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How to Build an Affordable Photo Studio • Landscape Photography
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BY NASIM MANSUROV | 49 COMMENTS
LAST UPDATED ON APRIL 22, 2023 • Portraiture
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Creative studio photography can be both challenging and rewarding. In the
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beginning, when we just start taking the first baby steps to improve our
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photography skills, we always start out by utilizing available light. It does not take
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very long for most people to figure out that it can be extremely difficult to create • Best Cameras and Lenses
beautiful photographs in low light environments, especially indoors. Naturally, we
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start looking for answers on how to get around the low light problem and we end
up buying faster lenses and better cameras. Only to find out later that even
better and more expensive camera gear cannot properly capture a badly-lit
scene. The last resort then becomes flash photography – a subject that scares
the heck out of many photographers out there. PHOTOGRAPHY LANDSCAPE
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NIKON D3S + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 98mm, ISO 400, 1/160, f/8.0

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Being in photography business, I met numerous professional photographers that If you like our content, you can subscribe to our
have never touched flash. They call themselves “available light shooters”, newsletter to receive weekly email updates using
because they have never explored artificial lighting. Some of them could not do it the link below:

for financial reasons (unfortunately, it is quite common among pros to think that
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flash photography is extremely expensive), some were too afraid or too busy to
try, others felt like they never needed it. But what do you do when you come to
photograph a wedding with a badly lit ballroom, extremely high ceilings and a mix
of tungsten lights? Are you going to walk away from the job or come back with
really bad photos? Most photographers are going to mount a speedlight onto
their cameras (in Auto/TTL modes), point the camera at the subject and take
pictures that will look no better than bride’s cousin with her $100 point and
shoot. And when their flash dies after firing 20 shots, they will blame Nikon for
making a bad speedlight that overheats. Sounds familiar?

NIKON D700 + 85mm f/1.8 @ 85mm, ISO 200, 1/200, f/8.0

If you are getting paid to do photography work, it is your responsibility to know

how to work in various lighting situations. And the best way to learn flash
photography and get good at it, is to continuously work and experiment with it.
Building a small, affordable photo studio at home is a great way to get started.
You can learn a lot just from photographing your family and kids at home. That’s
how I got started with flash. Even if you do photography for fun, why not
experiment and learn something new? Wouldn’t it be nice to know what to do in
challenging light? In this article, I will show you how to build an affordable
photography studio at home. First, we will go over some basic, must-have tools
and then we will expand into more options for studio lighting. And if there is
enough interest, we will expand our coverage of flash photography to indoors,
outdoors and studio environments.

1) The Light Source

The very first thing you will need to decide on, is what light to go with. A dirt
cheap way to get into studio lighting is to use continuous “hot” (tungsten) or
“warm” (fluorescent) lights. You can buy two light stands with umbrellas and
continuous light for roughly $100 combined. But this kind of setup has its own
problems (more on the subject in a separate article) and it certainly won’t teach
you how to deal with those low light environments outdoors or in locations where
a power source is not available. If you have interest in continuous light, I would
recommend to get into it after you learn how to use flash. Then you will know
exactly what you need and you will be able to get the best out of your equipment.
Many high-end studios utilize continuous lights, because they can shape the
light exactly how they want it. Precision and consistency is often required for
professional studio photographers. But for someone like you, who is just starting
out, there is no need to get into that territory. At least not yet.

So despite its relative complexity, I would encourage you to learn how to use
flash first. We have some basic tutorials on flash photography, which we will be
expanding on in the upcoming months. Now here are the bad news – this will be
the most expensive part of the purchase. “Speedlights” or “Speedlites”
(depending on whether you use Nikon or Canon), are compact flash strobes that
can be used for both on-camera and off-camera setups. If you own a DSLR or a
higher-end mirrorless camera, you have a hotshoe on top of the camera that is
designed to be used with speedlights. For an on-camera setup, you mount a
speedlight directly on the camera and you can use the flash head in various
configurations to bounce the light (see my very old video on indoors flash
photography, where I go over various bounce configurations). For an off-camera
setup, you take the speedlight off your camera and mount it on light stand to be
used away from your camera. This is the configuration we will be using for
building your first studio.

The nice thing about speedlights, is that they pack enough power for most day to
day needs – from lighting a single person to a group of people. They are also
expandable – you can start out with a single speedlight and add more flashes in
the future for more creative photography. For now, we will start with a single light
setup.

