My Photo/Video Studio Project

[CharleyL]

In early 2019 I realized that the finished portion of the upstairs area of my home was no longer being used for anything, since my #2 son had been married and now owned a place across town from us. A lot of his stuff was still here, but he could/should be pushed into taking it out of here. This left a large complete 2nd master bedroom suite that I could make into the photo/video studio that I never had. I've been a photographer since high school and although I became an Automation Engineer (EE) for my main career, photography has been a significant part of my life ever since then.

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Pictures? You want Pictures? Here are a few. I guess I should create a separate post for all of this, as there is plenty more. Lauren and Linda are sisters that help me whenever I'm setting up my lights and doing lighting experiments. They are very patient, and will hold a pose for hours, until I get everything adjusted just right.

I started building this studio in 2019 when I realized that the unused 2nd master bedroom suite upstairs in my home was big enough (just barely). I had it just about ready to use when COVID arrived, so it hasn't been actually used much since then. But a hobby is a hobby, so I continued.

I have been a photographer since high school. Just before graduation, the principal called me into his office and introduced me to a man who offered me a job for the Summer. It was running the stage and movies at a Summer Stock theater nearby. So I spent that Summer working 4 days and 6 nights a week setting up and running the lighting and anything else needed for the show schedule. Some were off Broadway talent, some were groups with recent hit rock songs who played for dances, some nights were local talent, etc. I met Barbra Streisand, Don Rickles, Mickey Rooney, and several others who came to do shows for us.

I became an EE and ended up working on a special camera for taking mapping photos of the Moon from an orbiting rocket. The photos were converted into maps for the upcoming NASA Apollo Program. Many projects since then have been photography related in some way all the way through my EE career. After retirement I got more involved and even owned a business doing photo re-touching professionally. This kept me busy for over 6 years, but the economy and health problems forced me to cut back and I sold the business, but still love photography.

I had never owned a photo studio before, but rented time in some occasionally. When I realized that I had the space in my home to build one, even though the available space was small by studio standards, I just had to do it. My intent was to provide professional quality photography for my friends and family at little or no cost to them. At almost 80, I'm certainly not intending to run it as a real business. If COVID hadn't arrived when it did, I believe that my studio would have seen considerable use. Now, I'm hoping that I'll live long enough to get past COVID and get my friends and relatives to help me make good use of it. I'm here, in the corner of my shooting room, using my computers for emails and forum surfing. But yesterday I had this idea to rearrange the LED light panels to light a larger area. I'm still working on this, but taking a break from ladder climbing. It doesn't look like my plan to re-work the stands for the panels is going to happen today, but there is always a tomorrow when you are retired.

Enjoy the photos. Most were taken with my cell phone, since it's easier to take simple snap shots with it and not the big cameras.

Charley
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[Herb Stoops]

Good job, Charley.
HErb

[Stick486]

WOW Charley!!!..
that's way above my pay grade...

[Cherryville Chuck]

Nice work Charley. I know there is a fair amount of work available taking photos of various goods so that the pictures can be used in brochures. Maybe a possible side job once in a while.

[RainMan]

The girl in the pink dress , is she single ? Asking for a friend

[CharleyL]

The girl in the pink dress , is she single ? Asking for a friend

I was expecting this. I have a friend who wanted to meet her right after she arrived in my studio too.

Yes, Linda is single, but she is also a deaf mute. She hasn't spoken a word nor listened to anything that I've said to her since she got here. Although, in many ways a perfect woman at 5' 8" and 34-24-36, I don't think a date with her will be very successful. Linda is actually a plastic mannequin, the cheapest that I could find through Amazon, and I bought her for $86. Her dress came from Goodwill for $5.50, her shoes were brand new size 6 from Value Village for $3.00 and her hair, also new, came from the Halloween Aisle at Walmart for $5.50.

Lauren is her twin sister, and share the same clothes and body. The only thing different is her hair, which also came from Walmart for $7.00. Hair color and style make a big difference in a woman's (mannequin's) appearance.

Now, do you still think your friend would want to date her? I don't think she would be a very fun date. Lauren either, for that matter.



