The beaches, entertainment, food, fantastic weather, Hollywood superstars, and the glitz and glamour—Los Angeles has it all. It’s called the world’s entertainment capital for a reason.
Whether it’s a headshot, fashion pic, glamorous image, family portrait, commercial shoot, or modeling portfolio, Los Angeles has a professional photo studio for your creative project. With fancy lights and high-end equipment, it’s where the magic happens.
Why scout for locations and travel from one place to another when you can rent affordable photo studio venues in Los Angeles with Giggster? From vintage photography studios in Downtown LA to video production spaces with 3-wall Cyc, every venue is accessible and can be booked within minutes.
Explore Giggster's curated selection of LA photo studios and find your vibe. Secure the perfect spot for your next shoot and bring your vision to life.
So, you want to have a photo shoot in Los Angeles but don't know where to start. Giggster makes it easy to find all sorts of cool photo studios and other interesting places to take pictures. This is where a photographer's dream comes true.
Tired of the old, boring studio that limits your creative potential? Let your creativity flow at a multi-set production studio with an infinity LED mirror box, magazine collage wall, casino, armory, Los Angeles, mural, and more. Your imagination is the only limit here.
If you want to capture natural images in a cozy environment, places like industrial studio lofts, converted warehouses, and urban homes are worth checking out. They often have large windows to let in natural light for pretty shots.
Does a boho aesthetic photo studio match your photography concept? How about a turnkey pre-lit sound stage that doubles as a photo studio? You name it; Los Angeles has a place for your next shoot.
You have to shoot multiple looks but don’t want to deal with the hassle of endless set changes. Check out a four-room multi-set studio in downtown Los Angeles. A creative set like this often features unique rooms, with furniture, props, and professional lighting.
Exceptional Variety & Quality: Choose from Giggster’s selection of 296 photo studios in Los Angeles. Every venue on our platform is carefully selected to provide creative environments to bring your vision into reality.
Hassle-Free Booking: Get all the details about each location on Giggster’s user-friendly platform, including price, features, availability, and capacity. You can also directly communicate with hosts and book a venue for as little as $19/hour within minutes.
24-Hour Free Cancellation Policy: Plans change? No problem. Giggster offers free cancellation up to 24 hours before your shoot or event.
Platform Protections: Book venues like Downtown LA Natural Light Studio W/ Cyc Wall worry-free with Giggster, thanks to our optional protection packages that cover unexpected challenges. We ensure your photo shoot at your chosen studio runs smoothly, no matter what.
Los Angeles is a city of dreams, so it's no surprise that many people, from aspiring artists to professional photographers, crave the spotlight here. But before you decide to hire a team and rent an LA studio, you should know the perks and challenges the City of Angels faces.
Advantages
If you need a photographer, model, stylist, make-up artist, and set designer to work with, Los Angeles doesn't disappoint.
With countless photo studios, event spaces, mountains, beaches, and other scenic indoor and outdoor locations, you won't run out of places to shoot in LA.
As the entertainment capital of the world, Los Angeles offers endless fun and adventures for all ages and interests. You'll always find something to do during your downtime.
Disadvantages
You'll likely get stuck in traffic in LA if you drive to your photo studio venue during peak travel season or rush hours.
Be prepared to pay for permits in certain locations, and talent fees can be more expensive in LA than in other major US cities.
Although the weather in Los Angeles is generally pleasant, it can be sunny one minute and foggy the next. The unpredictable weather can affect your schedules, especially if you need to shoot outdoors.
The concept and kind of photos you’ll take will significantly influence your choice of photo studio for the photography session. With Giggster’s 296 photo studio venues, we’ve got a space to match your vision.
Vintage Photography Studio – Retro Appeal. You don’t have to invest much in décor and expensive furniture because everything about a vintage studio gives off an old-school vibe. It’s perfect for couples who want to create a nostalgic and romantic atmosphere for wedding photos or timeless family portraits with a moody feel.
Home Studios – Content Creation. When some say photo studio rental, it's common to think about a special room in a commercial space with all the fancy gear, cool lights, and numerous backdrops. But many owners have turned an area in their house into a studio for video and photography works. It could be a bright mid-century designer home with an open kitchen or simply a small bedroom with a beautiful window light that illuminates the area.
Natural Light Studios – Natural Look. Think of a space with big windows, high ceilings, and lots of sunshine for natural light. The results are stunning images with a dreamy and airy feel. LA’s natural light photo studios will make your skin look glowing and are perfect for capturing candid, natural shots in a cozy environment.
