Photography DIY – Creating a Window Wall – Part 1

Do you have a studio but no large windows for natural light photography? I struggled with that challenge in my studio too. Here’s a DIY showing what I use with strobe lighting to create my own window wall look. This is my favorite place to do silhouette photos and it’s so easy to use!

Though I have a fairly spacious studio at 1,000 square feet, my challenge is a lack of windows. When working with clients I would be asked about doing images by a window or silhouette images. I was limited to a small window we added to an interior wall where I would have clients stand or I could use a strobe to simulate light shining through the window.

Marilyn Riel CT Photographer Menagerie Photography DIY Window Wall

Though I loved the look and the clients loved the images, I wanted a wall of windows to give me more options and room to literally stretch.

In January of 2016 I had a session booked with a client who really wanted to do a shot against a wall of windows. My husband, a devoted fabricator of amazing things, decided I was going to give her a wall and off we went in search of pieces and parts to create one.

I have to admit, we had less than a week until the shoot when we decided we were going to do this and to create a 7 foot by 9 foot wall was a bit overwhelming of a challenge. Never ones to give up easily, off to our garage and storage shed we went, in search of materials. Our first attempt was completed with Styrofoam and spare window grids and was finished the night before the shoot. It didn’t go all the way to the floor and though it worked great for her shoot, it broke when we took it down. But this prototype was our starting point.

Marilyn Riel CT Photographer Menagerie Photography DIY Window Wall

Because we loved the images from this session in front of our “window” so much, we decided to create something that was portable, could fold out of the way, and that was better suited to our needs.

Our design is three panels each 7’ high and 40” wide with a total size of 7’ x 10’ which goes floor to ceiling and almost wall to wall at one end of my main gallery.

This is a shot using our new wall that has become one of our most requested backdrops.

Marilyn Riel CT Photographer Menagerie Photography DIY Window Wall

If you’re interested in building your own wall, in the next post I’ll give you the supplies, measurements and steps to create your own as well as more images of the wall, how it works and images taken in front of it.

Part 2

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