Now, the true reason for Lauren and Linda, et all -

I managed to get my wife to pose for me back when I was first getting the lights up. She sat there for about 10 minutes while I was working and adjusting the first lights, and I was almost ready to take the first picture, when she asked "how long is this going to take"? I replied as honestly as I could, "About an hour". With that she got up and left, saying "I have better things to do", and she hasn't been back in my studio in almost 2 years.

It really is necessary to have a human figure there to get the lights positioned and adjusted in order to see the shadows and get the position the lights just right. Seeing the catchlights (reflections of the lights in the eyes) is very beneficial too. A photographer friend said to me "get a mannequin". "I've got one", and he showed his to me. So I told my wife that I was going to buy a mannequin. It could have been a male, but sitting here with a man standing there just didn't feel right to me, so I decided quickly that I wanted a female mannequin, since working with something pretty just seemed more enjoyable.

My wife wasn't very happy with this idea, at first. But when I started using Linda to adjust the lights and I wasn't pleading with my wife for her to come back, she decided that having a plastic woman upstairs to take her place for the lighting adjustments, wasn't such a bad idea, and she began going through the local thrift shops to find more clothes for Linda. Then she got my neighbor's wife involved to shop for Linda too. Soon, my plastic woman had a significant wardrobe. Enough to fill 1/4 of my small walk-in photo gear storage closet space. My plastic woman was taking over my space rapidly, just like a real woman when they enter your life. It's amazing, Linda and Lauren don't talk or move, or go shopping, but they are taking over my walk-in closet with their wardrobe. This has been going on for about 2 years now, to a total of about 10 outfits and 6 pairs of shoes, and even some jewelry has shown up. I really only need one mannequin and one set of clothes, but a different look every month or two has been pleasant. I don't need the rest. I recently discovered that Linda now has 5 sisters. I knew about Lauren, but now I have a red hair wig (Kelly), a long dark brown straight hair wig (Rebecca), A short very dark brown wig (Vicki), and a short blond wig (Connie). Each looks so different on that one body that I ended up giving them separate names.

So Linda is just a plain plastic mannequin. She is the right shape and size for a woman, but is not a sex toy. She's just a big Barbie Doll. The right shape and size, but no sex.

Charley

[Herb Stoops]

Maybe Rick wants to hook up Arnold with someone...........
HErb

[CharleyL]

Maybe Rick wants to hook up Arnold with someone...........
HErb

I've got a strong feeling that if he managed to get Arnold here for a date with Linda, that he had better be headed for the hills when Arnold comes back. I don't think Arnold will be in a very good mood.

Charley

[CharleyL]

Yesterday I made contact with another photographer who lives about an hour away from here, who is very interested in seeing my photo/video studio, with the desire to soon put up a new studio building and outfit it much like what I have built here. Without a real studio yet, most of what they are doing is on location shoots, and doing well with it.

Again, I'm too old and with too much wrong with me now to run a full time business. I've retired 5 times already, the first retirement was in 1996, but each time something has come along that has been "too good to refuse" money wise, or just "something that I've always wanted to do", but 4 years ago I told myself not to work for anybody anymore and just enjoy my hobbies until the end.

Building and using my photo/video studio has been very enjoyable for me. It has kept me mentally alert and physically active since mid 2019. Making it a multi-use design so that it can be used for portrait, family, videos, and macro photography Using it is fun too, if I can just get my friends and family to come and participate. COVID is still holding them back. Maybe getting together with this photographer will help me enjoy what I'm doing more. We've already discussed me helping as a "Second Shooter" for a big wedding happening soon. Helping with the details of their new studio design and build will be fun too. I never post photos of anyone that I take photos of, unless they allow it, so Linda, Lauren, and their sisters will likely be all that you see here, except for my grand daughter's wedding photo attached.

She was married in October 2020, and I did a full photo shoot of here in her wedding gown here in the studio. She has allowed me to post the one photo (attached) from that shoot. She had asked me to be her wedding photographer, and I was willing, but then she realized that she wanted me in the wedding ceremony as well, so hired a work friend who did wedding photography to just take the photos of the ceremony. I then used his shots and mine to make the wedding albums for her and her husband. Nearly every shot taken went into the albums, so 2 albums, part A and Part B were needed. They were all good.

