Do Street Photographers Need a Home Studio? | Sirui 20mm T1.8 1.33X

Written By Jack Wang

My new dream photo desk can go from top down flat lays to virtual backdrop product shots at the click of a button.

All without light stands or huge softboxes in this tiny studio. 

From photo and video editing, work Zoom calls, to gaming after hours, this setup can do it all, but the biggest cost isn’t the desk, mics, or cameras.

Instead - the opportunity cost, spending all my time in here when I should be creating out there.

What’s out of frame decides what’s inside it.

Other than a review copy of this Sirui lens, I paid for every product in this video. If you’d like to support my work please consider purchasing gear through my affiliate links.

Sirui 20mm 1.33X T1.8 Autofocus Anamorphic Lens: https://geni.us/8Fk9

5% OFF discount code: JACK20AF

Even if a cyclone didn’t ruin my last setup, it had 6 fatal design flaws.  I overcame these 6 mistakes with this rebuild philosophy:

“What’s out of frame needs to look as good as what’s inside it”.

A wider aspect ratio ties this concept together, so I documented this anamorphic studio tour using Sirui’s 20mm T1.8 on the Nikon Zf/Z8. 

I’ll show you the room layout, lighting design, all the cameras and accessories that transform the desk into different product shots, as well as my new favourite virtual backdrop setup:

This rebuild isn’t funded by sponsors, it’s funded by my day job, which brings me to:

Mistake 1: Half Measures

I already sit at a desk at work all day, do I really need a proper desk at home? 

I’d rather spend my down time on the street taking photos, so everything in my last studio was a half measure.  Random tripods here, light stands there, if there’s too much echo in the room I went with a mishmash of temporary acoustic foam panels. 

This time I wanted something more intentional. 

Wooden slat panels with acoustic felt backing from Bunnings (Australia’s version of Home Depot for my US readers).

Along with the rug and linen curtains this dampens the sound. Even though the look can be overdone, little details make all the difference.  Removing the skirting boards so it’s flush to the ground, metal framing up top finished against timber - a custom built in look, not temporary set decoration. Instead of light brown I went with a smoky oak — less color cast, more visual contrast.

MY AUDIO GEAR:

I kept the other walls white, with a blockout roller blind, linen curtain, which lets me avoid:

Mistake 2: Huge Lighting Modifiers

It was too claustrophobic in this tiny 3x3 room. 

What’s out of frame decides what’s inside it, so this time we installed a light ledge.  Two pieces of timber screwed into every wall stud, super secure mounting points all around the ceiling. With the right clamp I can mount smaller lights without anything touching the ground, we also added powerpoints up top. 

Two Amaran T4C tubes mounted using smallrig desk clamps - practical ambient lighting.  For the key light I have an Amaran 200 X mounted to the light ledge, but again I don’t want a huge lightdome.  Instead I use the Spotlight SE to project a huge circle of white light onto these linen curtains.  

I do have three other lights for different corners of the studio, especially to pull off that virtual LED backdrop, but this bounce is a giant soft source that wraps around the room.

MY LIGHTING GEAR:

***

It’s been 3 months without a studio.

No anchor.

No home-base.

Strangely I’ve never created more consistently?

Nikon Z8 + Sirui 20mm T1.8 in DX mode

A 1.33 times squeeze factor turns the Sirui 20mm DX lens into 22mm full frame horizontally, and a tighter vertical crop close to X-pan? 

Nikon Z8 + Sirui 20mm T1.8 in DX mode

Throwaway elements on the edges now transform the composition, flares and oval bokeh anamorphic cherries on top.

Nikon Z8 + Sirui 20mm T1.8 in DX mode

Is feeling at ease what’s holding me back? 

Constraints fuel the creative.

Nikon Z8 + Sirui 20mm T1.8 in DX mode

What’s out of frame decides whats inside it.

***

Mistake 3: Ergonomics

In my last studio I had the classic IKEA benchtop on Alex drawers combo.

It looks really good, but not great for ergonomics. Only about 60cm deep and a little too tall at its fixed height of around 75cm. No room to rest my arms, especially with all the photo and video accessories I need. 

I wanted a standing desk this time to customise the ergonomics, but there are so many options?  I wanted a local company, Desky’s warehouse is only 30 minutes away from me, so I could go to the showroom to choose the size and finish in person.  I also wanted great cable and power management, all the DIY solutions I’ve tried aren’t great, and from what I’ve seen Desky is best in class. An integrated powerboard, up to 10 outlets, huge tray that swivels up and down to fit in power bricks, enough space in front and behind to tuck in cables. 

I like the range of accessories they have too - drawers and monitor stands in the same wooden finish as the desk. Their monitor stand is actually what sold me on the desk - tall enough to fit a Mac Studio under it, wooden feet, not metal that might scratch the desk - quite a bit cheaper than Grovemade or Balolo. 

