Whether you’re taking portraits of your friends or you’ve been commissioned to photography a family – or whether you’re taking your own family photos – working from your own home photo studio can be exceptionally rewarding.

Below we’ve compiled 10 expert tips on how to set up your home photo studio, with fundamental photo ideas for how to light, pose and set up your camera to shoot family photos.

Tip 1: Family portraits
Shooting any group of people is challenging, but photographing families can test even the most experienced professionals. You need to take control and be authoritative and clear about what you want everyone to do, giving you the best chance of getting everybody looking your way and smiling. Take multiple shots to give you the widest possible choice of images – somebody will always be blinking or half-smiling/ half-grimacing.

To inject some energy and fun into proceedings, encourage your subjects to move around and interact with each other. The flash lights will freeze them in action, so you’ll still get sharp shots. Alternatively, split families up into pairs, to capture more intimate portraits.

Tip 2: Home photo studio lighting kits
ontrary to popular belief, you don’t need to spend thousands of pounds to get a decent studio lighting set-up. Both Elinchrom and do good lighting kits for around £500, while Interfit and Lastolite have studio lighting kits starting at around £220 and £300 respectively. All come with two heads plus softboxes or umbrellas, so you can bounce and soften your light for more flattering and professional- looking portraits. The next step is to invest in backdrops; you’ll need a few rolls of different coloured paper, plus two stands and a roller holder.

Tip 3: Hiring a studio
Booking studio space is a good opportunity to take some great portraits in a controlled environment. But ask about ceiling height, or you may struggle to put light stands up high enough to position softboxes. Can you use the studio’s lights and cables? What backdrops are available? Will somebody be on hand to assist? And if you only need a few hours of studio time, ask if they do a half-day or hourly rate, or share the cost.

Tip 4: Photographing children
kids get bored easily, so turn your photo shoot into playtime – bring along favourite toys for them to hold and play with. This occupies them, keeping them still for a few seconds, plus you’ll get some interesting expressions on the little angels’ faces. it’s also essential that mum or dad is on hand so the kids feel comfortable – get them to stand behind you and attract their children’s attention (with silly faces, dancing – whatever it takes!) so they’re looking in your direction.

Tip 5: Basic lighting set-up cheats
If you don’t want a studio set-up, you can also achieve professional-looking portraits with a pair of modern flashguns and attachments. our example portraits were taken using a small portable background and two off-camera flashguns, fired through white brollies.

Tip 6: Shoot in Manual mode
When using manual mode in your home photo studio, a  good starting exposure is 1/200 sec at f/9 and iSo200.

Tip 7:  Bright lights
Your home photo studio lights dictate how bright or dark your subjects are. increase or decrease light power to brighten or darken them.

Tip 8: Get to know your aperture
Aperture controls depth of field, as well as how much the flash lights your subject. Wider apertures lighten subjects, while narrower apertures make them darker.

Tip 9: Speed freak
Your shutter speed controls ambient light. Set it higher to darken backgrounds, lower to brighten them. Maximum flash sync speeds are 1/200 or 1/250 sec, depending on your camera.

Tip 10: Be sensitive
ISo controls how far the flash light spreads – pump up iSo if subjects (such as groups of people) are far away, or if you want to brighten up backgrounds further.

Win Digital Camera’s Ultimate Guide to Portrait Photography

To celebrate the launch of ‘Portrait Photography‘, the latest instalment in our Digital Camera Special series of beginners guides to photography, we are running a picture-based competition via Facebook. Simply visit our Facebook page and upload your best portraits. We’ll pick 5 of the best portraits posted on our wall and offer these readers an advice clinic as well as a free copy of ‘Portrait Photography’.
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Photo ideas don’t get much simpler. All you need to create photo art like this is a simple home studio and a collection of kitchen utensils. No fancy studio lighting or extreme macro gear required. You could even shoot this with a compact.

It’s amazing what you can photograph at home with a little bit of imagination and creativity. We’ve already shown you how to make fine-art food photos and create minature landscape pictures (out of mashed potato). Now it’s time to turn the contents of your cutlery drawer into photographic art. Take a regular kitchen fork, for example – we use them every day, but how often do we take the time to stop and admire their beauty? Probably never for most of us, and that’s where we’re missing a trick. With the right lighting, composition and treatment, everyday objects can become exciting photographic prospects.

The set-up’s simple. You need nothing more than an angle-poise lamp and a piece of white card to make a straightforward but effective tabletop home studio. Getting the lighting right requires a bit of trial and error, and it will take some experimentation before you nail it. Use your DSLR’s LCD to get a good idea of lighting and switch your picture style to black and white, so the LCD displays a mono image. This is a superb ‘pre-visualisation’ tool, and if you’re shooting in RAW (which we recommend) your files will still have all the colour information anyway, should you change your mind later on.

How to create kitchen photo art

1. Find an angle

To create strong shadows, use an angle-poise lamp so it’s easy to alter the direction of the light. Use a piece of white card to make a scooped backdrop and experiment with the angle of the lamp.

2. Camera settings

Shoot in RAW and set your DSLR to monochrome so the images on the LCD appear in black and white – most cameras can do this. It’s a great pre-visualisation tool, and your original file will still have all the colour information anyway. Working with a tripod-mounted camera enables you to use a low ISO setting for maximum quality. We used mid-range aperture settings (f/8 – f/11), but experiment with different apertures until you find the balance of blur/sharpness you prefer.

3. Processing the images

Create a Black & White adjustment layer in Photoshop and experiment with the colour sliders. Then create a Curves adjustment layer and make a generous ‘S’ curve for a hard look with strong contrast.

Everyday kitchen objects can come to life with simple but creative lighting. Frame up the shot with your camera free of the tripod to find the best compositon.

Increase the impact of your pictures by framing them as diptychs and triptychs. You can create your own templates in Photoshop, or simply download our readymade 25 free triptych frames and drop in your own images.

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Photo ideas don’t come much more entertaining than this. The idea of placing model figures in amongst ingredients can transform a meal into a miniature landscape. Fry ups turn into meat safaris and soup bowls become steaming savoury jacuzzis. Of course there are many other everyday household objects that make excellent settings for macro scenarios, but food is ideal. It can be easily sculpted and is instantly recognisable. Here, that great British staple, bangers and mash, works a treat as the Smash instant mash mix could be easily manipulated into the shape of a mountain. But there are many other areas in our daily life where miniature adventures can take place – all you need is a little imagination. Here are some photo ideas to give you food for thought…

In addition to a DSLR and tripod, you need:

Location

Food is a wonderful material for making miniature landscapes. Just about anything will do if you use a little imagination. The budget sausages, tinned peas and packet of Smash used for the main image above only cost about £2.50, and they were perfect. And best of all you can eat your set once you’re finished. For a background we found a standard cleaning cloth, which produced a good-looking sky. Once you’ve located and constructed your miniature landscape it’s time to introduce the characters…

Figures

Sourcing the right figures for a scene is essential to creating a story. Hornby sells some wonderful sets of figures. For less than £6 you can pick up a themed collection of around six characters.Preiser has a great range too. Your local model-making shop can also be a good resource for other accessories to refine your figures, such as paint and brushes. Position your figures so they tell a story – a random collection of models on a plate of food will just look, well, random.

Lighting

To light the scene, use two off-camera flashguns: one for the background and one for the subject. Use a home-made reflector to bounce the light. If you only have one flashgun, try using more than one reflector, carefully positioning them to create a sense of depth in the scene. To create a harder and more direct reflected light, try covering one of them with kitchen silver foil.

Macro lens

We used a 60mm macro lens. The figures are tiny, so you will be working at greater than life size magnification. You can of course fit close-up diopters or extension tubes on regular lenses, but a dedicated macro lens is more convenient. Longer focal length macros will give you more working distance between the camera and the models.

Camera settings and technique:

1. Camera setup

For macro effects to work here, you need to keep your camera setup as simple as possible. Because we were working with multiple flashguns, we needed to switch everything to manual, including exposure settings, focus and flash power. Start off by establishing a good general exposure, establishing the depth of field you want. This will vary from scene to scene, but here we used f/8, which was perfect for the scale of the set. Next, introduce the main light, adjusting the flash power rather than changing the camera settings. Use your DSLR’s LCD screen and histogram to assess the lighting, and once you’re happy with the main light, introduce the second background light. You’ll need to focus manually for precision focusing at close range.

2. Lighting tips

In our setup we used two flashguns and a simple home-made reflector to light the scene. If you don’t have two flashguns you can easily improvise with your on camera’s pop-up flash and a more elaborate combination of reflectors – try using silver foil as an alternative to white card. If you do have two flashguns, position one (set to Slave mode) to illuminate the background. Remember, lighting the background separately helps create depth. The other flashgun is taken off-camera, and positioned to the left of the scene to give a ‘sculptural’ feel to the mash mountain.

3. Additional equipment

We used a Seculine Twin Link T2D radio trigger to fire the flash remotely. A small reflector made of white card is perfect to fill in the shadow areas and was positioned to the right. Natural light can also work well, so if you don’t want to use flash, find an area near a north-facing window.

Top tip: think of a story

However lighthearted your scene, establishing a sense of narrative is really important. In our sausage shot above you can see that there’s a conversation between the characters. “Help, I’m stuck in sausage fat!” There’s an imagined dialogue between them that makes the scene seem realistic. So when choosing figures, try to visualise how they will interact and what type of scene will work best. Try to add drama (or comedy) for extra impact….

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No, we haven’t gone crazy and over-the-top with our Photoshop manipulation in a monstrous flashback to the 1970s. These psychedlic colours have been created using a technique called cross-polarisation and it’s where weird and geeky science starts to get fun. Cross-polarisation photography takes advantage of the unique effect that polarised light has on some plastics and you’ll be amazed at the pictures you can create with a little creativity. Follow this simple tutorial to find out how it’s done.

In addition to a DSLR and tripod, you need:

A circular polariser

Mount this filter on your lens. Don’t worry if it’s too big for your filter thread, you can always hold it.

Polarising film

We used a sheet of ‘Lee 239’, currently £40 plus VAT and postage from www.robertwhite.co.uk.

A lightbox

If you don’t have one a regular table top lamp will also work.

Plastic items

Cutlery, glasses, French curves, rulers and other stationery… You’ll be able to get loads at the supermarket for less that £3 each.

Camera settings and technique:

1. Assemble your plastic props

First you’ll need to go to the local supermarket or stationery shop and load up with lots of cheap plastic products. The best kind of plastic is injection-moulded clear plastic such as transparent cutlery, stationary and glasses – try anything, but if it’s the kind of plastic that shatters easily you’ll get great results, especially if you stress it a little by bending it to near breaking point before you start.

2. Taking the shots

The technique is relatively simple. You basically need to photograph your plastic subject between two polarising filters. One polarising filter needs to cover the light source – we’ve used a sheet of polarising film on a lightbox, which is ideal. If you don’t have this try placing a polarising filter over another light source such as an angle-poise lamp. At around £40 a sheet for the polarising film you might want to think about sharing the cost with a like-minded photographer. Cut it in half and you’ll still get roughly two A4 sheets which is more than enough. Mount the second circular polarising filter on the camera or hold it in front of the lens if it doesn’t exactly fit.

3. Camera settings

Turn the main lights off, switch the lightbox on and place the plastic objects on it, so they’re essentially between the two filters. You’ll be able to see the cross-polarised effects the moment you look through the viewfinder. Rotate the circular polarising filter on your camera and watch the intensity of the effect change. At certain points the background will go completely black which is great for creating striking results. Switch your DSLR to Manual mode, use the histogram to establish a good exposure – we used f/8 at 1/25sec so a tripod was essential to avoid camera shake – and shoot away.

4. Photoshop tweaks

Take pictures in your camera’s RAW setting and process your files in Adobe Camera Raw. You only need a few basic tweaks, such as boosting contrast and colour vibrancy, to make the cross-polarised image look even better. The psychedelic displays of spectral madness you see here have had virtually no post production manipulation whatsoever.

Top tip: no polarising film? Use your PC…

If you don’t have a sheet of polarising film, use your PC screen set to white (try using Photoshop for this). It’s actually polarised, and will behave like a polarised lightbox. Alternatively, gaffa tape a second filter to a desk lamp.

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If your portfolio is suffering from a lack of inspiring small-scale action photography then it’s time to start capturing amazing miniature water sculptures. As with most still-life photography, the success is in the preparation and gear set-up. Although there’s a fair bit of kit involved, you won’t need expensive high-speed strobes or technical shutter or flash triggering units. This can easily be done with an off-camera flash and cord plus a macro lens or extension tube.

Step 1: Set up a macro home studio for water drop photos

Predictably, water and expensive cameras don’t mix very well, so ensure you have a wide and level working area to set up your equipment and work safely. Make sure all the equipment is secure and aim to be in a shady or darkened room for the best possible lighting.

Flashgun:
Any brand of camera flash that has a Manual mode will do the job. Place it in a clear or neutral colour plastic bag to stop it getting splashed by the drips.

Off-camera cord:
Firing the flashgun (or a pop-up flash) from the hotshoe will look harsh. A cord will be required to place the flash closer to the subject.

Tripod:
It’ll need to be a comfortable height to work from and sturdy – both good traits for a tripod. In these pictures just micro-movements can throw the focus way off.

Macro lens:
If you have one, use it to focus super-close and increase impact. Alternatively, fit an extension tube to a mid-range zoom lens for the same effect. Extension tubes allow even closer focusing distances and work perfectly when zoomed in to around 70mm.

Remote release:
Using a remote-release cord isn’t essential but it will make it easier to fire the shutter unrestricted and will avoid wet hands touching the camera.

Clear glass and tray:
A clear tall glass filled with water and a clear or neutral colour tray to catch the excess liquid is essential to avoid unwanted colour casts tinting the image.

Bottle and pin:
To get small and steady drips, make a hole in the bottom of a quarter-filled plastic water bottle. Use a household pin to pierce a small aperture on the lowest part of the bottle to actually start the water dripping. Leave the lid on and pierce a small air hole in the top. This lets air enter the bottle slowly and avoids creating a vacuum so that the drips can flow out evenly.

Stand:
A purpose-made stand to hold the dripping water bottle is best but you might need to be resourceful. We used a pair of molegrips taped to a camera case. The large pair of molegrips hold the bottle while the small pair are clamped onto them and taped to the case.

Coloured card:
Backgrounds are vitally important to inject some impact into the pictures. The great thing is that they’re just cheap card from a stationers.

Step 2: Use these DSLR settings

Here’s how we’d recommend you set up your camera for water drop photography…
● Flash – switch the flash to Manual and set it to 1/16th full power to start.
● Focusing – manual focus is critical for sharp images.
● Exposure – use Manual mode to keep control over metering.
● Exposure mode – manual.
● Aperture – set it to f/22 for maximum depth of field and to avoid focusing errors.
● Shutter speed – to avoid ambient light select a shutter speed of around 1/200 sec.
● Drive mode – avoid guessing the timing and use Single shot.
● Quality – shoot in RAW format for best quality and greater latitude during editing.

Step 3: How to take the water drop photos

When you have your kit ready you can concentrate on the photography. Compose in upright format with the cup lip at the bottom of the frame. Don’t shoot from too high or you’ll get the cup in the shot. Remember that the close and shallow angle will make focusing crucial as the depth of field will be miniscule.

The freezing of action in this technique comes from the short blip of flash exposing the water rather than from the shutter speed or ambient light. This means that in-camera metering is redundant (use the aperture and shutter speed setting suggested above) and that you must rid the room of as much light as possible.

Place the flash below the camera angled upwards for a super contrasty lighting effect. After putting the background card close to the cup, you’re ready to take a test exposure and check the histogram. Specular highlights in the water should be clipped (falling off the right-hand side of the histogram) and shadows at the edge of the background should be black. If you need to adjust the flash power, experiment by moving it backwards or forwards. If you still need adjustments then use the output setting on your flash unit.

Get focusing spot-on for sharp drops

Line up the shot:
Lay a pen over the centre of the glass and aim the drip by moving the stand so that it hits the very centre of the glass.

 

Focus and check the result:
Manually focus on the pen where the drip is splashing and double check it on your LCD by zooming in.

Get the timing right
Pressing the shutter to catch the splashes is the easiest part. A remote shutter release will give you freedom to position yourself and get a better feel for the timing. As the drip hits, pause before firing the shutter to allow the water to rise and create an interesting shape. Keep the room dark and you should be able to see the shapes momentarily as the flash freezes them.

Too early:
A fraction of a second after the drop hits the water the initial splash has dissipated and the frame should be clear of stray drips. A nipple will form and begin to rise upwards

 

Getting there:
The rising nipple will form a column that can produce some cool shapes and imaginary figures. Experimenting with the height of the water drop can produce varying results.

 

Success:
Try to fire the shutter after the column has fully extended and as the surface tension of the water interacts with gravity. It’ll produce some wacky and  almost symmetrical shapes.

 

Too late:
Quite literally a fraction of a second later and the event has passed. Even though it looks good as a suspended bubble above the water’s surface the impact and X-factor is lost.

Photoshop tutorial: turning water drops into fine art photos

1. Adjust Levels

Increase the contrast and give the images a little more bite using Levels. Click Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels. Use the Auto Levels button and watch the blacks become deeper and the contrast increase.

 

2. Crop

First select the Crop tool [C] and drag it across the whole of the image. Hold down [Shift] to constrain the size of the crop and position it over the part of the frame that you require, rotating it as necessary.

 

3. Duplicate

Before beginning to clone out the dust spots, create a new background Layer by dragging the Background Layer onto the Create New Layer icon or clicking Layer>Duplicate Layer. Title this Layer ‘Dust Spots’ for reference.

 

4. Clone

With the ‘Dust Spots’ Layer highlighted choose the Clone tool from the Tool Palette [S]. Select a soft feathery brush and resize the cloning area using the square bracket keys for a more precise diameter change.

 

5. Stroke

Select the whole canvas by pressing [Ctrl/Opt-A]. From the menu select Edit>Stroke. In the dialogue box choose a Pixel width of around 5 and choose black from the colour picker. Leave the Location to Centre and the Blending mode to Normal.

 

6. Canvas size

For the classy white border to sit beyond the small black border click Image>Canvas Size and choose a white background colour from the colour swatch. Click the Relative check box and enter another 7cm in each Width and Height box.

All images Ben Birchall

 

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The creative possibilities of photographing smoke trails are endless; after all, each one is as individual and original as your own fingerprint. It’s easy, fun and the results are mind-blowing. In this photography project, we’ll show you a simple smoke photography set up, and give you the tips and settings you need to get the best shots. We’ll also show you a quick smoke photo tutorial for Photoshop which explains how to turn your smoke pictures into awesome art. Follow our tips and delve into a whole new genre of still life photography.

Smoke photography step-by-step

Step 1: Get the following equipment
As well as digital SLR and standard zoom lens, you’ll need this gear…

Black backdrop
To intensify the backlit smoke, black is essential. Cheap and cheerful card will be fine.

Incense sticks
Better for your health than cigarettes and they smoulder constantly and predictably.

Flashgun
Your camera’s built-in flash won’t do, as you’ll need to manually backlight the smoke to make it come alive. You don’t need to worry about attaching the flash to the camera though.

Tripod
The outdoor photographer’s essential item is just crucial indoors, especially in this low-light scenario.