Charley

[CharleyL]

Thinking back about my friend who wanted to meet Linda, after my wife had found two more wigs for Linda, resulting in Vicki and Connie, my friend started calling them "Charley's Angels".
As of now, my wife has come home with 3 more wigs, so there is now 6 Angels, Rebecca, Lauren, and Kelly, three more than that Charley on TV had, but still only one body though. I've told my wife "no more clothes or wigs." I don't need most of what is already here, and I certainly don't need any more of my gear closet being taken over with a plastic woman's wardrobe.

My LED light panels all have manual color and brightness controls on their backs, and also work with a WIFI App from my cell phone, but they default to ON and whatever their manual settings are when they receive power, so all come on when I through the main switch to put power on my studio ceiling mounted photo lights. If I want to turn them LED lights off so that I can use the studio flashes, I have to go one at a time through the cell phone WIFI App to turn each one back off. I don't like to leave power on when I'm not here, so this ritual of turning each one off through the App on the cell phone every morning is just too time consuming. So I found a solution. Amazon sells a 5 pack of remote control receiver modules and two 5 button transmitters that work on the 433.92 mhz band. They are easily programmable, but when received, each button on, off pair controls one module and each is numbered to match. Plugging one of these modules in the ceiling power outlet strip and one Led panel into it and doing the same for each LED light panel lets me turn on the main power switch without all of the LED panels defaulting to "ON". So no lights light, except for small indicator lights on the outlet strips to let me know that the ceiling circuit has power.

Then, if I want to use the LED light panels, I can push the ON buttons on the remote transmitters to turn each LED panel on one at a time, and it will light to it's manually controlled settings. If I want it brighter or dimmer, or just turn it off without loosing it's WIFI adjustments, I can use the App on the cell phone to turn it off temporarily without loosing the adjusted settings. At the end of the day, when the main power switch is turned off, everything shuts off and I'm safe for the night. The next day, when I turn the main power switch on, again nothing lights, until I select it on the remote transmitter.

Now, since these modules are programmable, I can reprogram them to all turn on-off with the button one pair. Then I can program the next button pair to only turn on every other LED panel with button pair two, all four center lights with button pair three, etc., so groups of them working for each on-off button pair with only one 5 button pair transmitter, instead of needing two transmitters for 8 LED panels and separate controls for each.

Programming is easy. Push the button on the side of the module and hold it in until an LED in the top of the module blinks on and off slowly. Then press the on button on the remote. The little LED on the module will blink rapidly and go out if programming was successful. To erase the memory in the module, you hold the button in on it's side while plugging it into power. The little LED will blink a few times and then you release the side button. Then, to program it, you press and hold the side button again until the little LED begins flashing slowly. Then press the ON button on the remote that you want it to work with. Done. If you want to do more, just repeat this for each button and module.

I bought these from Amazon as a 5 module two transmitter package with the batteries for the remotes. I bought three sets of five for my studio. Two years ago I bought two sets of five to control the Christmas Light candles for each window of my house. Ten windows, so two packs of five modules. They have worked flawlessly for this for two years now. It sure beats crawling behind furniture to turn each candle on and off. At about $27 for a five pack and two transmitters, it's a good deal. They also sell a 3 pack of them with a transmitter. All modules will work with their transmitters or can be reprogrammed to work with any other transmitter.

Although I paid $27 for each five pack, they are now priced at $23.79. Each module is designed to handle 10 amps at 125 VAC. Want to wirelessly control your shop lights? The transmitters are quite reliable up to about 100', but distance is shortened considerably if walls/obstacles are between the remote and the modules, but they are working fine in this 100' long 38' wide house with sheetrock partitions. You can program up to 4 remotes to work the modules the same way, or differently, with no apparent limit to the number of total modules. With the Christmas Candles and my Studio, I now have five sets of five. They have been very reliable, with no failures. They were designed in the USA, but built in China. I had an interesting chat with their CS worker about them when first using them.


amazon.com/dp/B01N23GRYD?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details


Charley

[Nickp]

WOW..nice setup...you must be having a lot of fun...!

