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I've clicked on enough studio listings that 'feature stunning natural light and flexible studio space' to know that phrase communicates almost nothing useful. It means there's at least one window and the owner has a flexible definition of the word studio. Beyond that, you know very little.

Most studio listings are written by people who own the space. The best ones are written by people who also shoot in it, or who've had enough painful client feedback to know what photographers actually care about. The rest — and there are a lot of the rest — describe the room the way a letting agent describes a flat: technically accurate about square footage and the fact that there's parking, silent about the things that would've changed your decision.

Seven specs have turned out to be genuinely predictive for me. I check them in roughly this order. They're not exhaustive — there's plenty more to investigate once these check out — but if any one of them comes back wrong or vague, everything else pauses until I understand why.

1. Ceiling height (in metres, not 'high ceilings')

Every studio listing in the UK describes the ceiling as 'high.' It's meaningless. The useful question is: how many metres, specifically?

3m is the threshold below which I start making compromises. At 3m you can run a softbox boom overhead with a senior stand, but you're limited on how high you can get it and how far it is from the subject. Portrait work is fine. Beauty work where you want the light directly above, or product work with a tall subject, starts to feel constrained.

3.5m is comfortable for most briefs. You have room to work overhead, room for a HMI or tungsten practical on a stand without it threatening to tip into the frame, and enough vertical space that the ceiling doesn't feel like it's caving in on the composition.

4.5m is where car photography becomes viable in a cyclorama. Below that, the roof of most vehicles creates problems with background curve visibility and overhead lighting angles.

Ask for the number. If the owner says 'high ceilings' and can't give you a measurement, that tells you something about how they think about their studio.

2. Floor area in square feet or square metres

Not 'spacious.' Not 'accommodates up to 10 people.' The actual number.

My rough working minimums: 300 sq ft for a tight portrait session with a single subject. 500 sq ft for comfortable portrait work with a couple or small group. 800 sq ft minimum for e-commerce fashion where you need models moving, multiple backdrop setups and a crew beyond photographer plus assistant. 1,200 sq ft and up for anything involving furniture, set builds or larger groups.

The floor area number also tells you, by implication, something about the width-to-depth ratio of the room. A 500 sq ft room that's 50ft long and 10ft wide is a different shooting proposition from one that's 22ft by 22ft. Both matter. Width matters most for portrait work — you want room to get light sources out to the sides. Depth matters most for working distance and the ability to back up.

3. Power circuits and amperage

This one's easy to overlook and expensive to get wrong.

A standard 13A socket on a ring main gives you 13 amps per socket, with the ring shared across multiple outlets. An Aputure 600d draws around 6A at full power. A Profoto Pro-11 at 2,400Ws draws more. Run two or three serious flash heads or continuous lights simultaneously and you're well into the territory where a single ring main circuit trips under load.

Better studios have 16A CEE sockets (the blue three-pin industrial type) on dedicated single circuits. Some have 32A circuits for heavier loads. Anything that mentions 3-phase power is usually a studio that's serious about production capacity — 3-phase delivers three times the single-phase supply, which is relevant if you're running an Arri SkyPanel S60-C plus two 600W continuous heads plus a 2,400Ws pack.

For most photography work — strobe-based, moderate flash power — a good 13A ring main with multiple outlets around the studio is fine. For heavy continuous lighting or multi-head production setups, ask specifically about dedicated circuits and what the studio's maximum draw is before you commit.

4. Which way the windows face

North-facing windows give consistent, diffused daylight with no direct sun at any time of day. That's why portrait painters have historically sought north light, and why the 'north-facing daylight studio' specification matters to photographers who work with available light.

South-facing windows give you direct sun for a significant portion of the day — beautiful for about an hour in the morning or late afternoon, harsh and contrast-y in between. East gives you morning light that shifts rapidly. West gives you afternoon light. Mixed aspect — windows on multiple walls — gives you variables that are difficult to control.

If daylight is part of your brief, the window orientation is a fundamental spec, not a nice-to-have detail. Many listings don't include it. Ask. If the owner doesn't know what direction their windows face, they haven't been paying attention to how the light behaves in the space.

5. Loading and access

Specifically: is there vehicle access to the door, what's the door width, and is there a lift if the studio isn't on the ground floor?

I've been in a studio on the third floor of an east London building where the lift fit exactly one C-stand at an angle. The owner described it as 'easily accessible for equipment.' That phrase means something. It just doesn't mean what the listing implies.

For any session involving more than a camera bag — backdrop stands, light kits, props, garment rails — the load-in route matters. Ground floor with a wide door and direct vehicle access is the best case. Anything else is worth understanding in detail before you arrive at 7:30am with a full van.

6. Changing and prep provision

A toilet isn't a changing room. A corner behind a screen isn't a changing room. A changing room is a separate enclosed space with a mirror, somewhere to hang clothes, and enough floor area for a person and a bag.

If you're working with clients who aren't regular studio users — corporate headshot clients, portrait sitters, families — the changing provision shapes how they experience the session. A chaotic, makeshift arrangement for changing communicates something about the studio's attention to the client experience. A proper dedicated space with a mirror and rail communicates the opposite.

For beauty, fashion and bridal work, add make-up station to this question. A well-lit mirror, power sockets, counter space — these aren't luxuries for that kind of work, they're prerequisites. A lot of listings that mention 'make-up area' mean a mirror propped against a wall near a plug socket. Worth checking.

7. The parking detail — specifically

Not 'parking nearby.' Where, exactly? How many spaces? Paid or free? Time-limited or unlimited?

I once booked a studio on the strength of 'parking available' and arrived to find one parking space in a shared business courtyard that was already occupied by the studio owner's car. The alternative was a pay-and-display with a two-hour maximum charge that required moving the van mid-session.

Studios that have worked through the parking question can tell you: 'two dedicated spaces adjacent to the entrance, free all day, plus pay-and-display around the corner from £1.60/hr with no time limit.' Studios that haven't thought about it say 'parking nearby' and leave you to discover what that means when you get there.

And then?

If all seven check out — or if you've asked and got clear, specific answers to each — you're in a much stronger position than the photographer who just clicked 'book' based on the photos and the price. Good listings answer these without prompting. The best studio managers know that a photographer who has clear information books more reliably and complains less when they arrive.

For a searchable directory of UK photography and video studios with filtering by spec, creativestudiohire.com is where I start. It's worth reading the full listing detail rather than skimming the photos. The specs are in the text. And if they're not — if a listing is long on aesthetics and thin on actual numbers — that's worth knowing before you call.

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