Before I moved into a new house and my new 11×15-foot home studio*, when I wanted to shoot full-length shots in my 7×9-foot basement studio, the solution was to clean up some of the junk on the opposite side of the studio space and pose the models where I previously would stand and shoot. This expanded the working area to 10×10 feet. Not a huge increase in size but bigger than my first attempt and one that would have to work for what I though was for a long, long time. I used that space to test lighting products for Shutterbug as well as shooting some of the photographs for my book “ Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography .”

But full-length poses require wider-angle lenses than I might prefer to use or would have used outdoors but when working in smaller spaces, some compromises are required.

Tip: Making wider angle lenses work requires close attention to camera height and sometime I find that sitting in a chair to photograph the model works best. You can use whatever contortionist trick works for you as long as you are not shooting down on your subject with a wider-angle lens. If you do it will create unflattering foreshortened and distorted portraits with disproportionate head sizes. Don’t get too low either, because then you’ll end up looking up your subject’s nostrils. No matter how attractive the subject is, that’s not a good look.

The image above is kind of a modelly pose but that’s too be expected when you’re in the studio and the subject has no props to interact with, so I like to suggest they interact (in this case) with their clothes, hair, and body and see what happens naturally. This pose works with the stylized background and wardrobe.

For more information on how I shoot glamour and boudoir images, pick up a copy of my book “Joe Farace’s Glamour Photography,” it includes tips and tricks and techniques for shooting with inexpensiveness and simple equipment.