Rangefinder Magazine
February 2005

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If You Build It, They Will Come by Fran Reisner

When I relocated my business to Texas several years ago, I set several goals. First, I wanted to hang on to the advantages of an at-home business, while getting rid of the disadvantages. We purchased a home on two acres of land, about 30 miles north of Dallas. This gave me more than enough space to build a freestanding studio and kept me close enough to draw business from the entire Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Studio front with “Dallas” the cat patrolling the grounds

Many of the photographers I speak with express the same desire to avoid the burdens of a retail location. In fact, there are so many who seem intrigued by my situation that this message seems worth sharing.

	Studio entrance facing south.

My first piece of advice is to visualize your potential client and the niche you want to develop… then visualize every inch of the studio that will appeal to them and meet your needs. When I first began to envision my studio, I knew it needed to reflect my style and appeal to the clientele I intended to reach. It had to be orderly and efficient but at the same time warm and inviting. I wanted my clients to feel at home! Each of us is unique in our goals and styles, and although my studio meets my needs perfectly, it might not be ideal for everyone. My hope is that you might profit from what I have experienced by utilizing a few of these ideas to help build your own dream.

There are many things to consider before breaking ground. First, since we were adding to a residential property, I wanted to design a studio that would never become obsolete when it came time to sell. Since we have a pool behind our home, I chose to place the studio just off the back corner, facing the pool. I also needed to make the structure proportional (relative to the size of our home) making it much smaller than my original sketch. To maximize efficiency of space, it was important to consider the photographic use of every door, wall and window in planning the design. It was also at this time that I decided to separate my office from the studio, locating it inside our home. Even though it’s a little more difficult to escape from work at night, it is far easier for me to attend to such things as laundry, dinner and helping my daughter with her homework while I am working. The final product was a studio that can easily be converted to a guesthouse or pool cabana/recreation room.

Camera room; note south-facing full-length windows.	Front door from camera room.

I am a very visual person, and although the sketch looked good on paper, I needed some reassurance of my choices before finalizing the plans. The previous homeowner had left numerous garden hoses on the property when they moved, so I used them to outline the exact dimensions of the floor plan I intended to build. Walking around the inside of my “studio” gave me a good feel for its size. I set up my camera and favorite lens in the camera room, and I had my family stand in so I could compose.

Next, I envisioned working in the production area along with at least one other person and then I stood in the sales room imagining several clients there as well, making a few modifications in the process. Mindful of the things I didn’t care for in my other studios (most of which were converted garages), my priorities were ceiling height, focal length and lighting considerations. With prior studios, I had always been limited to the size of the pre-existing space and ceiling height. They were never deep enough, nor the ceilings high enough, which was a constant source of frustration. I prefer to use a long lens whenever possible, so plenty of depth is always preferred. My camera room (which my clients walk into when they enter through the front door) is approximately 20x32 feet. This allows me the depth to create full-length bridals with a long lens… granted I’m usually plastered against the far wall, but it works. I decided on 10-foot ceilings throughout and installed a rail system for my strobes. Eliminating the clutter of lighting stands greatly enhanced my freedom to maneuver for better images. I have a double glass door entry and three large windows in this room that provide a wonderful variety of natural light situations. I should mention that this room faces south, as opposed to the more conventional north, so in order to eliminate direct light, I added an 8-foot-deep covered patio. When there is direct light (early mornings in the summer), I either “play” with it or simply control it with diffusion material.

Fran’s assistant Dianne Boudreau working in the production area	The sales room should reflect your personality.

I am a firm believer in projecting proofs, so my next challenge was the sales room. I prefer projecting up to 40x60-inch images and, utilizing zoom lenses, have the ability to zoom all the way down to 16x20. Using a calibration guide for figuring these sizes, and projector to screen distance, I determined the size of the room and the zoom lenses needed. Another consideration in the room size was viewing distance. Whereas a 16x20 appears large at a close distance, that same image 10 feet away appears small. A longer viewing distance allows me to more accurately illustrate for my clients what an image will look like on their wall from a distance, which in turn consistently allows me to sell larger images. This is without doubt one of my best sales tools!

