Photo Session Set Up

Since moving my office around I’ve had to come up with a new way to set up to take all the pics I need. I wanted something that didn’t take a lot to set up and could collapse and be put away. Above is my “photo booth.” Its stand alone so I could take it to any place I want to set up for pics. I have that window behind but it only gets good light for about 30 minutes a day. Here’s what I used to make it:

– A scrap piece of wood large enough for what I wanted. Its about 18″x24″
– 1 piece of white poster board
– a clip lamp
– Desk Lamp with adjustable arm
– 2 Daylight Bulbs
– Dowel
– Bits from the PVC pipe section at the hardware store:
2 – 18″ pipe with threaded ends
2 – Flange bases
2 – T splitters that fit your pipe
-4 screws
– Fabric of choice for your back drop
-ribbon (optional)

Seems like a long list but not really 🙂 Everything just comes back apart when your done for easy storage.

Screw down the 2 Flanges, your bases for the poles, into the corners and twist on the T’s onto the tops of your long pipe/poles. We cut the tops off of ours with a hacksaw but you don’t have to.

My office is in my living room so hi to hubs in the background with his guitar and amp! *waves*

I sewed ribbon loops onto my background fabrics to run the dowel thru but you could easily just lay it over the top. I have 4 colors sewn together so I just flip to right one. Next is my 2 lamps. I used daylight bulbs in each then put a piece of vellum over the top (it doesn’t touch the bulb at all) to help diffuse the light.

On the cheapy clip lamp (I just clip it on to the arm of the other lol) it has an opaque shade so I lined it with tinfoil to reflect it back rather than loose the light in the wrong direction.


This is the type of daylight bulb I use. I bought a couple extra just in case 🙂

Lastly in my set up is the poster board. To keep the poster board up I just cut out a “hook” at the top corner so it hooks over the dowel.


I use this, shiney side faces toward the project, to bounce the light back on my project to keep the harsh shadows down. I don’t point the lamps directly onto the project for the same reason. They both point at the posterboard, the tall one also helps illuminate the background. So I’m really aiming past the project.

And here is my project with no editting, except cropping for size and adding my watermark.

I hope this isn’t TOO lengthy with TOO many pics. Its kinda a couple how-tos in one LOL! I hope this has helped someone as we all want great pics of our projects to be able to share 🙂 Thanks!!!

12 Comments
  • Kurlygirl says:

    Thanks for sharing this. I’m always looking for ways to improve my photos and so far I still don’t have a set-up that doesn’t require a specific time of day in a specific room. This has given me some ideas to improve my own set-up.

    Heather 🙂

  • Metal_Minish says:

    I could use something like this when it’s late and dark and I have to snap photos of my crew… This would especially be useful during the dark winter days!
    Thanks for showing your set-up, might try something similar someday~ ;3

  • Rachel says:

    Wow, that’s why you have such fantastic pics! Haha, I just have an Ott-Lite shining down in front of the card. I really didn’t know what else to do! I sent this to my fiance; maybe when we have our apartment, he’ll be able to rig something for me! Thanks for sharing!

  • Kellie says:

    This has been SUCH an amazing help! I wanted something but didn’t want to have to spend big $$$ as I would rather spend them on crafting supplies hehe! And something that is easy and easy to then put away! YOU are my life saver. Come move to Australia, lol!

  • Holly M. says:

    Thank you for Sharing this, I’ve been wanting to make something like this so When I actually start Using my blog, I have some Nice looking Photo’s to Go along with my Posts! I found this very Helpful, Thanks!
    ♥Holly

  • caz @ monkeying around says:

    Thanks for the tute!!

    ps. how do you get such clean cut outs of your printed digis/stamps?

    • Kristy says:

      I’ll take that as a big compliment, I cut them out by hand 🙂

  • Judy B says:

    I can always use some help improving my photos. Thanks for sharing!

  • Guest Post: Tips for taking better photographs of your craft projects » Simply Kelly Designs says:

    […] at all fancy You can read how it was built on my blog.  The poster Board is used to reflect light back onto my project to help eliminate dark […]

  • Application Tips says:

    […] Too many times, great projects are ruined but not so great pictures. You don’t have to have fancy software to make your pics great but taking the time to experiment with what you have (camera, lighting, etc) and doing some reading can make a big difference. Your project may be wonderful but, especially being a digital age, if you can’t take bright clear pictures and close ups of your projects without glare and flash shines… well you get the idea. I’m not a pro photographer and am still learning but you can see how I set up for my pics HERE. […]

  • Gwen says:

    Thanks for the re-post. I was trying to figure out a low cost photo booth solution and voila! You read my mind.

  • photography brush up says:

    […] for a bit and the wrinkles kind of melt away. In other words, no ironing! I like that SO much! My actual set up is the same as before otherwise. I’ve added 2 more lamps than I had there, mostly to illuminate the background to keep out […]

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