The idea of taking photos whenever one pleases means one of two things: (1) absolute control over the elements, or (2) one’s own photographic studio.
The second of those options is becoming a reality for me. My aim here is to explain some of the thinking (or lack thereof) behind its evolution.
To begin with, some scene-setting:
- Location: double car garage (6 metres x 6 metres)
- Reason: isolation from the household
- Physical aspects: room size 6m x 6m; ceiling height varies between 2.4m and 2.8m
For reasons best explained by my bank manager, we are trying to build a nice studio on the cheap. We decided on floating plywood sheets over the existing 36sqm of garage floor. The plywood will be stained a dark timber colour and finished with satin polyurethane.
Our initial plans to use Masonite for the interior walls were scuttled by the need to stuff insulation into the wall cavity. Gyprock proved better able to withstand the outward pressure from the polyester insualting material. Masonite billowed out.
Ultra White paint is the finish on the walls. You need to be selective about white paint because not all whites are white. But you knew that…
An ambition for the future is to create an infinity wall or cove. If you’re unfamiliar with this term, I’m talking about a curved structure to eliminate shadow lines in photographs caused by hard angles where walls meet the floor and ceiling.
As you might imagine, this type of structure eats up floorspace and worse, eats dollars we don’t have right now. Among the cheaper options we considered is an infinity wall made from linoleum. A sheet of lino would cope with bending and, painted white, would make a practically seamless studio background.
If “our ship” comes in unexpectedly, we’d have the money to form this structure out of curved timber or fibreglass and build a “cove” which would create a seamless effect, from floor to ceiling, across an entire corner.
The studio will be windowless to avoid issues with light, dust and security. This came as a shocking omission to the tradesmen. We eventually convinced them that an air-conditioner would suffice.
The wall to wall distance is 6 metres, so maximum shooting distance lined up wall to wall is probably 5 metres. This increases to about a metre more when shooting corner to corner. We can use a 50mm lens on a full frame camera for full-body photos, 200mm lens for head shots.
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I'm eternally indebted to several banking institutions for my Canon camera and a bunch of lenses, filters, converters, tubes, and pods. But, as my icon here betrays, I am a little loco. 
Hi Peter, just finishing a similar project at my place, turning the garage into an office. Yes, expensive it is since everything has to be custom made — from the floor, ceiling and furniture. I could not see the point anymore for wasting space just to park cars. They are doing well outside on the property. It’s not as if I had to dig ‘em out of a snow-storm. Air is clean in Perth too, top-soils are not blown into the city. So if you like to polish your vehicle, it lasts for a long time.
I was very fortunate with the trades people working for us. Hope you find that as well.
Happy Days, Axel
Hi Axel,
Strangely coincidental… my car had to be parked beneath a fig tree for the last two nights. A bat habitat it turns out. My car now looks like it has an exotic dandruff-related disease.