Well not quite a studio. But folks were asking how do I have my photo area set up to do photostories and other doll pictures. Well here you go. Being dirt poor as I am, you resort to… cheaper alternatives rather than fancy set ups. Now I’m not saying this rivals the more professional photo setups, but for cheapy purposes such as taking photos of dolls, hey man this works!

All it is is a hurdle shaped PVC structure that I drape fabric on. 2 vertical pipes connected by two 90 degree connectors to a horizontal pipe. At the bottom I took a T shape connector, stuck a bit of left over PVC out the back side to make feet to steady the frame. I threw some old Java programming books on top of those feet as weights to keep it from toppling. Place a piece of hard cardboard in front of the frame to give your dolls a hard flooring to stand on. Drape cloth over the top, stick hair clips on the frame to hold the fabric in place and voila! Insta-photo backdrop!!! I made it so huge because I *used* to take photos of my Super Dollfies with this too. But when you buy PVC at the hardware store, they have a pipe saw that you can cut the pipes down to the sizes you need. So it’s up to you how high or wide the frame is. You can even get interchangeable PVC pieces to mix and match. And the great thing about this is, since it IS PVC piping, you can tear it apart in seconds and reconstruct it elsewhere easily. The pipes are lightweight and very portable too. *thumbs up*

Also, I use 2 $9.99 halogen desk lamps from Target as my light sources. I take photos late at night and the 2 lights create sufficient light (and plenty of heat =_=) to have decent photos. 😀

I think total the set up was like… around $25. $20 for 2 lamps, $1.40 for PVC pipes and connectors and $4 for a few yards of white cotton fabric. Even I can afford that!