Winged Power Photography

A Mobile Changing Room For Your Models

One of the vexing issues of on-site or outdoor photography shoots, away from your studio or away from viable seperate rooms, is the lack of private locations for models to change their outfits. This can be a sensitive issue, if the location where you are shooting is fairly public.

However, even if the location isn't public, there is the issue of personal privacy for the model in regards to the photographer and/or anyone else present at the shoot.

While you can always make use of a large vehicle, like a van/suv, or make use of natural obstructions, like bushes and groves of trees, due to potential safety concerns, it really would be best to provide a clean and safe place for your model(s) to change!

As always, insist on someone to accompany your model(s)!

Something I Learned This Recent Anime Expo 2008: Portable Changing Rooms!

With the increased popularity of purchasable fashion at these conventions, some enterprising stalls have thought to bring along portable camping privacy tents/changing rooms! I was so intrigued by this that I couldn't help but to strike up a conversation with the folks running the booth.

They had apparently gotten the two tents for around $40 at their local mega-mart. The exact name escapes me.

To that end, the amount of fashion showing up at Anime Expo is growing by leaps and bounds each year! This year, in addition to the Kimonos that were available for the last few years, there is the addition of alot of J-Rock, Gothic, Gothic Lolita, Specialty Corsets, and Maid outfits. The selection was quite amazing and everyone was having alot of fun trying on various outfits!

A Changing Tent As Small Or As Large As You Need!

Needless to say, there are plenty of tent options available, ranging from the discount, minimalistic tents, like the one listed at the bottom of this posting, to those which are essentially the same as a normal camping tent, but with the ratio of dimensions changed to favor the standing position.

Some are tall and wide, like this red one, which offers a 5'x5' footprint, allowing models to bring a rack of clothing with them, without needing to have someone from outside the tend, "hand them something".

Naturally, it costs a bit more, but then again, if you have a heavy shoot schedule, the added functionality and flexibility will pay for itself quite readily.

Lightweight As Well As Soft Lit!

Some of the tents I found also had the benefit of having a white translucent side panel, like this blue model.

The added benefit of this is that in dimmer areas, your model will have access to more light than they would, if the panels were colored or otherwise darkened.

You could likewise employ this kind of tent, if there were a wider one, as an impromptu shooting tent, employing the panels to soften the light for a tight shot.

Going Minimalistic

As noted, there are tents which are very discount in nature. Ie, they are little more than four sticks and a sheet of opaque poly material suitable for obscuring the view of others. Most of these are designed for outdoor shower stalls, but can likewise be used for changing privacy tents.

Note, however, that such "tents" would not provide nearly as much privacy as a full tent. To that effect, one could leverage such a tent as part of certain kinds of photoshoots, but if you had the space and the cash, given the difference in price ( $13 vs $40 ), I would personally go with the $40 models, as they provide more privacy, even though they will take more time to setup.

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