Industrial Studio Lofts – Rustic, Inspiring Atmosphere. Rent an industrial studio loft in LA for your creativity. This blank canvas space has a raw, edgy vibe that matches urban and high-fashion looks. You can also go for a clean, minimalist vibe or show off your client’s products in an inviting industrial setting. There are many things you can do in just a small space.
Art Studios – Product and Portrait Photography. Art studios, galleries, libraries, and museums are awesome for products and portraits. Say goodbye to boring photos. You can play around with the art displays, lighting, and other props to create drama.
Whether it’s a family, group, product, wedding, or fashion shoot, a photography session isn’t always easy to pull off. To truly master the art of photography, you must start to experiment with photo studio settings.
Scout the Best Space – What type of photo studio space do you need for the project? You might want to start with a tiny studio that can accommodate a few crew members or a multi-set with a dressing room or a make-up area for models. No matter your choice, pick one that matches your vision.
Test your Lighting – One of the first things you must check when you enter a studio is the lighting. Does it have all the basic lights, such as the key light or the main light source for the subject, backlight, and fill light?
Find your Crew and Models – There’s no point having the best camera gear and lighting if your photographer doesn’t know what to do and your models don’t know how to pose. Lucky for you, Los Angeles has many experienced and talented crew members and models to hire.
Experiment with Different Backdrops – The best part about working in a photo studio is that you can be as creative as you’d like. So don’t be afraid to play with decorations, backgrounds, and costumes. You’d be surprised with the outcome.
Los Angeles isn't the cheapest city for a photo shoot or any production project. But it doesn't mean you should sacrifice quality just to save a few hundred bucks. We've found a few secrets to help you cut costs.
Book during off-peak hours.
If your team is flexible with your schedule, why not book outside of regular business hours, like on weekends or late evenings? Some owners might offer lower rates on these hours or are willing to negotiate since there are fewer clients.
Can you rent equipment?
You don't have to buy all the camera tools, lighting, props, and decor. Go to a rental store or a local supplier to rent what you need for the shoot.
DIY it.
Use a DIY approach when you can. You can make your own props and design the backdrops. If you think you're not creative enough to tackle the project, some members of your team may be happy to show off their creativity.
Whether you're looking for modern, industrial, or something totally unique, Giggster helps you discover the best photo studio venues in the City of Angeles and book in minutes. Most listings have amazing pictures and all the necessary details you need to help you decide.
The 1920s marked a huge period of growth for the city of Los Angeles. At the start of the decade, just over half a million people called the sunny, Southern California town home. By 1930, that number had jumped to just over 1.2 million. Gone were the days of LA as a farming town, changed forever by the arrival of the film, oil, and aviation industries.
Without a doubt, one of the most famous industries to stem from LA's growth was the motion picture business. While filmmakers first began migrating to SoCal in the late 1910s, the '20s brought the big studios, major stars, and all the money. If not for studio heads' desire to escape the Northeast's temperamental weather and patent restrictions, LA certainly wouldn't be the city we know it to be today.
With that massive population growth came a number of other changes—the suburban sprawl, a reliance on automobiles and the freeways constructed to get those automobiles around the spread-out city, and a burgeoning desire for luxury and leisure. It can be hard to put into words just how unique LA was in the 1920s. For that reason, Giggster combed historical archives to create a collection of pictures that best demonstrate what life was like in the City of Angels during the decade.
From snaps of old Hollywood to glimpses of everyday life, these photos perfectly exemplify the history of the nation's second-largest city.
In the mid-1910s, many movie makers began heading to Hollywood to shoot, hoping to avoid the fees they were charged when shooting on the East Coast, not to mention taking advantage of Southern California's year-round temperate weather. By the 1920s, nearly every major studio, and many independent filmmakers, were doing the bulk of their work in the LA area.
In the 1920s, the Pacific Electric railway system was the largest interurban electric railway system in the world. With more than 1,000 miles of railways, the public transit system connected cities in the counties of LA, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside. Here, one of the famous red cars carries commuters along Hollywood Boulevard.
In the 1920s, dozens of fancy beach clubs sprung up along the beaches in Santa Monica, California. These gathering places, which were whites-only, attracted some of the area's most wealthy and notable restaurants, who'd all crowd together under the clubs' beach umbrellas and around dining room tables.