The production room is about 22x9 feet with 20 feet of counter space (cupboards/shelves above, drawers below). I built a light box into the counter on one end and the cupboard above holds the ordering supplies. A floor-to-ceiling storage closet was constructed to efficiently store equipment, supplies and file boxes. In addition, directly behind the storage room door (which is usually wasted space anyway), I kept a small corner open to store some backgrounds on rolls (which do not store well lying down).

The 12x24-foot garage was designed large enough for a car, but is used to store props, packaging materials, tools, frames and all the other clutter I didn’t want in my studio. Since I don’t have a dumpster (and feel better about recycling anyway), I utilize one corner near the door for storing the cardboard and Styrofoam that piles up at an alarming rate. Once this area is full, I load up the SUV and make a trip to the recycle center and the nearest postal center, whose owner is always happy to take the “peanuts” off my hands.

A few other details I’m glad I thought of:

• All of my backgrounds (canvas and muslin) hang from the ceiling, and the entire 10x20-foot wall behind them was painted by my dear friend LaMarr Williamson, before he passed away. Since a large percentage of my work is bridals and children, I chose a blend of colors that are neutral and lighter in tone. I’m grateful for the forethought to keep it timeless and classic as I know it will last me a lifetime, not to mention it would break my heart to have to paint over LaMarr’s legacy.

• The flooring is a light (wood look) laminate, which is easy to maintain, is almost indestructible, and goes well with the style of my studio and painted background wall.

• I designed a free-standing multipurpose rolling wall with three sides, which sits in one corner of the camera room and conceals most of the equipment when not in use. Additionally, since I want large, beautiful portraits hanging on the walls of the studio, I utilize the side that normally faces into the room to display competition prints and awards. Not only does this greatly enhance my credibility, but clients seem to take a lot of pride in them as well. The other two sides are used for displaying corner samples. When selling frames, I simply rotate the wall.

• For resale purposes I had to install a shower and tub in the bathroom but was able to attractively disguise it with a piece of plywood with foam and upholstery fabric. I added several tasteful pillows, which I made with coordinating fabric, and swag drapes to cover the faucets.

• I built a glass-block wall to separate the camera room from the production area. It makes a great background and is also fun to light through.

• With few exceptions, all the furnishings & décor have a photographic use; therefore, I made sure to keep them timeless and classic.

Since I understand that what I designed might not be the dream studio for everyone, I polled a few of my friends who have recently built studios. Here are some suggested “must do’s” from Bambi Cantrell, Rick Staudt, Michael Wayne Walker, Alvin Gee, Jackie Pendleton, Elizabeth and Trey Homan, Walter Eagleton, Pamela Wessel and Tim Ostermeyer:

• Design a studio that reflects your style and is consistent with your image. (By far this was the most common response!)

• If you have just one natural light window, make it full length (to floor), and use a compass to find true north!

• Hire an architect who understands space efficiency.

• Don’t skimp on sales room space.

• Put your office close to the front door.

• Never use carpet in your camera room!

• Pre-wire with Ethernet receptacles for networking. Pre-wiring to network computers was the one thing I did not have the forethought to do, and brings up an important point: Think about the future. Try to predict changes or additions that might be needed down the road. I wasn’t digital at the time and was only using one computer for business when I built my studio, so this was an easy detail to overlook. Had I foreseen the need in my future, it would have saved me a ton of wasted time and money, not to mention frustration.

Remember, it all started with a vision… one that I fine-tuned before breaking ground. Once I was done walking the garden hose floor plan and could think of nothing more to change, I stood in what would one day be the doorway to my studio overlooking the pool, took a relaxing breath and said to myself, “If I build it, they will come.”

Fran Reisner will be teaching a class at WPPI 2005 on Monday, March 21, 5:00–7:00 p.m. Her class is called “Focus on the Passion” and includes, among other things, a virtual tour of her new studio. Fran Reisner is a national award-winning photographer who is noted for the warmth and sincerity of her innovative style of portraiture. She runs a highly successful low-volume portrait and wedding business from the studio she designed and built on her residential property in Frisco, Texas. Visit her web site: www.franreisner.com/.