Things you'll need
Welcome to the do-it-yourself photography studio! You can make a homemade studio for under $20! Let's first start with the do-it-yourself portrait studio. First off, you'll need the items listed above. You'll can tape or tack the bed sheet on the wall to use as a backdrop. You'll need light bulbs that put out a natural colored light. I used 100watt Philips Natural Light light bulbs. I bought a 4-pack at Home Depot for under $2. Next, cover the work lights with the parchment paper. Make sure you use parchment baking paper and not regular paper. Regular paper could burn through. I had to staple the masking tape to the parchment paper since it is non-stick. Then I just taped the parchment paper over the work lights.
Find a stool or chair from around the house. Position it about 2 ft in front of the backdrop. Have your subject sit down while you position your your lighting on him/her. You'll need someone or something to hold the reflector in the right position to fill in any shadows. Make sure you have your white balance set accordingly. I set the white balance on my camera to 3000K. It made the whites look truer. This is an important step, because if you don't set the white balance correctly your pictures will come out with a yellowish coloring and the whites will have a yellowish tint to them. I also set the exposure compensation to +1.0. It helped to brighten up the shots a little better. Well, that's about it. Now, just have your model sit down and snap away! Practice practice practice!
Mix it up a little bit. Here's another picture. I used some other sheets bought at Walmart. I used a hefty cardboard box covered with a light blue sheet for the subject to sit on. I used a decorative pillar with flowers that my wife had sitting on our landing at the top of our staircase.
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