Skip to main content

Getting Yourself Mentally Prepared

Lesson 3 from: Inside the Home Studio

Tony Corbell

Getting Yourself Mentally Prepared

Lesson 3 from: Inside the Home Studio

Tony Corbell

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

3. Getting Yourself Mentally Prepared

Lesson Info

Getting Yourself Mentally Prepared

uh first off let's set some very strict hours I listen to a woman from iowa a couple years ago speak in dallas uh wonderful wonderful photographer and she said you know I only do two sessions a day and I only do ten total sessions a week and I do him a ten thirty and one thirty and that's it hi are you available at fort no I don't want ten thirty and one thirty those of the hours and those of the days of the week that fit her calendar and fit her family and she is so strict about that and I thought more that's kind of a rough deal and I met her and sought her out after this presentation was over and we talked about it and she said you have no idea how important it is to my family that I am still the mom of the family and I'm available every day except these times when it doesn't bother anybody that I'm not available and I am a thousand percent available for my clients but I'm not available other times when the client says well what about six p m on next saturday no I'm sorry I'm not av...

ailable I'm available at one thirty two thirty or ten thirty one thirty that's it so I think you guys have to go forward with the plan I think you need to put down a plan maybe have a family business meeting and say let's talk about what I want to do it here is a list of things that I want to do and maybe hear the things that I want to give up that I'm willing to give up and I just think it's it's something you have to do if you live alone and work alone I think you still have to do this make it make it set and schedule it for you we can't work twenty four seven just because we're working out of our home my office is in my home and I know that there are times where I just can't hardly drag myself down the hall to go to the office but I know and I also know that people that work at home if you don't get out of bed take a shower and get dressed and go down the hall and make that that commute to your office you won't get a thing done that day you have to be disciplined enough to do that so whether it's shooting or whether it's office work working the files working with your client's image is whatever it is you have to be able to put all that together uh and I think you'll find that life gets a little bit better for you if you could do that let's talk about establishing possibly this is depending on your home situation I think you could establish a no go zone for family members for example if anybody touches anything on my desk I'm just gonna pass out you cannot touch anything on my desk I know exactly where everything is uh if it gets moved I'll never find it even if it goes in a place that seems right it'll never I'll never find it and uh there's just a lot of stuff sitting there and you know where it is where somebody had talked to you and you wrote the favorite file number you know which you know everybody's got different extensions on their files you know you could go in and say do you do a custom naming on your files and your cameras mind course of tlc because why wouldn't I so tlc whatever if if I see a little piece of paper somewhere there's tlc underscore fifty three oh seven I might have talked to a client and I know that oh fifty three seven I never did finish editing that picture for bob's hobby shop or whatever it wass right so you need to make sure that all your things were left alone uh and that you have very clear rules about that I think uh I think I think in the office area that's one thing I think in the studio it's a whole different deal you got some of you have a room that you can set up a studio I know you two do do you is it a separate room good good and yours is as well so all four how about you know how about you yeah so four of you here have a studio area in your home that you can work great so that you can spend the time getting it set up the way you want it and it stays there and you leave it alone there are a lot of people that have to take it down every night and put things away so it's just it's inevitable that it's gonna happen sometimes um okay so let's move forward a little bit let's talk about all of your gear and all equipment and oh my gosh there's so much stuff that we accumulate that I'm not quite sure how that happens uh it's like I talked about earlier my bag my bag situation I've got so many bags so I have no idea why have so many bags uh just I'm a bag aholic and and life stands are everywhere I figured out something a lot of years ago that if you'll get a pretty large size plastic trash trash can dark in color not green or white but like a dark brown or black set that over in the corner and that's where all you just stick all your life stands in that trash can make it plastic and make it that big around not a big giant tub but you know taller bigger than a kitchen waste basket size and let that be your like stand holder and everything goes in there and your little your little arm that hold your pop up reflectors that little guy goes in there that's how that's what I call those those pop up reflectors I never know what to call him but I know that they all make the same sound when you open so that's what I call them I'll tell you hey john grab me that thing they know exactly what I'm talking about and of course always joking tell her by that those things are disposable because I can never fold them back down so I had to throw my boy and go buy another one so okay it is is true with the big tall long vertical ones for sure it's