[CharleyL]

This is my present setup for video with sound. It's my still photo Canon camera with the audio mixer (red), shotgun mic, and receiver for the wireless mic, all attached to a special frame that the camera fits in to hold everything together and give me side handles to hang onto it all. I recently added a 7" 4K battery operated monitor to the top of it, so I can see a decent sized image of what the camera sees. I found that holding onto the side handles with the camera strap around my neck lets me steady it quite well, so I can use it without the tripod (just can't set it down anywhere but on the tripod). I can get 4K quality videos using the video capability of my still camera, but only videos of up to 30 minutes in length. This is because of some legal requirement that still camera video capability has to be limited to 30 minutes of recording. But I can immediately restart the camera and it will create a second video file, and a third, etc, that I can then attach together to make a single longer video when post processing them in my computer. At 4K resolution and 30 frames per second, a 30 minute video file is about a 62 gigabit file, so a very big memory card or a card change is going to be needed for a significantly longer video anyway. I have several 128 gig cards and 256 gig cards are available now.

Most video work is many 3-10 second long scenes anyway, and they get spliced, edited together and failed takes are edited out in the computer to make one long video anyway. Watch a movie and count how many 3-10 second scenes there are in the movie. It's amazing.

Editing and joining all these together, when sometimes the same 3 or 4 second scene is shot several times to get a good one, takes significant record keeping to keep track of everything. I'm appreciating the clapper board with the ability to write the scene and take numbers to add a shot of at the beginning of each take. The clapper at the top makes it easy to synchronize the audio and video recordings when they are being recorded separately. A clack sound from the board at the beginning of each take makes it easy. I was using an old Halloween clacker and a large note pad until this past week when my board arrived. I'm really ready now.

Not sure whether I included a shot of the LED light panels for video before. There are 8 of them, presently located in a wide "U" around the shooting area. 480 LEDs in each panel or 3840 total.

Video Camera Setup 10 IMG_20220206_163505.jpg

LED Lights IMG_20211116_101134.jpg

Charley

[Herb Stoops]

That is really a professional looking set up Charley.
Wow.
HErb

[Stick486]

That is really a professional looking set up Charley.
Wow.

you got that right Herb...
Charley is way outta my league...

[CharleyL]

Thanks for the compliments, but learning photography to where I am today has taken me almost 70 years, and I'm still a mere amateur to those that I look up to, but I'm having fun and staying active, which seems to be a very important thing to do at my age. I've always been a creator and I plunged into every new desire and challenge, learning everything that I could along the way. I really like to make new projects. I'm not nearly as interested in making a second or third of the same thing.

Many start each day knowing exactly what they will be doing that day, because it's exactly what they have been doing every day since they became adults. I can't do this and stay happy. Every day and every project has to be new and different or with many new differences than the previous. New things to learn and new ways to do them. Yes, I can do a second or third of things when the need or desire is there, but I loose interest rapidly after the first one.
Working on an assembly line would have me in a cage by the end of the first week. I would loose it by about mid-week.

I built this studio for several reasons -

1. Although I've been a photographer all my life, I never had a studio of my own.

2. The space was available in my home for a small studio.

3. It was an item in my "Bucket List" that I've always wanted, but never had.

4. I love taking pictures and the whole process, but have never done much "Portrait, Macro, or Video Photography".

5. I want to provide Pro Quality Photography for my friends and family, at little to no cost to them. We change considerably in our lifetime, both in physical appearance and mental condition. We loose loved ones, and celebrate the birth of new ones. Too little of all of this is recorded for those that we care about. I want to change as much of this as I can for my family and friends.

6. Capturing and recording beauty or interests, when it happens, to preserve it's memory for the future, be it scenery, a young beautiful woman, a baby, a piece of art, a new car, a unique creation like a piece of hand built furniture, etc, for enjoying again and again long after the visual beauty of it is gone or it is gone entirely, is what I am trying to do to the best of my abilities. Many of these cherished things will be gone in too short of time and need to be recorded.

7. I built this studio using all of the knowledge that I've gained in my life about photography, stage lighting and decoration, electrical construction, electronic control systems, welding and fabrication, and associations with other photographers and their studios over the years. Since I was a Safety Engineer, my desire to build a studio that was far safer than any that I've ever been in, was also high on my list.

Although my studio isn't high enough (8' ceiling) and I have too little space available for prop and equipment storage, I'm now enjoying what I have created, and still adding to it as funds and ideas become available. I'm making do with the low ceiling (should be 12' or at least 10') and lack of storage space, but if desperate, I can always finish off more of the rest of the attic. Less than 50% of it is finished now, but then there is the problem of this old and busted up body. Construction is becoming a significant problem for me now. I'm still working on the bathroom adjacent to my shooting room, but haven't made any progress at all on it in about a year. The plumbing and insulation are in, framing is done, but no electrical and no sheetrock yet. No fixtures or cabinets yet either. Maybe it will get finished, or maybe it will become someone else's problem.

Charley

[Cherryville Chuck]

You're probably like me Charley. I can only kneel for a few seconds. Then I either have to get up or lay down. Any job close to the floor means lay down. There there's the issue of getting back up and that's not a given anymore.

[Stick486]

You're probably like me Charley. I can only kneel for a few seconds. Then I either have to get up or lay down. Any job close to the floor means lay down. There there's the issue of getting back up and that's not a given anymore.

you are not alone in that department...

[CharleyL]

It sounds like we are all in the same situation. I thought that my knee replacements were what made me this way, but old age must be a significant part of it too. Getting old is H***, and the maintenance costs are crazy high, but I don't like the alternative either.

Since my knee replacements, I no longer have any muscle strength needed for getting up off the floor, and kneeling on a hard surface feels like I'm kneeling on road gravel. The pain is beyond description. Whenever down for any reason, I need a chair, a door knob, or something else that I can use to pull me up using my arm and hand muscles.

I have a thick and medium density rubber pad about 18" square and 2" thick that has to go under my knees and it still hurts, but it is tolerable. I didn't have much built-in knee padding before the replacements, but all I have left now is the nerves and a layer of skin. No built-in padding in my knees at all now. Still, when the desire to do something is down low, I'm down on the floor and crawling around to do what I want. I just have to prepare with the pad and lifting points, like a chair or nearby door knob to be able to get back up. About a year ago I was sitting on a mechanics stool and bent over doing something, and as I was lifting it the stool slid out from under me. I had not planned on being on the floor, the stool was too low to be of use to help me get up, and the rubber pad was on the opposite side of the studio. I crawled (actually slid sideways) all the way across the room to my step ladder and then dragged it with me to the rubber pad. Then I managed to get back on my feet.

I have the base board to sand and paint on the entire studio, and because carpeting was once here, I have about 160' of 1/4 round to replace too. I keep putting it off, hoping that I can get #2 son to help me, but I may have to hire someone to do it. It's a job that I have been dreading since I started building the studio and I keep putting it off.

Twelve years ago I replaced the carpet in the 6 1/2' wide center hallway that runs 82' distance in my house, and replaced the carpet with Kempas hardwood flooring, and I did it all myself. I did most of it while lying belly down on a mechanic's creeper. But that was before my knees were replaced. Last year when we wanted the carpet in the formal dining room, front entrance, and formal living room replaced with hardwood floor ( about 800 sq ft total). I knew that it was too much for me to even think of trying to do.

We finally found a flooring company that would do it and I looked at a large floor that they had installed to see how well they did it, then hired them to put this floor in for me. The total cost was just under $8,000 ($10/sq ft), but they did a great job. It's white oak with a mahogany color and alternating widths. We have an alternating width red oak floor in our family room with dark wood pegs at the ends of every board. We couldn't find a maker of the pegged flooring, so went with something similar but without the pegs. The house was built 70 years ago and this floor is original to the house. We went with the alternating widths to be close in appearance though.

I watched the crew (both Mexican) like a hawk, until I was convinced that they knew what they were doing (I have installed many hardwood floors in my life time). Then I left them alone while they finished. They hardly said anything to each other and stopped only to eat lunch. Both worked so well together that they each knew what the other was doing without talking. My wife still looks down at the floor and has a brief smile on her face frequently when entering the dining room from the kitchen. We put up with that carpet far too long, but now that the floor is installed and done well at no cost to my knees, I'm very glad that I had someone else install it.

