Doing a photo shoot indoors can be difficult when you don’t have the proper lighting. A camera flash can be good, but it usually causes harsh lighting, not enough lighting on the background, weird shadows, and most camera flashes are short range. This is a cheap and easy way to create your own light studio at home. I’ve used this method to shoot objects ranging from smalls books or bags, to an entire sofa.

What You Need

• Clamp light(s) ($7 at Walmart)
• Full spectrum light bulbs  ($8-$9, 4-pack, 100 watt GE Reveal)
• Parchment paper (Reynolds, $3 at Walmart—used for baking, so it won’t burn)
• Backdrop (bed sheets, table cloth, bristol board—white or any color you prefer)

The Setup

The first step is to cover your clamp lights with parchment paper. I tried taping the parchment paper to the back of the lamp, but nothing seemed to stick to it. An easy way to do this is by rolling the parchment paper back. The paper grips to the clamp light so you don’t have to worry about it falling off. The reason for the parchment paper is to diffuse the light. This basically means that the light is spread evenly across your object.

The next step is to setup your backdrop and place your clamp light. I used a cheap table cloth. I placed it on my dinning table and over the dinning chairs. If you’re going to be using any type of fabric, make sure you have the least amount of wrinkles as possible. It will make editing easier. The beauty of the clamp lights is that you can clamp them anywhere. I usually clamp it on my dinning chair but a bookshelf or door can also work. Point the clamp light so it lights up your object. You can also use a second clamp light to light up your backdrop.

Setting Your Camera

I used Canon EOS 550D to take my pictures. The most important thing is to get your white balance right so your images won’t come out yellow. Change your white balance to something around 3000K. My  camera settings:

• Photo ISO: 200
• Aperture: f/4
• Shutter speed: 1/30

The Result

You should have something like this:

Using the Magic Lasso tool in Photoshop, I masked out the background to give it a completely white backdrop. Since a white backdrop was used, the masking was easier to do.