like you can't ever close those things back but those trash can holders work really really really well john are you sure you haven't like can you come can you come up for a second I'm gonna bring john cornyn cello pair of john's been working with me you gotta go here on the carpet are we going to get gail that sharks there's sharks out there on the edge is uh john has a home studio here in seattle and which I went to last night he photographed me that a portrait of me uh and when you walk in it's very professionally set up it is a studio it is a working studio and it's very clear he's got on one wall all the cubbyholes with everything stored so that by by lights by accessories by reflecting all the stuff that he needs on hand and on the other end is where he shoots and his lights air down there and it stands down I noticed last night you had your stands in the corner yeah they're in the corner I haven't actually a large decorative flower upon that does all the umbrellas and soft boxes in it the light stands on a closet in a green dark green garbage garbage pail for so what you got a decorative vase for soft boxes and umbrellas okay so we have a lot of stuff you guys and when when you tear down the set and if you're working with a minimal amount of equipment on a particular set you do have to do something with all that other stuff and you can't just have it clutter up the place yeah I mean that's one of the toughest things for me so I have my lighter big beauty dish that doesn't collapse and elsewhere you do that's a lot of take up a lot of hooks in the closet are front closet is dedicated just to yeah two camera gear the studio in san diego way had a very large studio at one point and so this is the exact opposite of what this course is about but we couldn't bear what to do with how do we store all the soft boxes we had you know ten soft boxes and we finally figured out that we put a pulley up in the wall and pulling in the ceiling and pulling over in the middle of the room and we would drop a rope down with just a piece of wood tied to the rope and we would drop it down the speed ring in turn it sideways and hoist up the soft but so when you walk in the studio all these soft bucks we're just hanging in the ceiling and they're just it's almost like it's almost kind of a creeping movie's carrie movie kind of the things like you but that's what it's like oh I want that when you follow that rope over and you lower that rope and that's but you do have to deal with the storage there is an issue my biggest issue and ottomans and furniture and props things like that what do we do with them and you don't want to use the same thing over and over and over and right especially the same client came back to you this year for you know for holiday gift prince when last year they came to you and you bring out the same love seat the running joke quick to my wife ourselves is bottom of the stairs in our basement where should I put this bottom of the stairs top of the stairs and the bottom of the stairs we just been expanding out yeah so it's taken over the basement yeah the basement and the neighbor's basement probably well think does on is just a great guy and these he's has a lot of great work in the studio is over thank you but um I think that there's uh there's a lot to be said for trying to get yourself organized and if you're not unorganized person find somebody around you that is and bring them in and say help me get this organized uh those stores that have the container stores hold everything stores all those stores they have people and things designed to help you store things uh and they're very good about storing things get us up in there and you know and I can't I mean there's all kinds of places to shop for for things the cubby that he has two of our three of I've got two of in my place same exact said oh I know that model and mine's the same color you know and we sit down you know you sit down and put him together on a weekend and fill him up the next take all right let's move forward a little bit let's talk a little bit about first off I want to make sure that we're covering this stuff is this the stuff that's important you guys we have to make sure I mean we've got we've got to make sure that if this is gonna be the complete course we have to talk about all this stuff it's not just about howto work in a small space we have to talk about setting up the business

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Essential Home Studio Gear Guide.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

Sean
 

Another great course by Tony Corbell. I loved this course. Tony is a great teacher, great photographer and great business man. He's enjoyable to listen to and a great teacher. He holds nothing back and shows how to shoot great pictures even in small shooting environments or on a low budget. I would buy again Tony's courses.

Penny Foster
 

Wow! Tony is fantastic! So many hints and tips, crammed into this great course. I shoot portraits out of a small converted garage, about 9 ft high, 9 feet wide, and about 19 feet long. Tony has shown me so many ways to make this small space work for me, for which I am eternally grateful. What this course highlights is that whatever small space you have, there are ways of making it work. You need to buy this course and watch it over and over because, every time I watch it, I gain more and more info that I missed the first time around. Brilliant!

Kat Ciemiega
 

Absolutely wonderful, I cannot praise the content enough. I value Tony's stories as much as the information he is giving away, because it puts the data in the perspective and practical context of the actions we take. Thank you for this class!

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES