Behind the Scenes of a Studio Photoshoot

Earlier on in my blog, I talked about everything that goes on behind the scenes for sports photographers. This time, I'm going to talk about what goes on behind the scenes for studio work. This blog post will definitely tie into my Photoshop Ethics blog post so be sure to check it out if you haven't already.

When looking at studio work for face value, it is pretty crazy. You are using a bunch of lights, in my case two, to create artificial light to make it look like you didn't create any light. Studio lights are meant to emulate what the human eye sees and add some emphasis to it.

With all of this being said, a studio is not always the simplest thing to set up. In my personal work, I always set up my studio in my garage. This means that I have to sweep the area very well, lay down paper and have a "clean" area. What this means is that the only person allowed on the backdrop with shoes on is the subject. This means that when setting up I am constantly changing my shoes.

Once I have the paper laid down, the next thing that I do is put up the backdrops. This involves setting up the stands, putting the cloth on and raising the stands. I like to pull my backdrop out super far to minimize the amount of wrinkles on it.

After the backdrop is up, I set up the photo strobes. There are a ton of moving parts with the strobes so I always joke that I have to cross my fingers when I test them! I also bring out a table with my MacBook so that I can show my models what poses I would like them to do. Finally, set up is done.

When shooting in a studio setting, I always make sure that I am playing music. I found that it relaxes my subjects and helps them with posing. I generally go for upbeat music for portrait shoots and workout music for athlete shoots.

Shooting with photo strobes is a photographer's dream because the lights allow you to create higher quality photos. Without getting to techie, photo strobes allow a photographers to shoot with the lowest ISO setting possible. ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor in a camera and the lower the ISO the higher quality photo. This makes editing so enjoyable. Below you can see an example of what I am talking about. Higher ISO adds grain to photos.

What is ISO? Understanding ISO for Beginners - Photography Life
https://photographylife.com/what-is-iso-in-photography

Next is the fun part: shooting. Backdrops give you a ton of range with the kinds of photos that you can create. Studio photography is also nice because you can set up your studio virtually anywhere that you have a little bit of room. Below you can see a pretty cool behind the scenes video of a photographer doing an editorial photoshoot.


Below, you can see some of my favorite studio photos that I have taken.















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