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Thread: Help the Architect

  1. #21

    Join Date
    Jan 2007
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    New York
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    2,673

    Re: Help the Architect

    By "northern/diffuse light", I meant light that is already diffuse, not using diffusion.

    My earlier post was from a mobile device, so I have just now seen your diagram. That space is easy to construct. The background wall could be portable. It could easily double as living space, and with a 3.5m/12ft high window, pretty nice space at that. This kind of space could also be incorporated into an outbuilding that we'll be constructing.

  2. #22
    jetcode
    Guest

    Re: Help the Architect

    where will I live in a 1000sq ft house built for photography?

    A proper studio has a large space for commercial work, a place for fashion and portrait work, an area for makeup including boutique bar with lights, a restroom, dressing room, office for business, production area, reception area, meeting space for clients, lunchroom, darkroom if applicable, and storage area for props and lighting.

  3. #23

    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    Indianapolis
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    84

    Re: Help the Architect

    I'd like an open white room with no corners - radius and float the corners, including where the wall meets the floor. All infrastructure and ancillary spaces (kitchen equipment, bathroom, utilities, small darkroom, storage) would fit within or fold into a wooden box (walnut, please) in the center of the studio favoring one side. Include a murphy or trundle bed which folds out of the box. Yes, the north wall - all glass, as few segments as possible, which slides open completely. And finally, a ceiling just like Renzo Piano's Cy Twombly gallery at the Menil Collection in Houston - completely skylit with a taught canvas stretched over its entirety.
    Craig McCormick
    Indianapolis, Indiana

  4. #24
    Cooke, Heliar, Petzval...yeah
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Posts
    700

    Re: Help the Architect

    Don't forget the changing room and the offIce with the computer and that nasty digital 44" wide Epson priner and ugly scanner!

    as well as 12 feet high ceiling for 8x10 enlarger, with vacuum easel and Pt/Pd exposure unit.
    Peter Hruby
    www.peterhruby.ca

  5. #25

    Join Date
    Jul 2004
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    NY area
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    1,029

    Re: Help the Architect

    Some good ideas already posted here, but there seem to be an emphasis on daylight studios. Most studio photographers require the ability to darken a studio so that they can use their own lighting. Many even paint the interiors black ( but they don't keep them like that because those studios are way too depressing)

    Having built several studios for myself over the years I have taken the liberty to post jpegs of the blueprints for 2 of them. While they are both far larger, 5000 and 7500 square feet, than the 1000 square feet that Nate needs to build, all the elements of a studio are in place in both of them.

    As I photographed many different subjects there are additional things like professional kitchens, a huge a mount of storage and also several offices as I also rented space to other photographers who shot everything from fashion and beauty, still life, room sets, etc.

    I hope the jpegs are big enough to read.
    Last edited by Brian K; 8-Feb-2009 at 20:22.

  6. #26

    Re: Help the Architect

    I do commercial photography and the studio I had for 18 years was 6,000sq ft. It had 18 ft ceilings, 14ft garage door, loading dock, dressing rooms, makeup area, reception and waiting for clients and large darkroom plus warehouse storage for flats and props. My shooting room was 50x50 ft with a 48 ft infinity wall. I closed the studio 8 years ago and condensed everything down to a 1,200 sq ft studio. This includes modest storage, shooting room, smaller darkroom, office and computer, scanner and printer space. The darkroom is rarely used for business other than art photography and the computer, scanning and printing area get the majority of the use.

    All of us here are dedicated film shooters whether personal or for art photography. Now the majority of photographers are entirely digital and a darkroom is not needed but a scanning, printing and computer room have replaced the darkroom. A studio is much less important as most clients want location photography.

  7. #27

    Join Date
    Nov 1999
    Location
    San Clemente, California
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    3,804

    Re: Help the Architect

    Quote Originally Posted by Christopher Broadbent View Post
    Sal,
    Hope you are not taking the micky...
    A Google search helped translate from British to American. I was serious, not teasing. Your effort is greatly appreciated.

    Quote Originally Posted by Christopher Broadbent View Post
    Off the cuff.
    Quote Originally Posted by Christopher Broadbent View Post
    ...The photographer is facing the background, his subject is 6 ft. in front of the background...In fact, a round source is better than a rectangular source for a soft gradual penumbra. This is because a straight edge on something like a box or a nose often gets parallel to the side of the window, creating an abrupt shadow.
    Based on what you've written on the sketch itself and in your subsequent post, as well as the following assumptions, I added in a few details on the attachment below.
    • "Background wall 5m" refers to the wall's width
    • The two South openings are doors
    • The background wall extends all the way to the ceiling
    • "White curtains on the right side" refers to the West wall
    • "White floor boards diagonal to the room" means the boards run parallel to the background wall.
    Please advise whether I've got it right. These additional questions arise:
    • How high and what color should the ceiling be?
    • Do you paint directly on the background wall or on canvas hung from it?
    • Is the black curtain to exclude blue skylight when shooting color with a daylight-balanced artificial source?
    • How much of the "right" wall should the white curtain be able to cover?
    • Given that the window appears to be roughly as wide as it is high, would you suggest a round window of that same (3.5m) diameter or larger. If larger, how much?

    Thank you again for sharing your experience and insights here.

    PS to those who are closer to the Antarctic Circle than the Arctic Circle. Please excuse our bias. Replace "N" with "S," "South" with "North" and "West" with "East" when reading the above.

  8. #28

    Join Date
    Mar 2002
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    now in Tucson, AZ
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    3,618

    Re: Help the Architect

    Someone should find the plans for Edward Weston's "palatial shack" in Carmel. I beleive his grandson Kim lives there now. By all accounts it's small and simple, and they tell me that many good photographs were made there.

  9. #29
    Downstairs
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    Italy
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    1,449

    Re: Help the Architect

    Sal,
    You are very kind to take up my very modest suggestion.
    All ok except for:
    *Floorboards run at rightangles to the background. Gives you perspective.
    *Cieling white, to bounce a bit of fill off.
    *Paint the background wall once and for all. That's you signature. Do anything else on double bedsheets on stretchers. But remember to veil (mist over) the sheets before they dry.
    *Black curtain is for modelling the light source a bit. Anyway I always use daylight with T film and an orange filter because it gives good colour at the very long exposures you need with LF.
    *White curtain(s) should cover most of the west wall when you need gentle fill.
    *No round window. Just the biggest window you can build. I wish I had one. Tuck the curtain for shape..
    *Again, no continuous limbo background - ever. That was thirty years ago. Your viewer needs a horizon to stay orientated.

    For the architect: The store-room for backgrounds, sets, props and foam boards is as important as the studio. I've shot in studios all over the place and usually they are so bunged up with stuff stacked against the walls that there is hardly room left to shoot. World's worst is Conde Nast N.Y. I once dug through layers of flats looking for a background and found a cupboard containing a set-up Deardorf with rubber bulb and tube melted into the shelf and a note saying "Dont touch! P.Horst".

  10. #30

    Join Date
    Nov 1999
    Location
    San Clemente, California
    Posts
    3,804

    Re: Help the Architect

    Thank you for patiently answering my questions.

    Quote Originally Posted by Christopher Broadbent View Post
    ...Ceiling white, to bounce a bit of fill off...
    Is there a particular height you'd prefer for the ceiling? This is an "ideal studio" after all, and it can be placed wherever you want.

    Quote Originally Posted by Christopher Broadbent View Post
    ...Again, no continuous limbo background - ever. That was thirty years ago. Your viewer needs a horizon to stay orientated...
    Ah, so that's what you meant. I'd interpreted the sketch note as a reference to sufficient shooting depth so the photographer wouldn't need to dance a limbo getting behind the camera!

    Quote Originally Posted by Christopher Broadbent View Post
    ...Conde Nast N.Y. I once dug through layers of flats looking for a background and found a cupboard containing a set-up Deardorf with rubber bulb and tube melted into the shelf and a note saying "Dont touch! P.Horst".
    So, did you touch it? Did you close the cupboard and hide it behind the flats again? Is it still there today? Perhaps it should be moved to MOMA.

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