Finding a Cheap Photography Studio Rental: 13 Practical Tips

To find an appropriate photoshoot studio for rent isn’t a difficult deal if you only choose the correct approach. You need to understand all the details – day and length of the shooting, availability of lighting equipment, props, backgrounds, poses, and other things that are important for you.

13 Cheap Photography Studio Rental Alternatives

Working in a studio has some benefits compared to on-location settings. It helps you control the space, arrange your gear and adjust lighting equipment without worrying about sudden weather changes.

Let’s start with more affordable ways to organize a photo studio (a studio at home, on the street, someone's office) and end up searching for a professional studio.

1. Create a Studio Space inside Your Home

Most beginner artists open a photography studio at home. You can easily transform your flat or room into a photography space for the work, and return it all back once the shooting is over.

This is especially relevant if your homemade studio isn’t separated from the living part of your house and your models pass other rooms to reach the shooting place.

I highly recommend checking your insurance policy. In case your clients get hurt, you need to be sure your policy is valid. Be aware of getting extra insurance for such cases.

2. Take the Studio Outdoors

Don’t neglect street spaces as well. The outdoor background or a brick wall looks great in photos. Natural places work ideally for some concepts.

However, there are some difficulties such as light setup and the absence of extra light-boxes. Thus you need to adapt to daylight.

Despite some challenges, your outdoor shooting may look winning. It is also may be creative while practicing food photography and portrait photography.

3. Use the Client’s Home or Office

Don’t hesitate to ask your client as perhaps he/she has a perfect space to practice studio photography. It’s not the best idea to shoot from the client’s home or office, but some concepts let accept such options.

Home lifestyle photography looks great and gaining more popularity nowadays. This option also works if you shoot business products.

4. Use Craigslist

An alternative variant is a platform named Craigslist. You may find cheap and atmospheric photoshoot studio for rent that isn’t a real studio but peoples’ houses. The majority will provide you with the shooting place for a day to get extra income with please.

Contact those landlords, who are ready to lease you a room and translate into reality your creative photography ideas. Among those, who are ready to help you with photography studios for rent, are commercial organizations such as design studios, lofts, and fitness centers.

They will give you a necessary place within their days off for a reasonable price. As for equipment – it’s your concern.

5. Pay Attention to the Facebook Groups

Thanks to Facebook Groups you may also find photography studio rental space with ease. Perhaps there are already plenty of great variants nearby. As a rule, similar groups are created by local photographers, thus a request such as “photoshoot studios near me” could help you find the most appropriate space.

Most photographers associations are rather friendly and ready to help with the photo studio rental as well as shooting assistance or tips on a new location.

6. Join a Studio Co-Op

You may join a studio Co-op and use it when it’s free. It’s a usual practice for some artists who can’t afford to rent a studio on their own.

Thus you can work in a real studio and implement your original portrait photography ideas. Plus you don’t need to spend much compared to a high-graded photo studio space for rent. You may always try to create such co-op independently or with your friends, if there is none suitable nearby. It will serve as an extra income.

A great idea is to hire an estate agent or a legal advisor. They will take care of a proper photography studio space for lease and give you the necessary tips.

7. Work for Someone with a Studio

One more option is to work with a pro artist, who owns the studio, or for independent photography studios for rent. Cooperating with them, you have a great chance to use the studio for free for your needs as well as rent their equipment.

8. Talk to a Realtor

Office buildings and retail spaces waiting for a permanent owner may be ready for a day-to-day rent. Both you and the owner are satisfied. You’re getting an affordable photography studio, while the owner – extra income. You may easier find the right space in the area with the help of an estate agent.

9. Research Available Spaces in Your City

Your city of living plays a great role in your searches of studio rental for photography. In case you live in big cities such as NYC or LA, you will find a great number of offers. The only thing to get it fast is a proper search request. Smaller cities give you fewer results but nothing is impossible.

10. Consider Using an Airbnb

Airbnb is a bit uncommon way to rent a photography studio for a day but works great if you need something outstanding and special. There you may find plenty of one-of-a-kind and creative places with interesting walls and backdrops. Thus a trendy and minimalistic design with lovely views can add elegance to your photos.

Moreover, if you live in a large and busy town, or a city with plenty of sightseeing – the Airbnb platform helps you find the appropriate space fast and easy. As an example, imagine you live in Colorado – cute cities but lack of photography studios for rent offers. This is a great chance to try the platform to find new and fresh locations for your shootings.

11. Try Instagram

Now Instagram is not just a social network for sharing photos, it is a huge platform where you can buy or find anything. This also applies to photography studio rental.

Many studios have their profiles on Instagram. To find them, you request in the search – “to rent photography studios” or use the hashtag like #photo-rental-studio.

You will also have the opportunity to ask your friends-followers which of the photo studios you can rent; perhaps they will give some recommendations.

12. Know Your Time Constraints and Budget for the Studio

For proper rent, you need to understand your finances and the duration of the shooting/campaign. Thus you may choose appropriate options just during searches on the net by putting correct requests. Let’s say you’re looking for a studio for a set price, you may filter offered options by asking for particular variants that suit your needs.

Such an approach will help you not only save time without contacting those places that are more expensive but also serves as a good variant for your future projects. You just need to create a list of the locations that you’re interested in and save it just in case.

For your convenience, we’d recommend putting the details for each studio such as – name, address, rates, duration and contacts, and some specific details.

Besides, I recommend using photography studio management software to cope with the task faster.

13. Contact the Studio to Book

After your researches are over and you’ve managed to reach the perfect studio offers, you move to the next step – contact to decide on the reservation. As you’ve already prepared all the requirements and filtered appropriate options, you are sure the studio will work for you. Some agencies ask to complete an application form via the website, some – prefer emailing or phone calls with their managers.

You will get the rental agreement with the confirmation of your order after this booking stage. Besides, you need to put full or partial advance payment – this is a common practice.

Whether you need to pay in full immediately or partial, before and after shooting, is up to each separate studio. In case, you’re looking for the photography studio space for rent instead of your client, I’d recommend paying the bill by yourself but save the agreement with the invoices to provide your client with them afterward. It’s easier to cover the whole amount for the client as well as get the full payment for you.

Tata Rossi

Hi there, I'm Tata Rossi - a professional blogger, read more