How I Built a Photo Studio in a Tiny NYC Apartment
I didn't have room for a photography studio. So I made room.
New York City is known for a lot of things. Affordable apartments with generous amounts of space aren't usually among them.
A few years ago, I moved into a 500-square-foot prewar brownstone apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. I was paying $2,500 a month in rent, which meant I wanted to get as much use out of every square foot as possible. I needed somewhere comfortable to live, but I also wanted to continue producing professional photography without paying for a separate studio every time I had a shoot.
That meant getting creative with the furniture, storage, and floor plan. Eventually, I found a way to turn a 6-by-10-foot corner of my living room into a working portrait studio. It wasn't particularly glamorous, but it worked remarkably well.
Making Space Where There Wasn't Any.
Living in a small New York City apartment teaches you to become intentional about what you keep. Every piece of furniture has to earn its place, and anything that takes up permanent floor space becomes something you have to work around every single day.
I knew that building a studio in my living room would require a different approach than setting up a dedicated commercial space. I couldn't leave equipment scattered across the apartment, and I certainly didn't want to navigate light stands and backdrops every time I walked to the kitchen.
The solution was to choose equipment that could be collapsed, repositioned, or stored when I wasn't working. I also wanted the studio to feel like a natural extension of the apartment rather than something that made the entire place uncomfortable to live in.
A Studio Built Around the Window.
One of the biggest advantages of the apartment was its north-facing window. It provided beautiful natural light throughout the day, so instead of treating that window as an inconvenience, I built the studio around it.
I selected a small corner of the living room closest to the window, measuring roughly six feet wide by ten feet deep. That gave me enough room for a background, a subject, and a carefully positioned camera, with some flexibility to introduce additional lighting when the situation called for it.
It was a far cry from a fully equipped commercial studio, but the limitations forced me to think more carefully about composition, camera placement, lighting, and the relationship between my subject and the background.
Every Inch Had a Purpose.
The goal wasn't to squeeze an enormous amount of equipment into a tiny area. It was to create enough working space to make portraits without sacrificing the rest of the apartment.
My background occupied the wall, the window provided natural light, and the remaining equipment could be moved or put away as needed.
For anyone working with limited square footage, that's the principle I'd start with: design around the space you actually have, not the studio you wish you owned.
What I Used to Build It.
I wanted equipment that was dependable, easy to reposition, and capable of supporting the work I was producing at the time. The background system was particularly important because it had to remain secure while taking up as little space as possible.
I ultimately decided to leave the background poles installed because they occupied so little floor space. Most of the remaining equipment could be taken down or moved when I wasn't shooting. Below is the original equipment list from the studio, excluding the studio lights.
From the archive: These are the original equipment recommendations and approximate prices from 2020, not current retail prices. Availability, compatibility, and pricing may have changed. The original gear links may be affiliate links. Always verify support ratings and use appropriate safety measures when mounting backgrounds and overhead lighting.
See the Studio in Action.
Photographs of a finished studio can only tell you so much. What matters is how the space actually functions when someone is standing in front of the camera. Working in a small studio takes planning, but it also teaches you how to make the most of your equipment and your surroundings.
Here's a video from the original article, showing more of the experience behind the setup.
You can also watch another video of me using the studio to see how the space worked during a shoot.
The Results.
The most important part of this experiment wasn't the equipment I managed to fit into the apartment. It was the work that came out of it. Over time, I photographed dozens of editorial portraits in that tiny space, including a celebrity portrait, using many of the same techniques I would have used in a much larger studio.
I had to be deliberate about everything. Where I placed the background, how much room I left between the subject and the camera, how I positioned the light, and which lenses made sense for the available working distance. The smaller room didn't eliminate the possibility of creating professional photographs. It simply demanded a little more discipline.
Portrait Study / Jeff Rojas
Portrait Study / Jeff Rojas
Tyson Ritter / Jeff Rojas
Use the Space You Have.
I think it's easy to convince yourself that you need a bigger studio, better equipment, or more money before you can start creating the work you want to make. And while those things can certainly make some projects easier, they aren't always the obstacle standing between you and a better photograph.
I built a working photography studio in a 60-square-foot corner of an apartment because that was the space I had available. It wasn't perfect, and it wasn't intended to be permanent. But it allowed me to keep producing work, experimenting with lighting, and photographing people without waiting for some ideal set of circumstances.
If you're trying to build a studio of your own, start by looking at what you already have. Be thoughtful about the equipment you buy, make safety a priority, and learn to get the most out of the space in front of you.
You might be surprised by what you can create.
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