Our first studio was a spare room behind the bike workshop on Division Street: about 300 square feet, one window and a low ceiling. We shot there for four years, and almost every rule we still follow came from making that room work.
Paint the ceiling
Small rooms bounce light everywhere. A white ceiling turns every light into a fill light, and shiny products pick it up as a grey smear. We painted the ceiling and the wall behind the camera matte black. Overnight, the light became ours to control.
A deep table beats a big room
Most products are smaller than a shoebox. What they need is depth behind them, so the background falls out of focus and away from the light. A table about six feet deep with a paper sweep running up the wall gives you that in very little floor space.
Leave a lap around the set
The one thing you cannot shrink is the path around the table. You need to walk all the way around the product to move a light, a card or a flag without knocking a stand. Keep a clear lap about three feet wide and put everything else against the walls.
What we kept
When we moved to SE Grand Avenue we gained space but kept the layout: dark ceiling, deep table, clear lap. The bigger room mostly gave us somewhere for clients to sit.
Mateo LindPhotographer and founder of LeanIn
