Monday, December 08, 2008

The Basement Bounce

I work primarily as a "location" shooter for corporate and industrial clients with business all over the world. This work requires me to travel quite a bit and therefore, my need for studio space to shoot in is seldom.

Like so many other photographers, I work out of my home. I once had a studio earlier in my career for about 6 years in cool area of Denver. Over the 6 years I occupied that space, I shot perhaps 15 or 20 times. Do to the nature of my business it just didn't make sense having a studio.

My studio is located in my basement, Debbie calls it the black hole. I occupy the entire basement, office and shooting space. The shooting space small, for sure, when I need a larger space to shoot in, I rent a studio in town.

The ceiling height in my shooting space is 8 feet, I sure wish it where higher! There are times when I need overhead lighting for a shot and there isn't enough space above to put a softbox or some other modifier. My solution for the low ceiling is to simply bounce a strobe into a white board which becomes my light source.

From the photo above you can see the the size of my shooting space. I have a piece of styrofoam clamped to the floor joists overhead. I simply bounce a strobe into it in order to produce soft overhead lighting. I'm using a set of "Barn Doors" or some other type of gobo on the strobe in order to contain the light and preventing any unwanted spill or flare.

Here are a few more view of the crib, my wife calls it the black hole. When I go downstairs to work, I'm there for the day. Working all the time, even harder than ever with today E.

3 comments:

Marcin Retecki said...

Hi David, it's a pleasure, I enjoy reading your posts so it was natural to have a link on my blog. I'm still new to photography so I can't give viewers too much of my own knowledge but I still can show them photographers like you :) MR

Unknown said...

Very interesting.
David, sorry bu your plugin "translate me" is not working... :-(

Joe said...

Like how you keep everything nice and organized ... can I ask, what did you use to paint the cielings, floors with?