Photo Studio Tour: Not Your Traditional Mall Photography Studio

We are happy to present a photo studio tour of our home away from home, Frameable Faces Photography!  For starters we love our studio!  We do a heck of a lot with what we’ve got, and we love our location, our mall, and our location within the mall!

I have guest blogged for the wonderful MCP Actions blog before but for those who are not familiar with us, Ally is the photographer half of our husband/wife team and I am the marketing half.  We have been in our studio space in West Bloomfield, MI for almost 5 years now and we specialize in portrait work of all sorts.  We recently brought a second photographer aboard who specializes in events so we can photograph those as well.  Our studio is situated right in the center court of the awesome Orchard Mall in the heart of West Bloomfield, MI.  The mall isn’t your traditional “mall.  It is filled with 27 mostly local independent stores including eateries, boutiques, and a grocery store.  For this post we will focus on three main sections of our studio: 1. The “Living Room”, 2. The Photographing Area, and 3. “The Theater”.  As we enter the studio let’s start with the “Living Room” shall we?

The Living Room

This is a nice little intimate gathering area that we use for in-person consultations ahead of our sessions.  We used to call it the “meeting area” until someone stopped in and commented “I love your little living room you have here” and from that moment on we knew we needed to call it the “Living Room”!  It’s an eclectic collection of some of our Victorian style furniture around a glass coffee table.  We often eat lunch here or just hang out with our peeps who stop by all the time just to say hello.  It’s often a rolling party here and that’s how we like it.  🙂  As for the consultations we feel it is a critical step to having a successful photo session – it’s good to get to know your clients, their style and preference for their session and what their goals are for decorating their walls, coffee tables or whatever else they have in mind.  We usually pass around an iPad with our images on it to show examples of our work.

The Photographing Area

Next let’s take a look at our photographing area.  We have a great ceiling backdrop system with pulleys that allow us to have three paper/vinyl rolls hung at once and they are very easy to change out on the fly.  We can fit up to about 10 people comfortably for one photo – a dozen is doable but beyond that we would have to get creative or move to a location off site.  We have a basic high key lighting setup and we have several other lighting variations for different types of shots.  Here is another shot closer up with a grey paper backdrop lowered from the ceiling.

The Theater

Our “Theater” is not a closed separate room but it is tucked away in the back of the studio well away from the entrance and it has a semi-private intimate feel.  We have a separate Mac in this area that we use with ProSelect and a projector.  This is where we show our images from our sessions and consult with clients for orders.  There are two comfy chairs (we can always pull more over for a second row) and we have a really nice surround sound stereo system installed that doubles for music playing during sessions as well as slide shows for viewing.

We have a separate back room for storage of additional props and backdrops which doubles as a dressing room, and this area also includes a restroom.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our tour!  Please feel free to add questions or comments, and connect with us on facebook, twitter, vine, instagram, YouTube or Pinterest!

Doug Cohen is a co-owner of Frameable Faces Photography with his wife Ally in the Orchard Mall in West Bloomfield, MI.  Ally is the photographer and Doug handles the sales and marketing  You can also find Doug personally on twitter in addition to the studio at dougcohen10.  He writes for their blog and sings in a rock band.