Swap studio services for photography - The Results

[AudioGeekZine]

This is NOT a bitch and moan thread for once!

Last month I put an ad up on Craigslist to trade studio time for photography. On the offchance that
I got 6 replies in the first day and took the ad down.

1st reply; flaked
2nd reply; girl just disappeared from the internet, her gallery included
3rd reply; Philippe, the results are below.
4th reply; Joel, will be booking in the next week
5th reply; not a musician but could be a possible gig in the future.
6th reply; Male model. Postponed last minute twice and didn't show up for the third. I originally agreed to do a session for him just to make the connection. Missed his chance.


So Philippe sent me one of his songs to mix. No horrible issues but source was not optimal. We're both happy with the mix in the end. So I sent him my first draft of the mix (3hrs spent) and we schedule the shoot.
He came and shot the space for a few hours. My place is dark and it was in the evening. He tackled it with super slow exposure, multiple shots and layering (like HDR but not so extreme). The results are brighter than real life, but the finals I did have him darken slightly.
Then we finished the mix. Here is the result.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1053122/Philippe - forget mix2.mp3


I just got the photos today. I don't completely love them but they're much better than my own attempts. I may process them to better suit my site. I have another photoshoot next week so it'll be interesting to see the difference.

So if any of you guys want some more professional shots for your website, it's definitely worth putting an ad up on Craigslist to swap for a couple hours of work.

 

[reg3n]

Wow man, that's fucking beautiful

 

[Perishh]

Your set-up looks awesome man. You have just inspired me to go and clean my workspace haha

 

[Seth Munson]

Your set-up looks awesome man. You have just inspired me to go and clean my workspace haha

this forsure! haha

 

[BLUElightCory]

Love the Space Echo!

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Love the Space Echo!

me too

 

[XxRobbieChaosxX]

I gotta ask, did you make your desk yourself, or where did you buy it?

 

[nwright]

the desk looks like an ikea "build your own" desk. Basically a tabletop with 5 legs of your choice. I own this exact table/desktop, even the color, haha. However, I have silver legs for mine. The video monitors are on their own stand, as are the audio monitors.

clean look. I'd be interested to know if the video monitor stand is from Ikea as well...I may have to pick that up!

 

[XxRobbieChaosxX]

the desk looks like an ikea "build your own" desk. Basically a tabletop with 5 legs of your choice. I own this exact table/desktop, even the color, haha. However, I have silver legs for mine. The video monitors are on their own stand, as are the audio monitors.

clean look. I'd be interested to know if the video monitor stand is from Ikea as well...I may have to pick that up!

Yeah man. I'm not envying his equipment for recording, at all.

I just envy how clean and simplistic he made this look, and how beautiful it is. haha

 

[AudioGeekZine]

From an article of mine that never got completed

---
I saw a display of a combination of these parts, with a little tweaking I thought it would be ideal for the home studio environment. Not particularly inexpensive but I think it looks pretty nice, with lots of space. I've never been impressed with the workstation desks aimed at studios, they're usually less durable than the IKEA stuff and have some major flaws (like the Quicklok ones). Building one from parts at IKEA suits me much better.

On the left is the VIKA ANNEFORS computer shelf which costs $50. My Antec P182 case is massive but it just fits with only an inch overhang in the front. This holds up the left side of the desk, it's not attached, just sitting at the perfect height under the top. With the P182 sitting on the shelf part I can easily slide it out to get at things behind.
The legs are VIKA CURRY, $5 each, you need 3 for this configuration. Don't buy 4 like I did.
The tabletop is the VIKA AMON, $70. The bottom is pre-drilled for 5 legs. You do need that middle leg there or it will sag. These table tops will scratch pretty easily, so either live with that or figure out a way to protect it.
The shelf for the screens is 2x EKBY TÖRE, $5 each, and EKBY JÄRPEN, $12. You'll need some short wood screws to put those together, not included.

As you can see there is plenty of space on either side, and room for keyboard, mouse, MIDI controller and external hard drives in the middle.

Alternately, you could put together 2 of those shelves and use them for your monitor speakers. I have stands already for my monitors.

The table is too high to go with the new chairs but should be great with any adjustable height office chairs. I may eventually switch the legs to some adjustable ones or add a roll out keyboard tray. Cable management is the next task.
---

I recently made a hole in the back of the PC box for the video cables to go through and covered the back of the desk with a black fabric I got from a thrift store (in the photoshoot that was 2 acoustic panels). This hides all the cables. The cables going up to the monitors are wrapped to the EKBY TÖRE brackets and barely visible now.

OK now this table is NOT super sturdy, its' more or less cheap fiber board and you will have to watch out for scratching the top. Swapping the top with a real wood piece would really increase the cost.