Using vintage to set up a photography studio in your home

Above and below are a living room set up for shooting lifestyle portraits. Children feel "at home" in the studio. A big window covered with light-diffusing off-white sheer panels sets a soft light on the scene.



Above, using a narrow depth of field (f/3.5) blurs the background a bit, keeping your subjects the focus of the images, even when there are multi-layered backgrounds.



Above, using no secondary light source gives a more dramatic effect to the light coming through the sheer panels.



I used a collection of vintage cameras on the mantel... clients can even bring their own stuff/pictures/etc. from home for a more custom looking shoot.



Awwwg! Painting the floors of the master bedroom nearly killed me! I stressed and stressed about covering the beautiful hardwood, but the white on white allows me to set up in any color scheme. Above is a dragon from Ikea. Below, I used a vintage voile wallpaper inside of one of the closets, to set up some fun "dress up" shoots, and then stuck vintage clothing found at the thrift store to set the tone.
Bright color and texture is key!



Found this incredible antique bed frame at an antique store and added embroidered pillowcases found at a thrift store and pillows I made from quilt remnants. And a super soft down comforter in white, so pillows can be changed to change the look or go with the theme of a shoot.

Beds!

One of my favorite features of the home studio is ... the bed! When children come in a tiny bit shy, or sleepy from traveling in the car, it's nothing that a little jumping on the bed won't fix. Within a minute or two, they're making REAL expressions, giggling, pink-cheeked and ready to make lots of pictures. 



And there's something so intimate about the space we spend so much of our lives in-- in their real home, kids associate their beds with comfort. Mom and dad's bed is the place they crawl into in the middle of the night or in the sleepy hours of morning when they've just woken up-- to read books, hang out, or have pillow fights with their siblings.






The quilt, above, is a family heirloom I've kept and used in photos over the years, and the crib, below, was a junk jaunt find-- repainted in a minty green, perfectly gender neutral, but so cute as a contrast to pink on little girls!

Photos from home

I've been photographing for 20 years... call it a passion, a sickness; call it what you will. For even more years, I've been finding trinkets, antiques, and junk from yard sales and thrift shops, remaking and reusing these things... creating a tableau of my home-- everything, everywhere: visual.




Six years ago these passions came together when I opened a portrait studio from my home.  I hope to show you what I've learned about making a studio out of a home, whether you choose to live there or not. There's a real art to making a house into a photo home-- someplace that feels so comfy people instantly relax when they come in-- free to reveal themselves and interact with each other in sweet, homey ways.  Connection is the key to making great images, and I believe that being in a relaxing home is soooo much more conducive to this than a cold studio space.