Doorway Studio

If you are anything like me, you're getting into photography as a hobby or whatnot, and you get to the point where you would love to set up some sort of studio space to work in. Most people can devote a room in their home to such obsessive hobbies, but remember - you're like me. You might live at home with your parents, and they already gave you control of a bedroom and another room for an office and they'll be damned if you take over yet another room for a stupid studio.. ahem. Not sayin' that happened or anything...

Read more inside...

Whatever the case, you want to have an area where you can put up a backdrop to achieve some decent looking pictures that you can fake as studio pictures. So if space is at a premium in your home or you need something portable that you can set up almost anywhere (ok, anywhere where there is a smooth, flat vertical surface) I give you the Doorway Studio.

All set up and ready to go. However if you try this out, I do recommend putting something hard on the floor under your cloth if you have carpet and the bottom of the cloth will be showing in the pic. I also would recommend taping down the edges of the dropcloth so it doesnt move around too much.

I came upon this idea when I was trying to think of some way of throwing together an ultra-portable backdrop setup, that when broken down could be stored in a small carrying case and not rely on backdrop stands or lightstands to hold it up. It's a pretty simple idea, and I am sure people have done it before me. I have read about them myself and always thought it would be a great idea to hang two hooks on the wall and slap a rod on them to hang a backdrop from. My only problem is that I am not what you would consider a "handy" person. Anything that involves possible power tools is out of my league. Besides, I wanted something I could take with me on the go. So I thought, and thought, and thought. One day as I'm sitting in my car looking at my gps holder I got the idea. Suction cups! Not just any old suction cup though, I would need to find two or three lever-action suction cup hooks.

I found these particular suction hooks in the home improvement area at Wal-Mart. They were in the area with all the bathroom stuff. These babies were only two bucks a pop. I got three of them.

I then wandered around Wal-Mart to look for some sort of dowel or rod to use as the support. I was initially going to use a wooden dowel rod because they are strong, but they tend to look pretty raggedy. I decided to go with a round curtain rod for a couple of reasons.

1. It's telescoping. The one I bought goes from 48 inches out to 84 inches. Versatility is win.

2. It has little black baubles on either end.

Suction hook sticks to the flat woodwork, and the curtain rod sits in the hook. The black ball at the end keeps the rod from slipping off the hook!

 Without these the rod would slip off the hooks with the barest movement or adjustment of the backdrop since the rod just sits on the hooks - good old gravity. 

3. It looks finished and halfway pretty even all set up. 

The bonus thing with using a curtain rod is that it will come with hardware so you can mount it on the wall for a more permenant solution if you are lucky enough to either be handy with a drill or know someone that is.

So if you haven't figured it out by now, you stick the suction hooks on a doorway, wall or other vertical surface, balance the rod on the hooks and then you can clamp a piece of fabric onto the rod.

The view from behind the backdrop. You don't have to do it backwards through the door like I did, I just didn't have enough room on this side of the cloth to pull it out properly and take a pic! 

 Some things to keep in mind:

1. This bears repeating - Nothing is tied down, or snapped in. The rod is simply balancing in the hooks, if it gets jolted up it will fall down... duh. 

2. The suction hooks aren't going to stick to every surface known to man. They will work on smooth, flat walls but not textured ones. I used the woodwork in one of the larger doorways in my house to stick them to and it worked just fine. They might not work in every situation. If you think you will be in a place where the suction cups won't work - then look into the sticky hooks with the removable glue pad on the back. Those will stick to just about anything, and they have the kind now where you can pull them off without leaving a residue. 

3. Depending on what you use for a rod you have to be careful with the weight of your backdrop. For my purposes a 5/8th rod holds up my fairly heavy backdrop without sagging, but if you try to get crazy and hang a roll of seamless paper on that bad boy you may have an issue. If looks aren't an issue for you then go with the thickest wooden dowel rod you can find that still sits down nicely in your hooks. Keep in mind too, if you telescope the curtain rod out to it's furthest length, it will be weaker. 

4. If you do use a curtain rod and it telescopes, you may want to consider throwing a small piece of tape around the joint where the 2 pieces of rod fit into each other once you have the width you need - this will keep it from moving around too much on you. Once your done you can rip it off and shorten the rod down for storage. 

5. This setup is not the most polished-looking thing ever. If you want to look like a pro by any means, go on ebay and buy a $100 backdrop system. I was looking for something more to mess around with and practice with. Appearances are important!  

With a chair to show the relative size. I recommend a longer backdrop too so you can get your subject away from it if need be.

What kind of results can you expect?



Not too shabby ones if you ask me. I braved the holiday Wal-Mart crowd to get my doorway studio set up, but at least I nabbed a treat while I was over there!

 



So what have you been able to come up with for your home studios? Are you lucky enough to have a spare room to work in, or perhaps a garage? Let me know in the comments, down below!