Faux Studio

Once upon a time, I was watching The Whole Picture on DIY with Erin Manning.  She mentioned that you can take pictures in your home without expensive studio lighting by purchasing some simple lights from your local home improvement store.  Ever since watching that episode, I’ve wanted to try it.  I went and bought myself three of the lamps pictured below, three light bulbs and two clamps.  I spent a total of $37.  I thought I was buying day light bulbs but I was mistaken. 

To make sure my pictures come out correctly, I have to set my white balance to tungsten.  I’ll be on the look out for daylight bulbs in the future because I think they’d make the portrait look better.

I set up my first lamp by clamping it on top of my dining room cabinet to aim it down toward where I plan to have my subject seated.  Then I set up the other two lamps by clamping them on chairs on either side of the room aiming them toward where my subject would be – creating side lighting.  I think I’m going to have to spend some time setting up those lamps to get them just right and figuring out where they would work best.  I had some serious shadows happening on my back drop.  That will take some practice.  Speaking of backdrop, I used a king size flat sheet and clamped it to a large mirror that was leaning against my china cabinet.

Here is a shot I got of my dog – Miss Molly.

Now that I think I have everything set up in a fashion that can produce some even lighting, it’s time to bring in my toddler.  Each of these shots have been cropped but here are the portraits I took of him today.

If you want to be able to produce some nice pictures in your own home when your little people are in a good mood and not be at the mercy of grumpy studio photographers, perhaps this is your solution.  It will take some practice but it may be a good, inexpensive bet for your consideration.  I snapped 45 pictures of my child this morning.  I cropped three of them and I think they might be worth printing.