Putting the desk together took me about an hour - they do have an app, but I prefer physical controls - the buttons and memory settings are easy to use.   The desk is on wheels, and I can adjust the height when shooting against my virtual backdrop (more on this in a second), but first:

Mistake 4: (Too little) Negative Space

What’s out of frame decides whats inside it, and this time my accessories need to be hidden away, OR look good on camera if needed. 

Battery chargers, card readers are just ugly black boxes, hide those around the monitor stand. 

My deskmat from Journey is reversible - both felt and faux leather, PLUS the hidden document compartment lets me hide cables through it.  It has a magnetic charging module so I don’t need a separate charging dock. 

The heart of this part of the setup is the Samsung 32” G81SF OLED monitor, either a bargain or overpriced depending on your use case?  OLED isn’t the most accurate display for photo and video editing, but my work is 90% digital, everyone is viewing it on OLED phone screens anyway.  It’s a gaming monitor, variable up to 240hz refresh rate, but this spec is useless for photo editing. Variable refresh rate is very helpful for video though, helps me judge if motion blur of my high frame rate footage looks natural.  The main reason I went with this panel though is the matte finish - all the gamers hate this, but for me it’s close to the nano texture on Apple displays without the pricetag premium. 

Same philosophy for the peripherals - Logitech MX Master 3S, Keychron K4 HE, Kanto Yu2 speakers - none are best-in-class but they’re all functional, and minimal. 

What is best in class for the price is the Elgato Wave Mic Arm Pro - I’ve hidden the clamp behind the monitor stand, the cable runs along the bottom, very flexible and crazy strong - some people even mount their cameras to it. 

All this extra space means I can have a dedicated top down camera, flat lay product shots are always ready to go, either the wooden grain of the desk or cutting boards as backdrops. 

The extra spice on top is an Amaran 150C mounted on my light ledge, always pointed down in this flat lay area. I can project different light streaks and patterns to add different texture and color into every flat lay top down.

MY DESK ACCESSORIES

Mistake 5: Webcam

Dedicating a mirrorless camera on the desk specifically for zoom calls seems like overkill, but online impressions matter if your work is in anyway creative? 

It matters a lot to my students for example, that I have a clean professional look for online classes - it puts them at ease.

Using those same Smallrig desk clamps I’ve mounted a camera with plugin power and HDMI out to my old LG monitor.  Any camera with an HDMI out and/or flip out screen will do.  I’ve been using FX3s in my workflow for 5 years, but if I had to start from scratch I’d go Nikon Z30, Sony A6400, or Fuji XT3/XT4?  

I pair it with an Elgato prompter, use it alongside a Streamdeck XLR for a microphone input.   Because my lights are all from Amaran I can also use the Streamdeck shortcuts to control my studio lighting.   If you’re meeting clients that extra webcam quality matters even more, it looks like you know what you’re doing.

It helps put people on the other line at ease.

***

A studio was my blanket of security, but what if it led to complacency? 

Nikon Z8 + Sirui 20mm T1.8 in DX mode

For street photography, context is king.

Nikon Z8 + Sirui 20mm T1.8 in DX mode

No home base? A reason to create around constraints.

Nikon Z8 + Sirui 20mm T1.8 in DX mode

What’s out of frame decides what’s inside it.

***

Mistake 6: Out of Frame

In a small creative space, every wall and corner matters, and with all the previous clutter there were very few angles that looked good in frame.

On top of my dedicated webcam, my topdown flat lay with different lighting effects, the virtual backdrop is the most versatile part of my photo desk setup. 

I’ve wall-mounted a TV as a LED backdrop - inspired by all the LED wall VFX in the Mandalorian.  I can play a clip of a whatever I like on the TV - say a Tokyo urban scene, hold the product in the foreground and I can get so many different product shots in the same location. 

A bigger TV helps to sell the effect, as does a color matched tube light, this is a 65” that fills the background when shooting with a lens as wide as the Sirui 20mm.

I’ve found the autofocus and build quality to be great, close to X-pan field of view when desqueezed, and I like the size of this 20mm better than their bigger 40mm alternative. 

Nikon Z8 + Sirui 20mm T1.8 in DX mode

I do wish on the Zf and Z8 we can shoot DX lenses in full frame to get slightly more megapixels, but this isn’t on Sirui - it’s on Nikon to fix this in firmware. 

A fun lens to try out, the constraint of horizontal width and a shorter vertical crop is an interesting one to wrangle.

Now that my studio constraint is gone, it’s time for another to begin?

Happy shooting everyone, talk soon.

Jack.

Want to support the channel? Affiliate links for my photography and videography gear can be found here.

Jack Wang https://jackwang.com.au
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