So when I say my studio space is small, I mean it's itty bitty! I took over our spare bedroom in our 1000 square foot, three bedroom house and it's maybe 10' by 12'? Don't ask me what we'll do when we have baby #3... Take over the garage? (for the studio, not the baby ;-)
Such a humble shooting space is not ideal, but it's do-able and it works for me (much better than taking over the living room antime I wanted to do an indoor shoot!) This room has been a work-in-progress for about a year now, and I don't think I will ever really be finished with it. Is anyone else like that? I'm always coming up with something else I want done! But working in such a small space you have to maximize every inch, including vertical wall space!
I had my dad build this backdrop storage rack based on this picture I found from Cindy Ellis here.
I use the bottom peg to also tie up my buntings and banners. I love having everything on display so that my customers can see all the options they have available. I store our backdrops (many of which are available--for a super affordable price--in the Etsy shop and will ship out within one to three business days) If you're also wondering why I use two PVC lengths for each backdrop, chech out this post here for an easy backdrop stand tutorial!
See how the top peg is a little longer in this picture? That's the 5' length, and I used to just hang the backdrop that was in use off of that one, but it didn't work so well to have the backdrop hanging on the wall next to the door. It works much better for the flow in the room (if you can have a "flow" in a few square foot space) to have the backdrop up on the opposite wall.
If I were to do anything different, I would've added more pegs and made them closer together, and also make the pegs longer so that it could hold two backdrops on each. I never anticipated having more than 11 different backdrops... But I think I have closer to twice that many! Maybe it was foresight, but I didn't actually glue in the dowells. So now I've bought more dowell, I just need to find an afternoon to cut, paint and change them out.
This prop storage idea I found on pinterest from Jennifer Jayne Photography's post here. How genious! Once again, I want my clients to be able to see what's available!
I found these rod Clips to cost about 4x less per clip than the other ones, and they work just fine.
I also make 90% of my hats/diaper covers, rompers, etc. so maybe it's a pride thing that I want them on display and not kept in a dark tote or box somewhere? Haha
Isn't it beautiful? I'm so grateful for the internet.
I'm not sure I could come up with this stuff on my own!
Con cariño,
Alea
