My World: Making a professional studio in a restricted space.

[Asher Kelman]

For the past decade, my studio took over a an open space on the second floor of my family home. Needless to say, that delivered stands with sandbags to hold all manner of light modifiers. Cables ran across tge sides of the room and we needed a layer of plywood, otherwise girls heels would cut the seamless paper over the carpeted floor.

Luck brought us a flood and we had to move out and rebuild the floors and walls.

I leveraged this moment to move to the larger space in our two car garage. It has an advantage of not only being wider,(18 ft versus 12 ft), but also the indoor 8ft section is 12 ft high, while the remainder is 8ft high, as most American rooms are.

However, the 8ft section has to accommodate the roll up garage door.

I decided to move all the lights to be suspended on ceiling rails and went with the Manfrotto system.

Notice how two tracks are fixed to thr ceiling. Secondary tracks attach to the fixed tracks with double swivel rollers.

These allow the secondary tracks to freely move to any imaginable angle on the ceiling. It’s an amazing system where heavy lights and soft boxes can be manipulated and placed as if they are weightless!

I ended up buying the various track roller fittings from Adorama and the rails from BHPhotovidro, based on what was in stock!

I supplemented matching gear from lucky finds on EBay. So I have several times the capacity of thr system shown above.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Here you can see my old 12 ft wide linoleum floor covering which will soon be replaced with 18ft x 18ft new linoleum.

Most lights are on ceiling rails. I still have rails to add and 4 more pantographs to mount lights and props like mirrors or hanging fruit of flowers!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

At the back of the garage I can have this 7ft Octadome from Photoflex.

I can shoot seated in front of it and the light just wraps around me as if it was not impeded in any way!

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

The effect is a versatile 8’ x 12 ft posing space with a 12 ft ceiling and I can be close or as much as 20 ft away!

 

[Asher Kelman]

Even the giant Octadome, glides with guidance of just one finger, moves away from the garage door, then easily goes to one side with the flat front surface rotated, now facing the side wall.

The car can now return to its abode!

Asher

 

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Asher,

An impressive project, in concept, design, engineering, and execution. It should give you the capability to "conveniently" do wonderful studio work.

I love the mental image of you photographing from a swivel chair in front of a gigantic softbox!

We look forward to seeing more fruits of this wondrous tree.

The fact that Wendy's car can still be parked in this space when it is not active as a studio (I realize that this was probably an imperative of the design) is just amazing.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Maggie Terlecki]

How cool is this Asher, especially having the lights on rails. I will not tell you how and where I shoot, as you would be rolling on the floor laughing, heh :-D.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Imagine, Maggie, your tulips floating in the air or an ornate chair behind your head.

That’s now possible with a rail system!

I plan to have movable short rails to hang mirrors, fruit, leaves or whatever. This will allow another dimension, as if I was shooting under water where one releases, say tulips, from below, and then as they appear in your composition, one triggers the shot!

Except I won’t need a pool to get that extra dimension!

Asher

 

[Maggie Terlecki]

Imagine, Maggie, your tulips floating in the air or an ornate chair behind your head.

That’s now possible with a rail system!

I plan to have movable short rails to hang mirrors, fruit, leaves or whatever. This will allow another dimension, as if I was shooting under water where one releases, say tulips, from below, and then as they appear in your composition, one triggers the shot!

Except I won’t need a pool to get that extra dimension!

Asher

Going to be so interesting to see what you will do with these rails! Seems almost limitless!

 

[Asher Kelman]

Going to be so interesting to see what you will do with these rails! Seems almost limitless!

Thanks the challenge is bigger because I have let you all in on it!

Asher

 

[John Miller]

Wow! You really put some thought into your studio. Nice going! Makes what I do in a studio very primitive but remember it's not about the equipment it's all about the
image. Hopefully you will post some of your images using your studio!

 

[Asher Kelman]

Wow! You really put some thought into your studio. Nice going! Makes what I do in a studio very primitive but remember it's not about the equipment it's all about the
image. Hopefully you will post some of your images using your studio!

John,

Most of the sophistication is driven by giving up my large upstairs studio to accommodate visiting family.

All the light stands just couldn’t go in our two car garage to share the space with our one vehicle.

Next, my key light was on a boom and required two people to alter its position.

Now everything is high in the ceiling. I can effortlessly choose one or more lights as I wish. So now lighting can be modified much more easily.

For a younger person, none of this is needed, it’s just very, very convenient!

But it does add to spontaneity and the opportunity to suspend objects or even a model!

Asher

 

[James Lemon]

Looks like you have all the angles covered Asher !!!

 

[Asher Kelman]

Looks like you have all the angles covered Asher !!!

James,

Great to hear from you! It’s all a matter of making the light source light as a feather and maneuverable at a whim with no effort!

This TOTALLY alters one’s whole attitude to lighting as there’s no longer the need to have two people hoist up a heavy key light on a boom. So one is not only freed, but now have a greater responsibility to use that freedom wisely!

So for me, it means using a dummy mannequin to rethink lighting as if I am a novice! It’s really necessary for me to feel humbled and ignorant by the extra freedom, in order to better use the potential!

In short, James, I intend to have fun!


Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Bump for updates!

 

[JakeSmithL]

It's impressive how you've adapted and optimized the space, especially with the ceiling rails for the lights - that helps with flexibility and space management. Using ceiling rails like the Manfrotto system certainly keeps the floor clear and simplifies lighting setups. For anyone considering a similar upgrade, checking out examples on different websites can provide some inspiration. I have been using leds.to as practical advice for over a year or more on setting up an efficient and versatile studio space.

 

[Asher Kelman]

It's impressive how you've adapted and optimized the space, especially with the ceiling rails for the lights - that must really help with flexibility and space management.

Jake,

The real value is the immediacy of use. No need to lay out cords for lights or set up stands.

All one has to do is position and switch on lights and set the power for each light with the on camera Godox remote!

Now one SHOULD have the time to use a flash meter to check the light flux all over the subject and hopefully there’s no need for so much work in post processing.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

So Jake,

What’s your set up: a studio or the amazing streets and parks of NewYork?

Asher