I am researching starting a pet photography business?

I have most of my equipment but I have a few things I am not sure about. My studio will be about 100sq ft. What color should the walls be? Dark to absorb light or light to reflect? Also, I do not know what kind of lighting to get, with my space being so small do I need a whole light kit? Or just one light, and what kind of light and where online can I find one. I will be working with a digital camera. Any help would be extremely useful thank you.

Your studio walls should be painted 18% gray, this way you will not get any color casts or reflections in your photos. If you don’t want to go gray use white.

Since you will be shooting animals they have a tendency of sometimes having “accidents” unless you have a lot of money to buy on background paper I would consider something water proof for where the animal will be sitting. Check a local flooring store for linoleum and get a couple of different colors to match the animal and your backdrops. You can still use different color paper backdrops or muslin but keep them away where they would get “dirty”.

Below are some links on where to buy some lights, I have a set of these lights that I purchased for transporting and ease. They are pretty good and should serve your purpose. You would like to have two lights one as “Main Light” and the other as your “Fill Light” using a 1:3 ratio.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/402654-REG/Impact__2_Monolight_Kit_.html

Here are some paper backdrops to look at:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/1395/Other_Backgrounds_Paper_Savage_.html

Here is the whole list:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/category/1175/Studio_Equipment_Background_Materials_Equipment.html

Hope this helps,
Kevin

Landscape Photography Equipment Basics

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