With working from home becoming a new norm, it’s a perfect time to invest in creating a studio at home to save on the cost of renting outside. Of course, doing so would mean initially investing in some small items to create a simple studio for portraits, but it would be worth it in the long run. In this video, I’m, going to show you one of the easiest garage studio setups.

Video: Garage Portrait Studio

Find Natural Reflectors

To provide some context, I was shooting at around mid-day and the sun was coming in just on the right to give us a bit of a hairlight. This gives a good light direction and a perfect spot to place our model, Chelsea. You’ll also notice a secondary source of light that is occurring naturally because of the sun’s position and the white walls of my garage. Walls can act as natural reflectors, permitting they are neutral-toned, or preferably white.

Look for Clean Backgrounds

My camera settings are1/500th of a second, f/2, and ISO 100. When I take a test shot you’ll notice that my background isn’t the greatest. Obviously, when shooting in a space like a garage, you aren’t going to have a prime selection or options so your best bet is to invest in a backdrop. You can get them for so cheap nowadays that regardless if this make-shift studio remains permanent or not, it’ll be a sound investment. The one I am using here is by Backdrops by Ethan Alex over on Instagram.

And with that, you are ready to shoot! Here are some of the final images from the session: