Videos

Gavin Hoey turns his largest softbox, on a RoveLight 600, into a pure white background for head and shoulders portraits in a small home studio, with a StreakLight 360 as key. Meter readings confirm the softbox is a stop brighter than the f/11 key without spilling onto the model's hair.

Gavin Hoey explains why a white backdrop photographs grey under a single key light, using the inverse square law and meter readings at f/8, then adds a second flash behind the model, metered about a stop brighter at f/11, for pure white. In Photoshop the polygonal lasso extends the background.

Gavin Hoey turns a plain dark grey backdrop into almost any colour with a gelled background flash in his small home studio. Unlit grey records as black; red and yellow gels stack to make orange, the Streaklight remote sets intensity, and Camera Raw's HSL panel fine-tunes hue and saturation afterwards.

Gavin Hoey demonstrates honeycomb grids on his StreakLight 360, comparing a bare reflector's wide spread with a grid's tight pool and rapid fall-off. He photographs grime artist Iffy on the floor under a gridded key light for a street-lamp feel, adds a second gridded light and edits in Camera Raw.

Gavin Hoey adds a second flash, a StreakLight 180, as hair and separation light above Freya, who blows bubbles in profile. He meters f/8 on the face against f/4 on the hair, tests the two-stop gap, then in Photoshop composites extra bubbles from a bubble machine shot on black.

Gavin Hoey calls the 5-in-1 reflector his key home-studio tool, with silver, gold, white, translucent and black flag surfaces. Lighting Dan with one StreakLight 360 at 90 degrees, he flags the white wall, adds silver on a boom beneath his face to light the eyes, re-metering for f/8.

Karl Taylor offers six tips for small studios: understand physics, since lights close to the subject bounce less; paint walls dark grey or black; use flags against spill; organise gear on trolleys and hooks; save floor space with ceiling tracks, booms and wall-hung backgrounds; and rent space when needed.

Laura BC, who builds a studio in every London flat she rents, lists minimum gear for an affordable home studio for portrait, fashion, product and self-portraits. She weighs flash against continuous light, recommending a Neewer flash and a similarly priced Godox LED with remote control, and covers softbox sizes.

Rafal Wegiel, who shoots corporate headshots indoors, credits Dylan Patrick's cinematic headshot technique for letting him work in any cramped or plain space. He runs through favourite background sources, including blurred images projected onto a white wall, used on a quarter of shoots, and office interiors with strong lines.

Mark Wallace explains why adding light to a background is not always the best way to remove a subject's shadow, and how light behaves. Working with Nadia Boulif and Profoto D1 heads with an octa softbox, Magnum reflector and shallow umbrella, he shows how light placement controls the shadow.