Charley

[Herb Stoops]

I know exactly what you are saying. That was a "me too" moment reading about that,Charley.
Herb

[RainMan]

Maybe Rick wants to hook up Arnold with someone...........
HErb

Lmao , good one Herb .

Here’s a recent pic if she’d like to meet . As mentioned, he does look a tad grumpy though

[CharleyL]

Rick,

I printed that picture of Arnold and showed it to Linda. I got no response at all, so I guess it's a "No Date".

Charley

[RainMan]

Rick,

I printed that picture of Arnold and showed it to Linda. I got no response at all, so I guess it's a "No Date".

Charley

Appreciate it . Geez, Arnold’s track record so far is about the same as mine lol

[Jon]

And to have that much room available. Wow. Well done sir.

[CharleyL]

Jon,

The shooting room of my studio is 19 X 26', a former second master bedroom suite upstairs in my house in a very large dormer off the back side of my home's roof. It had been used by my 2 youngest sons up until about 5 years ago. It has a 6 X 8' walk-in closet, now used to store photo gear. Next to the walk-in closet is a full double sink bathroom, still being constructed, but 8 X 12'. The hallway area at the top of the stairs is 7 X 13' and is the entrance to my shooting room. It is set up as the hair/make-up and break area. A long closet through a door off the hallway area is 8 X 22' and used partially for photo prop storage and partially for family item storage. A door from it goes into the unfinished attic space in the front side of the roof of my home. A make-up table with mirror and surrounding lights is in the hallway space, plus a small fridge and microwave. Snacks, soft drinks, water, coffee, tea, and hot cocoa are there, as well as some photo albums showing my previous work.

I've been a photographer since the mid 1950's and in and out of professional photography and theater stage management for sometimes Off-Broadway Shows, Feature Movies, and Local Talent. Much of my real working career was electrical engineering; designing, building, and servicing automated machinery control systems for large scale automated manufacturing systems, used in high precision/high speed manufacturing, but I was involved in the Lunar Ranger, ApolIo, Skylab, and early Space Shuttle programs for NASA. I have 8 inventions, two fully patented, and 6 accepted, waiting for possible patent filing. I retired the first time in 1996. From 1998-2004 I owned a professional photo retouch studio, mostly making older women models look young, flawless, and beautiful for magazine publications. So film through digital, I have seen and done most of it.

I am now fully retired, and have been for 5 years, after retiring the 6th time. My hobbies and stress relievers have always been photography and woodworking, so here you are seeing in my posts, some results of both of my serious hobbies. I am a "Creator" and have been since very early in my life.

I now do both of my remaining hobbies as seriously as possible, to keep depression away, and to keep from stressing over my declining health. I've raised 4 children, and I've had 7 heart surgeries, survived cancer twice, and have metal knees, resulting from a fire fighting accident in 1978 (my third, but now fully retired from hobby/public service).

I'm now about to get "new eyes", cataract surgery, the first to be done on Monday. The first set of eyes lasted me 80 years. If these lens replacements will last half that long, I doubt that I'll need replacements again.

I've been a fireman, as high as Captain, and since 1958, EMT II, and 4 credit hours from becoming a paramedic. I was the full time fire marshal and electrical safety engineer for a 3.8 million sq ft manufacturing/research facility for over 7 years. I'm also a trained fire investigator and licensed electrical contractor. My son and I own a metal fabrication shop, but now, with a pacemaker, I can no longer weld or cut metal, and can't even work on my car with the hood open any longer (electrical arcs). At 80 years of age, the only work that I do now is for myself in my two serious (out of control) hobbies. I work for no one now, except SWMBO. I think I've earned some play time.

Charley

[Herb Stoops]

You have had a very exciting life Charley and did things Your way. That is what makes life go by fast, when you enjoy what you do and do it the best you can. That was the way I did too, never had I job I didn't like, and did them all to the best of my abilities. I can say I never drew one day of unemployment.
HErb