How to set up a simple natural light studio
Setting up a studio space using natural light can be easy if you have the right tools and know-how.
Choose a room with a bright light source
A large, spacious room with light colored paint is optimal. This way you get a good amount of clean white light reflected. As you can see with the photo above, the sliding glass door on the left is serving as the light source. Now, the sun isn’t coming straight through the window though, it’s bouncing off of a wall the runs the same direction as the window. I got lucky with the bounced light, and it gives me a nicely diffused light source.
Choose where you want to place your backdrop
Now that you have your room all picked out, it’s time to decide where you want your backdrop. I wanted my light coming from a side angle, so I placed my drops on a perpendicular wall. However, the lighting choice is up to you and the direction that you want your light source to be coming from. Just make sure that you test this out ahead of time so that you can adjust the angle if necessary.
Utilize Reflectors
Now, when I set up my studio, I decided that there was too much shadow on the opposite side of the window. To fix this, I set up a big piece of polly board (a fancy term for styrofoam) to reflect the light coming in from the window. This evened out the shadows much more to my liking, and it was a really cheap fix!
Now see how easy that was?! And here’s the final product. Tune in tomorrow to see more photos of this set up in action. =)
McKenna Pendergrass Photography Blog 