SHOESTRING STUDIO PRO PORTRAITS AT HOME

Get set up at home with a two-speedlite studio and create stunning family photos

01 GARDEN BAG SOFTBOX

Our key light here is a second-hand Godox speedlite, bought for £30 on ebay. We have crafted a softbox using an old garden waste bag with the front covered in a white bin liner. There is no TTL mode on the flash, only manual power, but that’s all we need. We set it to 1/4 power.

02 OLD UMBRELLA

Our fill light here is a second-hand Yongnuo speedlite (£40 on ebay), fired into an old umbrella covered in tin foil and bin liners. It’s placed directly above the subject and set to 1/8 power to provide a gentle fill light. As the budget couldn’t stretch to a light stand, we simply tied it to the ceiling.

03 GREEN SCREEN

Green screens – aka chroma key screens – are easily changed in Photoshop, so ideal for a budget studio. Green is far from skin colour, which makes it easy to cut out or isolate from people. Ours cost £5 on ebay. Creases can be a headache to sort out, so keep the sheet as taut as possible.

04 EXPOSURE SETTINGS

Our camera is set to Manual exposure mode, at 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO100. This is a good stock exposure for studio portraiture, especially if you’re in a fairly tight spot, like our garage setup here, because the wide aperture ensures a bit of separation with the backdrop.

05 FLASH TRIGGER

We need a means of triggering our two off-camera speedlites. A cheap wireless flash trigger can be purchased for as little as £20, but if the budget won’t stretch to this, you can also use your pop-up flash and set the speedlites to optical trigger mode so they fire upon detecting the flash.

06 THE SUBJECT

This is a great project to try with kids. Colourful clothes, toys and props can help to add character to the shots, as well as keep the kids interested. Considering the cost of a professional portrait shoot, the savings from doing it yourself instead could run into hundreds of pounds.