Photography DIY – Creating a Window Wall – Part 3, Creating Variety with Simple Add-Ons

I’ve talked about how lighting challenges got this started and have given you the information on how to create your own window wall. Now it’s time to show you how I’ve added a few extra touches to change the look and feel of an image and the things that make it possible to create variety with simple add-ons.

First, the biggest question I get is how I get the reflection on the floor in images I’ve taken like the one above. Is she laying in water, is it a post production flip of her image, is it a highly polished floor or a huge mirror? Well, it really is a simple add to a black seamless paper backdrop that is beneath her. On top of the black seamless is a 4′ x 8′ sheet of Plexiglas. With the right lighting, you get a beautiful reflection that adds depth to your photo.

As you see in the image above and image below, you can accomplish the same thing in silhouettes or fully lite shots. The Plexiglas adds and extra dimension and depth to the image.

So where do the bungee cord, eye-screws and steel wire come in? Well, I like my strobe lighting diffused a little more than what just the sheers attached to the Window Wall provide so I added a second layer of sheers and curtains. The second layer of sheers can be clipped in front of the window wall to give the extra diffusion as well as change up the look and give you more options when your shooting.

There are eye-screws at the ceiling on the left and right walls about 4 to 6 inches forward of the ceiling clips for the window wall. This gives a slight gap between them for depth. The sheers and curtains are strung on a length of plastic coated steel wire that has hooks and D-Rings on each end which makes it easy to put into place and remove. I’ve also added an 8′ strip of baseboard molding that has three L brackets on the back as braces along the bottom of the window wall. This helps with light leak along the bottom of the wall and adds authenticity to the look of a “real” wall. When not in use across the end of the studio gallery, I simply unhook the left side and hook it into a third eye-hook with a bungee cord on the right hand wall which allows for out of the way storage without having to take down the curtains each time. It is also easy to change the curtains to give a different look to your image as with the black curtains shown below.

Finally, you can always use post production methods to alter the look of an image depending on the mood or lighting you are trying to achieve. The picture below is an example of 4 post production modifications to alter the look and feel of the image.

I hope the three blog posts about my window wall have given you ideas you can use in your own studio space. My goal with these posts is to inspire you to let your imagination and creativity help you to create images that your clients will cherish for a life time.

Stay tuned for my next blog post with more hints, tips and ideas for photographers like you!

Part 2

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