DYI Rain Room Shoot
On July 6 and August 3, I did two rain room sessions in my backyard with MelPool and Anastasia, respectively. I know rain room sessions are very popular right now, and I don’t want to have to rent a rain room studio for $150+ an hour when, in reality, with a bit of engineering know-how, I can do it myself. So, after watching a couple of YouTube videos, wandering around the plumbing section of Lowe's, and spending about $40 in parts, I built my own rain room setup. The only downside is that I can only do these sessions in the summer, as I build the setup to work in my screened-in deck. However, other than that, I can schedule them at my convenience and pass the savings on to my clients.
For these sessions, I used:
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Photography Equipment |
Rain Room Equipment |
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Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 1 Westcott Strobe 1 Bell reflector 2 Cannon Speed lights 1 C-stands Sandbags 2 Backdrop stands Black Plastic Tarp Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps Gels Clamps Quart size plastic bags
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6 foot 3/4” diameter PVC pipe 3 Adjustable sprinkler heads Pipe connections Plummers glue Teflon Tape PVC Hose Connector Garden Hose Industrial twist ties
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The setup
I built the rain room set based on the video “How
I Built a Simple Rain Machine For Less Than $30”. I did
alter the setup shown in the video slightly so I could control the direction of
the water and aim it away from my lights.
Once I built the rain device, I attached it to my background stand cross
beam using what I call industrial twist ties and gaff tape to hold it in place.
I went with the industrial twist ties
because they are reusable, and the gaff tape just adds an extra later of stability.
You can see the base set up below.
Now to set up for the shoot. This session was a simple portrait session,
with no fancy set or props, making the setup very easy. I started by attaching a black plastic tarp
to one backdrop stand, like I would any other backdrop. I then placed the
second backdrop stand, with the rain device about 2 feet away from the back of
the backdrop so my model would have some room to move. From there, I attached a speedlight with a
gel to each of the stands holding the main backdrop and covered them with a
quart-size plastic bag. I find the quart-size
bags fit over the lights well and allow for airflow, so the speedlight doesn’t
overheat. I then placed an FJ400
Westcott strobe with a bell reflector on a C-stand several feet in front of the
backdrop, so it stayed well out of the water spray. This would be my main light. I went with the FJ400 because it is battery-powered,
and I did not have to worry about plugging it into an electrical socket. The fewer cords I can use when dealing with a
water set, the better. I then ensured
all the lights were angled correctly to back-light the rain while properly
lighting the model. Then I was ready to
go.
Camera Settings
For the camera setting, I used ISO 100. I used four different apertures F4, F4.5, F9
and F11. I varied my shutter speed
between 1/30s, 1/50s, to 1/160s to affect the length of the rain streaks. I found 1/50s works the best with my setup. My focal length varied from 24mm to 65mm,
with the most common focal length being 24mm. The key
thing I had to worry about was not my camera settings but the flash setting. I had to balance the FJ400 with the two
speedlights in the backlighting the rain, because if I overpowered the
speedlights, the rain would not show up in the photos.
Note, normally, rain sessions are done with continuous lights, so you can get long streaks of rain. While I have a few LED lights, they are not in the proper power range to support a session like this. As I mentioned, I do this out on my screened-in deck; thus, I have to deal with sunlight. The LED lights do not have enough power output for me to eliminate ambient light.
The Photos
Even though this was a rain session, the edits were pretty simple and consistent across the sessions. I adjusted the basics, including white balance, exposure, and contrast. I also made some targeted adjustments, mostly making the model’s face a tad brighter. I also used a higher clarity than usual to ensure good contrast and definition of features. But overall, the edits were straightforward.
Melpool was the first to help me dial in my rain
room settings. My favorite from their
session is below. In this you can see
the rain as short little streaks, and it is very blue due to back lighting and
very little light coming from the main strobe.
What I like about this image is that you can see the little splashes of
water on the ground.
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| Focal Length 37mm, Exposure 1/50s, Aperture F11, ISO 100 |
Another good one from Melpool’s session is the one below. In this one I had the water turned up a bit more, so I was getting more water droplets. I also angled the speedlights a little more towards the camera rather than cutting across the background.
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| Focal Length 37mm, Exposure 1/50s, Aperture F11, ISO 100 |
Now the session I did with Anastatia, I had more familiarity with the set up so it went a bit smoother. We also did a singing in the rain theme, with brighter colors which is atypical for rain sessions. Usually, rain sessions are on the darker moodier side of the spectrum.
My favorite image from the session is the one
below. I love it because it is happy,
and I like how the water is spraying off the umbrella during the spin.
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| Focal Length 26mm, Exposure 1/50s, Aperture F4.5, ISO 100 |
This next image, I think, really captures the singing in the rain vibe. However, this image needed some TLC as the model and umbrella went outside the main rain and background sections. I used some content-aware fill to extend the background and remove the light stand edges.
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| Focal Length 24mm, Exposure 1/50s, Aperture F4, ISO 100 |
Finally, we did do some rain images with a more somber or sad mood. To do this, I changed the gels from yellow to blue, which contrasted nicely with the yellow dress. We also switched to a clear umbrella that picks up the color of the gelled lights in the background. The image below is one of my favorites because it captured a little river of water coming off the umbrella.
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| Focal Length 35mm, Exposure 1/50s, Aperture F4.5, ISO 100 |
Wrap Up
This was a valuable learning experience for me, as it expanded my studio capabilities. In the future, I may use three FJ400s so that all the lights have the same power output, allowing for a wider spread of background lights. What would also be better if I used rear-curtain sync; unfortunately, my trigger doesn’t allow for that. The other thing I noted with rain sessions is that the actual session is about 30-45 minutes instead of a full hour, just because once you are wet, you are wet; there are a limited number of poses that make sense in the rain, and it is actually more tiring for the model being in the rain. Overall, I’m happy with how the images turned out in my little setup. You can see images from both sessions here, 2B-Rain Session and Umbrella
Credits:
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