All major DSLR manufacturers make speedlights that are proprietary to their
cameras. Nikon calls its flash system “Nikon Creative Lighting System” with lots
of built-in automation. Canon and Sony also have their own comparable flash
systems. All three provide different options for speedlights – from basic to high-
end models used in commercial photography. Nikon currently offers three
speedlight options for DSLRs: SB-400, SB-700 and SB-910. If you are wondering
about differences between these, take a look at my Nikon Flash Comparison
article. Since we are building an off-camera setup, skip the SB-400. The SB-700
currently sells for $326 and the SB-910 is $546. While SB-910 packs a lot of
great features, it is an expensive flash unit. Personally, I would start out with the
SB-700 and if you ever need to trigger it with a different trigger system such as
PocketWizard, you always have the option to buy a cheap hot shoe adapter. The
SB-700 is a pretty advanced – it can be used both as a “master” or a “slave” unit.
For a single light setup, the cheapest way is to use the SB-700 in an off-camera
configuration and use your built-in camera flash to trigger it (see this article on
using your pop-up flash in commander mode). If you have an entry-level Nikon
DSLR, then you have several options. The first option is to buy a commanding
unit like SU-800. The second option is to buy a set of PocketWizard Plus III units
(my personal preference, since radio technology is better than infrared), which
will cost you $50 more (plus the cost of adapter mentioned above), but will give
you a much more flexible and robust setup. This is one of the reasons why it
often makes sense to buy a higher-end DSLR with commander capabilities.

If you own a Canon DSLR, you can start out with the 320EX or 430EX II speedlite
units, both of which can act as “slaves”. Many of the newer Canon DSLRs such as
the 7D also have the capability to act as flash unit commanders. If your Canon
DSLR supports this, then you do not need to purchase a commander. Otherwise,
Canon also provides the ST-E2 commanding unit, which is similar to Nikon’s SU-
800. Canon recently released a set of speedlites and triggers with radio
transmission capabilities, but it is very expensive.

Total Cost: Between $250 to $550.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III + EF50mm f/1.2L USM @ 50mm, ISO 100, 1/200, f/5.6

2) Light Stand, Umbrella and Adapters

Similar to cameras, there are all kinds of light stands out there to choose from.
For triggering speedlights in a controlled environments, I typically pick the most
affordable light stands I can find. My favorite brand is Impact – they make great
lighting gear that often beats even top of the line products in quality, reliability
and features. And I certainly cannot complain about the price! You do not need
anything heavy duty for triggering speedlights, so get the 6′ Impact Light Stand
for $20.

Next, you will need an umbrella adapter that will sit on the light stand – it will hold
both your speedlight and an umbrella (to soften the light that comes from your
flash). The best affordable “two in one” adapter is the Impact Umbrella Bracket
with Adjustable Shoe for $25. It is of excellent quality and it is in no way worse
than an equivalent adapter from Manfrotto.

The last is the umbrella itself, which again is very cheap. Impact’s 45″ convertible
umbrella for $15 is excellent.

If you are building a two light setup, consider buying the Impact Digital Flash
Umbrella Kit, which is currently on sale for $70. It is a steal at that price. But it
comes with smaller umbrellas and a lower-quality umbrella bracket.

Total Cost: $60

3) Background Support System

A background support system is not necessary, if you are willing to do some
extra work. You could use a white bed sheet or a colored muslin as your
background, which you can hang off your walls. But if you want something nicer
and portable (say for taking it to photograph corporate clients), then I would also
recommend to buy a good background support system. We have already
reviewed a couple of background system and I personally find the Impact
Background Support System to be of great value (see my review here). Savage
also makes a really nice “Port-A-Stand” support system and it is a little more
expensive than Impact’s.

You will need a couple of other things with the background system. First, you
have to decide whether to buy paper background or muslin. Personally, I prefer
paper, since it is smooth, cheap and if it gets dirty you just cut the dirty piece and
roll down more. Plus, you do not have to worry about wrinkles and ironing. On the
flipside, it takes a lot more storage space. I would start off with 53″ Super White
and 53″ Gray paper. If it proves to be too small for your needs, you can get larger
107″ versions for bigger projects or group shots.

Don’t forget to get a couple of adjustable clamps for holding the paper.

