DIY PORTRAIT PHOTOS!

Creepy? Yes... it probably is!

 So at least for me, I always thought that getting that perfectly white and nice background would be impossible with my camera and I would never get the right lighting. No matter how hard I tried, I always had a shadow somewhere! Well I solved my problem, and although it isn't a one-shot-and-done kind of process, it works, and thats all that really matters. I took some pictures throughout my process of
this so you can take your pictures too!

~to make your cheap (but effective!) photo studio follow this tutorial~

Get two pieces of foam board about $2 each. I used some scotch some tape that I had on hand and for lighting, the sun. Set them up like this:

Where the reflected light is coming from, either hold or have someone hold the other piece of white foam board directing the light towards your subject.

Here is the before and after with and without the reflector, you can see that the lighting gets evened with the light reflectors.

Here is how you should hold the foam board. It really does make a difference, so the extra $2 is totally worth it.

Did I mention? I do not like artificial lighting, actually I hate it, the sun is better. And on those rainy or dark days I will bust out my emergency fluorescent lights, but for now I'm only going to use the nice natural lighting that spills onto our garage wall from about 2 - 4 P.M. 

my little cousin who is awesome decided to be nice and cooperate perfectly by standing in front of that board for me to take pictures of him. From his point of view he was seeing this, make sure your camera is centered in front of the foam board.

The pictures looked great on my camera, but just okay on the computer. I don't know why though! So I did cheat a little by adjusting them on photoshop to make them perfect. Before editing, the pictures looked something like this:

I mean I sort of like the natural look of it, but it didn't work for what I wanted for this project. I made a little video for the first time to show how to make the change from grayish to white. If it does not work or is not big enough, try going to the direct youtube link by clicking here or clicking the "youtube button" at the bottom of the video. Crossing my fingers this works :).

Time for the finished products! Luckily I took most of these on Sunday because the lighting has been not so good when I get home from school..

Me...

My Dad... he was washing his car so I interrupted him!

Austin, I love this picture because my white background thing on photoshop work wonders for this picture, or so I think.

And thats a perfect example of what the light reflector does, because under an umbrella it will get extra dark and I don't have a before-after but just trust me that it made a difference.

With all of these pictures, there is now an option to change the background color to any picture you can imagine through photoshop. I am really glad that I made this tiny little studio in my garage because I'm very happy with my results!

Hope this helps you make your own little studio at home!