Not everyone has a dedicated studio to shoot portraits of our clients in. Maybe your just starting out and feel that without a studio you can’t do any sort of portrait work. DIY is a growing trend these days so I present to you my portable, set up anywhere in 15 minutes studio. First off you will need Some PVC pipe. Then a backdrop, something like a sheet, canvas, muslin or even a shower curtain. A really good description of how to make your own PVC backdrop has already been done in this great post on DIYPhotography.net, so I am not going to get into the gritty details on exactly how to put this together. PVC pipe is not that expensive, it’s modular and light, allowing for quick setup and breakdown. My little setup includes the PVC pipe backdrop stand, two shower curtains, two or three light stands, three Vivitar 285 HV flashes, ball bungees, umbrella(s) and a set of Alienbees CyberSync remote flash controls.

Note: I recently had a chance to try out the LumoPro LP120 Flashes available from Midwest Photo Exchange. I highly recommend these over the Vivitar HV flashes because they are much more versatile, compact and quiet.

Here are all the goodies setup in my very small front room. (can you tell I don’t watch much of my ancient TV)

The two flashes on the sides are used to light up the backdrop and bring it as close pure white or over exposed as possible when shooting. The third flash with an umbrella is set up quite close to your model because the closer your light the softer the shadows. If you look below at a sample shot taken with this setup, you might notice that even the TV played a part in how the scene was lit, the TV reflected some of the light back onto the side of the models face. This effect could also be achieved with a reflector or white card.

Just after playing football

There you have it, an inexpensive portable yet effective setup that most anyone wanting to get started in portrait photography can do. In the end it’s not about the tools that you use it’s the results that you achieve using what you have at your disposal. I would love to see what others are using as a DIY solution to a backdrop or if you have any other cool inexpensive ideas for photography, send me a message via my contact page or via twitter (see top right).