Flash photography tip: Create your own home studio
Friday 29 March 2024, 15:15 by Elja Trum | 2,789 views | 6 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
You don't need to rent an expensive studio to get started with studio photography. You can easily create your own studio at home. Preferably in a large room. You could use your living room as a studio space, for example, but an attic can often work perfectly well too.
Especially when you are taking portraits of someone from the chest up, a few square metres is enough.
You certainly don't need to buy studio flashes for your home studio. You can use the strobist kit you use on location just as well here. The only thing you will probably miss is the modelling light.
Most speedlights don't have one. This makes it a little harder to see in advance what the result will be, and you may need a light to focus properly.
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About the author
Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.
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6 comments
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Donald Willemsen wrote on Friday 29 March 2024 at 16:26 | replyI think it’s a nice tip. I have a simple flash set with 3 studio flashes myself, but I can only use them indoors because they run on mains power. However, I would also like to work on location with an off-camera speedlight. Unfortunately, I can’t find a trigger for my speedlight. The flash is probably already too old to find anything suitable. Partly because of that, I rarely use my speedlight.
Translated from Dutch.
I would have liked some advice for an affordable speedlight with a corresponding trigger. The speedlight should of course have a built-in RF receiver. -
Elja Trum
wrote on Friday 29 March 2024 at 16:34
| reply
Perhaps you can still find a second-hand Cactus trigger and receiver. They're affordable, and with them you can still turn your older flashes into a wireless flash.
Translated from Dutch.
If I were to go for a new on-camera flash myself at the moment, I would probably look at a Godox. Good value for money and lots of options. You can even use the same trigger for their studio flashes. Pretty practical. -
Donald Willemsen wrote on Friday 29 March 2024 at 17:31 | reply
Elja, thanks for the tips. I have a Cactus trigger and receiver, but they don't work at all. As far as I know, my flash (Metz mecablitz AF 48-1) only has the option of firing remotely via an IR sensor. I'll take a look at a Godox. I previously looked at a Godox AD200, but that exceeds the budget again. However, Godox has other options as well, so I'll take a look at those. It also has to work well with my R7. I can't just put my current reportage flash on the dedicated flash shoe of the R7. I then have to put the AD-E1 adapter in between.
Translated from Dutch.
In any case, thanks again for the tips. -
Maarten Karnekamp wrote on Tuesday 2 April 2024 at 11:00 | replyI don't know which camera you have (Canon or Nikon?), but you could look at a Yongnuo trigger set; reasonable prices and works well.
Translated from Dutch. -
Henk Donkers wrote on Tuesday 2 April 2024 at 12:06 | replyHi Donald, It all depends a bit on the brand of camera you use. I myself use Canon. There are some very nice flashes for your brand at a good price on the internet, and at Camera Express they have very affordable triggers for Metz and hopefully for your camera brand. (https://www.kamera-express.nl/metz). Definitely worth taking a look.
Translated from Dutch. -
Donald Willemsen wrote on Tuesday 2 April 2024 at 17:23 | reply
Hello Henk and Maarten, I use a Canon Eos R7. I am already looking around and have my eye on something. It won't be for right away, but I don't mind that. Thank you both for thinking along.
Translated from Dutch.
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Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about PhotofactsPhotofacts is made possible in part by
