Studio layouts

[Mark Sawyer]

Not sure if I'm in the right forum for this, but...

I'm planning on adding a big room to my house that will be, among other things, a studio. I'm pretty sure I know what I want for myself, but I'm curious: does anyone know of any plans or descriptions for the studios of past photographers? I'd love to know what the studios of Weston, Sudek, and others were like...

[Ron Bose]

all I'd want is a 9ft plus ceiling ...

[Charles Carstensen]

Make it as big as you can, white, and pretty soon it will fill up with nice colored objects.

[Mark Sawyer]

Actually, I'm going for 16.5' x 18', windows on three sides with shutters, blinds, and sheer curtains, about 9' ceilings, and (surprisingly) no skylights. Off-white walls, dark red cement floors, bookshelves, an old roll-top desk, and a lens cabinet. Oh, and a wood-burning stove in the corner, (hey, I need somewhere to put my prints...) What I really worry about is the nature of the windows, what they look like, how they feel aesthetically...

Thinking about it, I can't help but wonder about some of the studios where images that have moved me were made. Artists' studios are intimate workplaces, and their light and nature must have influenced the work coming out and the people who worked there. Could you imagine something so basic and honest and beautiful as a Weston pepper or a Sudek vase-on-a-rainy-windowsill coming out of a commercial studio? (Mind you, I'm a sentimental old fool...)

[PViapiano]

Why the dark red floors? I have a dark red concrete patio on one side of my house and the damn red light reflections always cause a problem on sunny days when I shoot color indoors. I'd go with a neutral, you'll be much happier...

[Mark Sawyer]

Why the dark red floors? I have a dark red concrete patio on one side of my house and the damn red light reflections always cause a problem on sunny days when I shoot color indoors. I'd go with a neutral, you'll be much happier...

A good point, and though I don't see myself doing much color, one never knows... But I have red concrete floors through the rest of the house, and I'd like to tie them in. I also like having a darker floor so lighting comes from the side or above. And I do want to keep it bare concrete to roll my old Semi-Centennial stand around on.

[russyoung]

Mark-

For OLD natural light layouts, see Paul Hasluck's c.1900 tome (you probably already know it).

I interviewed perhaps the last living student of Heinrich Kuhn's about his studio- it was a plain room in his house with a corner window. Most of his table top studies are shot looking INTO that corner.

My studio (with 6x6 north-light and a skylight) has a 9 foot ceiling and I often wish it was higher, maybe 12 feet. I have tile floors to match the remainder of the house and roll the semi-centennial stand on a sheet of plexiglas... have a Persian rug where models might stand to keep their feet warmer and more comfortable. All electrical outlets are quads, at least two per wall except the background wall which has none (yes, I do also use strobes).

Walls are FLAT white to prevent odd reflections.

Russ Young

[Mark Sawyer]

Hi, Russ! It's been years, but I remember that book, though more for the home-made shutters than the studio layouts. I'll have to check it next time I'm at the CCP library.

I suppose our studio choices (if we're ever lucky enough to build one) will be unique to ourselves, if only in how we furnish them. I'd be happy with just a fair-size room and afew windows. (Really, my big concern is that zoning codes require double-paned windows, which all seem rather new/sterile/lifeless... The light coming through will be the same, but if I photograph the window itself, I'd prefer an old wooden or steel-cased window to the current aluminum and vinyl ones. (Oh well, I've still got the rest of my old house...)

I'd just love to see some of those old studios where well-known photographs were made. Light and space, and the personality of the place, seem to play big parts in the images and their making, but for all the articles on gear, darkrooms, materials, and techniques, I don't recall ever seeing an artical on such studios...

[Richard Wasserman]

Wood windows are still available. We used Marvin windows when we expanded our house and they match the originals from 1917, except that they are use insulated low-e glass.

[lenser]

Mark,

Take a look at the old Life Library of Photography book "The Studio" on pages48,49,51, and 53. Same series "Light and Film" page 45.

"Photographed by Bachrach 125 Years of American Portraiture" page 60 but the whole book illustrates the brilliant work of people who knew how to control natural light in the studio.

Also take a look at "Designing a Photographic Studio" by Evelyn Roth for a look at more modern studio installations.

I remember seeing another book about Matthew Brady that showed a few views of one of his camera rooms, but I can't remember the title. It had much to do with the civil war photography, but tracked his career history. Maybe you can find that.

There was also a reconstruction of an old time photo studio at the Henry Ford Museum in Greenfield Village at Dearborn, Michigan. I was last there as a kid in the fifties, so I can't say if it's still there, but maybe they can seen you images.

You might also check with the Smithsonian in D.C. and the National Photography Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

Good Luck.

Tim

Good Luck.

[Scott Davis]

Unfortunately you can't get in it, but you can still see Alexander Gardner's studio in Washington DC from the outside. Just off Pennsylvania Avenue, it was on the top floor of a four or five-story building, and has north-facing skylight windows that must themselves be ten feet high. No idea of the dimensions. In a perfect world, I'd like a space that is 20x25, with 12'-14' ceilings. That's enough to get a light in a softbox or some other kind of light modifier over the head of a standing model, and enough room to back up and shoot several people full-length. Wood floors would be quite nice, as they're softer on the feet for standing all day, and warmer too. More important though would be being level. My current floor in my studio space is decidedly NOT level, but not horrendous, but it is enough to show up when shooting with something mounted on my Century studio stand.