Total Cost: $155

I consider these to be the most basic tools you can get started with. Later on,
once you start getting into more advanced flash techniques, you can start
exploring better light modifiers, shaping tools, flags and other tools for total
control.

NIKON D3S + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 85mm, ISO 800, 1/100, f/2.8

Once you get to know how to use flash, you can utilize it in any environment and
shape it however you want!

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FILED UNDER: FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY AND LIGHTING

TAGGED WITH: HOWTO, STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY

About Nasim Mansurov

Nasim Mansurov is the author and founder of Photography Life,
based out of Denver, Colorado. He is recognized as one of the
leading educators in the photography industry, conducting workshops,
producing educational videos and frequently writing content for Photography
Life. You can follow him on Instagram and Facebook. Read more about Nasim
here.

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49 COMMENTS Newest

Phil Photo
May 10, 2018 10:11 pm

Some gorgeous looking photos.

Unfortunately, though… unless you already understand flash use… they are not very
informative :(
Would be more helpful if you had some direct “with flash/without flash” comparisons ?

1 Reply

Andrew Greig
April 28, 2016 5:29 am

Reyna,

That is an outside shot with fill flash. The aperture was f2.8 so the background is out of
focus, nicely soft, we say. In the old days of thyristor equipped flash guns one could set the
flash power to suit f4 but set the camera up on f5.6, so the fill flash was 50%, if we set the
flash power for f4 and the camera at f8 we would have used a fill of 25%. In these days of
flash units which work with the camera through ETTL(canon) or iTTL (Nikon) the camera and
flash combo will sort out the fill. but get the flash off your camera for a more interesting shot.

0 Reply

Reyna
April 27, 2016 9:15 pm

Also, what is the last backdrop? The one that looks like you’re outside? Thank you!

0 Reply

Reyna
April 27, 2016 8:45 pm

Hi, what background do you have for the first picture? What color? Is it a savage paper
background also? I love it and it would be perfect for my fashion garments that I have on my
website. Thank you for all your advice!

0 Reply

Andrew Greig
April 11, 2016 9:11 am

Hi Nasim,
Since originally writing this article things have changed significantly in te Speedlight
business. Unable to justify Canon’s high price on the EOS 600EX-RT (around AU$550) I
elected to buy the YongNuo YN600EX-RT equivalent, well it is very close to the Canon, and I
purchase the YongNuo controller for my hotshoe on the camera (Canon 6D). Earlier I had
purchased an ETTL extension cable 7Metres, but it is now superfluous). The YongNuo radio
system works extremely well and I have built my studio with 3 Speedlights, main, fill and
kicker (or rim light) I can set the ratios on the wireless controller to 1/2 power. 1/4 power and
1/8th power respectively, if I need to reduce the power a bit on one, then I can dial it back on
the controller or move the light stand a bit further away. For event lighting one flash off
camera controlled by the YongNuo controller gives me a cordless flash setup for speed,
safety and quality of shot. A crew member (wife, husband, son or daughter, friend ) can point
the off camera flash with appropriate modifier at the subject from an angle to add relief and
interst in the face of the subject.

0 Reply

Lee
November 21, 2015 8:44 am

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this! I’m just getting into portraits, and
needed to know what little I could get away with, while still ensuring the quality is such that I
can grow with it.

Thanks again!!

0 Reply

Ronak Varma
October 20, 2015 11:24 pm

How to use a personal photo studio for commercial purposes too?

0 Reply

Derek
January 12, 2015 12:55 pm

I recently watched your flash photography tips and you seemed to have no problem with
having flash guns on tripods. Two days later I watch ‘studio lighting’ tips from Northrup who
highly recommends using modelling lights/beauty dishes and says flash guns on tripods suck
and people shouldn’t be putting flash guns on tripods! Can I have your opinion on his
comment, please?

0 Reply

Shabeer Haddad
June 4, 2014 11:24 am

Thanks for the tips, But i still need more information about professional flash photography.
Waiting for more and more tips about flash photography.

0 Reply

Gilles Diaz
April 13, 2014 7:39 am

Thanks for this post Nasim, I’m brand new to your site and I find it amazing. I’ve been using
strobes for more than a year but always willing to learn and the tip of the backdrop choice
will really help me now that got plans to get one.
Greetings from Colombia

0 Reply

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