In 1927, two years before he was elected president, Herbert Hoover visited LA. The Republican politician had seen his popularity skyrocket (as evidenced by this reception) thanks to the assistance he had offered Mississippi Flood victims earlier that year in his role as Secretary of Commerce under President Warren Harding.
With its wide boulevards and crisscrossing freeways, LA is known around the world for its car culture. This reliance on automobiles really took off during the 1920s, when the number of registered private cars exploded from 161,000 to more than 800,000. To keep up with these Fords and Chevys, the LA Motor Corps (pictured above) took to riding around on Indian motorcycles.
One of the biggest independent film studios of the 1920s, Fox Film acquired the rights to the Movietone sound system—a sound-on-film technique that allowed for the synchronization of sound and image in recorded film—in the mid-1920s. The company's West LA studio, pictured here, was dedicated to producing these new talkie pictures.
Wilshire Boulevard runs from the heart of the city's downtown district to the Pacific Ocean. One of the first parcels of land for the street was donated by millionaire socialist Henry Gaylord Wilshire, in the late 19th century on the condition the street be named for him and remain absent rail lines or streetcars. The properties surrounding it were only just beginning to be developed by the 1920s.
Folks without a private car, and who couldn't be troubled to rely on the regularly striking Pacific Electric railway system, would use cabs to get around the sprawling city. Here, a yellow cab driver helps his passengers disembark after their ride.
In the early years of the 20th century, beach resorts began hosting beauty pageants as a form of entertainment for vacationing middle classes. These contests, like the Bathing Beauty pageant pictured above, would eventually lead to the Miss America pageant we're so familiar with today.
A pioneer in the film industry, actress Mary Pickford was one of the most recognizable faces in the world in the 1920s. Dubbed the "Queen of the Movies," Pickford is often regarded as the first movie star and is best known for movies like "Coquette," which won her the second-ever Academy Award for Best Actress. Here she's pictured with her husband, fellow actor Douglas Fairbanks, at their sprawling mansion in the LA hills.
Conceived as an advertisement for a new suburban housing development, LA's most famous sign originally read Hollywoodland. Erected in 1923, the wooden sign was meant to be temporary, but in the late '70s, the still-standing marker was replaced with a more durable steel structure (the "land" had been dropped in the 1940s).
Two industries helped drive LA's growth in the 1920s: oil and movies. Here, a group of well-dressed young women line up outside a studio office, hoping to be chosen as extras for a movie.
In 1920s LA, pageants and performances weren't restricted to humans. Here, a young boy poses on a studio backlot with two Russian wolfhounds, the winners of an LA Kennel Club dog show.
Days before Black Thursday, a group of relatively stress-free men crowded in front of Sturgis Radio store to listen to a World Series game. They had no skin in the outcome (the LA Dodgers wouldn't move from Brooklyn until the '50s), but the gathering proves that the city had been primed to host a Major League Baseball team for years before it happened.
The 1920s marked the beginning of an architectural movement in LA architecture when kitschy novelty buildings began popping up everywhere. These structures were designed to catch the eye of motorists and were often large-scale versions of the wares sold inside—for example, the pig pictured above was actually a barbeque joint. The trend continued until the end of the 1940s, and many original examples still exist in LA today.
Described as the first theme parks in Southern California, ostrich farms were hugely popular (and quite abundant) in LA in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Visitors would flock to these ranches for a chance to look at the exotic birds, and the brave would hop in ostrich-drawn carriages or wagons for a ride around the property. Gift shops sold clothes and accessories decorated with the birds' feathers, which were considered luxurious at the time.
Founded in 1919, the University of California, Los Angeles, now the second-largest university in California, was still in its infancy in the 1920s. Here, a group of aspiring dentists train in the school's state-of-the-art medical center.
During the 1910s and 1920s, LA caught a severe case of flight fever. Dozens of aircraft manufacturers popped up around the valley, enticed by near-perfect year-round flying weather, plenty of space to lay down runways, and cheap, plentiful labor. As the industry grew, so did the number of demonstrations, where gravity-defying tricks like this one (where a young man refuels another airplane midair) would be performed.
A prime example of the movie magic that LA has created behind countless films, this picture shows a film crew on a Hollywood studio lot working on a set constructed and dressed to resemble midtown Manhattan.
In the 1920s, actors and actresses flocked to LA. They saw the city as their playground, not a real place but a fancy backdrop for their hedonistic lifestyles. Here, actress Miss DuPont drives a car up a set of hotel steps, demonstrating just how wild things could get in the City of Angels.