Step 2: Use these settings on your DSLR
Here are our recommended camera settings for taking a smoke photo…
● ISO – keep it as low as possible for best image quality
● File format – shoot RAW
● Focal length – around 50mm looks natural and works best
● Exposure mode – manual
● Aperture – shoot between f/8 and f/16 for sharp results
● Shutter speed – set this for a one-second exposure
● Off-camera Flash – set it to Manual and select 1/8 of full power
● Metering – ignore your camera’s meter
● Shutter release – use a remote release or your self-timer
 


Step 3: Smoke photo set-up and technique
First of all, you’ll need a dark room. To make sure ambient light doesn’t affect the flash exposure you’ll be using, block out light from windows and doors by draping sheets or towels over them.

Leave the light on while you clear a table top and place some black card against the wall to use as your backdrop. Position an incense holder and stick 12 inches in front of this. Now put your camera on a tripod around three feet from the incense (the actual distance will depend on the close-focusing ability of your lens).

To retain a good degree of sharpness in your smoke photos, use autofocus to lock on to the tip of the incense stick. Now switch your lens to manual focus to prevent the camera hunting for focus later. Recompose the shot so that the incense is just out of the bottom of the viewfinder.

Not all viewfinders offer a 100% view of the scene, so allow for this when recomposing the shot (otherwise the tip of the incense stick is likely to creep, unseen into the frame).

When you’re ready to shoot, light the incense and turn the lights off. Use a remote shutter release or use the camera’s self timer. Position a flashgun underneath and behind the incense and when the shutter opens during the 1-second exposure, fire the flash manually by pressing its pilot button.

Check your results after each exposure to make sure the composition and sharpness are acceptable.

Experimenting with the position of the incense stick at the bottom of the frame and gently wafting the smoke can throw up some spectacular results. However, remember that you’re photographing smouldering incense, which has the potential to cause fire or injury.

How to get the best results – and avoid mistakes…

 
The ideal set-up: keep the flash low and facing up towards the tip of the stick. Hold the flash slightly back from the smoke for the best backlit effect.

 
Flash in shot: take care not to let the flash creep into the frame. Turn on your camera’s automatic review feature and keep an eye on the LCD screen.

 
Flash pointing at lens: trying to backlight too much and pointing your flash towards the lens will create horrible flare. A lens hood will help.

 
Exposed background: if you want a black background, keep the flash angled away from it. Any light spill towards it will create muddy tones.

 
Too much airflow: too much air flowing around the room will cause the smoke to billow and deviate out of the frame. Keep doors and windows shut.

 
Not enough interest: if the air’s very still the smoke will rise straight up without disrupting. The best remedy is to tap the incense stick.

Your flatbed scanner doesn’t need to be a mundane tool only ever used to scan old photos and boring documents. Here, we show you how to make a photogram scan and create amazingly artistic effects with your standard scanning device.

1. Scout for objects

A scanner has a very small depth of  field so your objects need to be relatively flat. The nautilus shell, glove and dried piranha we found proved excellent subjects. Just make sure the surface of your scanner is clean.

2. Background

To create a black background open the lid and place a piece of black card about five inches above the scanner, we’ve supported it on plastic tubs. you may need to experiment. depending on which scanner you’re using.

3. Make a scan

We’re using Epson software, which enables us to control the crop, resolution, exposure and colour. You’ll be able to get super high-res images, probably much higher than you’d get from a top-of-the-range DSLR.

4. Digital darkroom

Open your image in Photoshop and clean up any dust marks using the Clone Tool from the Tools Palette. You might want to crop out any distractions at the edges, such as the supports used to hold the black card in place.

5. Mono invert

Go to Image >Adjustments>Black and White and covert your shot. To replicate the an x-ray, which suits our subject matter, go to Image>Adjustments>Invert. This will reverse all the tones, essentially making a negative.

6. Split-tone

To split-tone go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map. Select foreground to background and change the colour stops to blue for the dark tones and cream for the light tones.