Creating a low-budget portrait studio

This is something that I'm working on and I thought I would share my efforts so far.

• Desk lamps with longlife bulbs for natural light
• muslin or cotton material for quick backdrops. You could use any material but I have found that materials with a lot of texture or busy patterns can be distractive. Visit the links below on how to make your own backdrops. A cheap way to create a backdrop that is transportable is to take some material and clamp it to curtains or blinds. Alternatively you can sadhere some velcro grips onto the back of your material that may be used on existing materials if suitable.
• if you don't have a backdrop a cream or white door or wall is a good start.
• It might help to do a custom white balance using a piece of white paper so that any colour shifts due to overcast or low light will be automatically corrected. This can help with those blue colour casts in portrait photography.
• When shooting in low light situations a piece of styrofoam to bounce the light back onto the subject.
• External flash on a camera can reduce the severity of flash glare.
• Diiffuse your camera's flash by covering it with some tissue paper or grab a white plastic item such as a measuring cup or disposable plastic or foam cup can really help reduce the strength of a flash and cast a more natural light on your portrait subject.

Better Photo - Making your own backdrops