Life in New York City is fast-paced; "The City That Never Sleeps" welcomes scores of people chasing after the big American dream. However, there are still many opportunities to slow down and enjoy everything that makes New York "The City So Nice They Named it Twice!" Walk through Times Square, people-watch at Central Park, or cross the Brooklyn Bridge.
The linguistic paradise, which has a population that speaks over 800 languages, is home to the first pizzeria. Genaro Lombardi opened the first shop in 1905, starting the city's long love affair with the cheese-topped flatbread. It's one of the country's most populated cities, with residents occupying the best neighborhoods across its five boroughs. Tribeca, in Manhattan, has luxurious lofts and trendy bars.
Brooklyn Heights has elegant brownstones and a tree-lined promenade. Long Island City is a Queens neighborhood with the best performance spaces and art galleries. NYC is the best place to catch a Broadway play or host a special occasion. With a creative project in the works, explore Giggster's 4357 spaces to find photo shoot locations for rent in New York.
New York has the perfect space, whether you are starting a photography business or looking for a backdrop for your photo session. Giggster has 4357 locations and can link you up with an ideal photo studio with video equipment or a loft with natural light.
Exceptional Variety & Quality: Giggster's extensive list of photo studio locations guarantees you'll end your search in record time. Explore varied photo shoot spaces starting at $17/hour.
Hassle-Free Booking: Find and rent a photo studio without a fuss. Our site's user-friendly interface lets you browse hundreds of listings with a few clicks and contact the property owner if you have further questions.
24-Hour Free Cancellation Policy: If you must hold off your photo studio session, you can cancel without making any payment 24 hours beforehand.
Platform Protections: Secure a location like our Photo & Video Studio for Rental with optional add-on liability insurance to safeguard your photo session against damages.
New York has a backdrop for your creative vision, whether a themed shoot in an up-to-code warehouse or an engagement photo shoot at an upscale residence. Giggster can help you find a photo studio, but before you sign the rental contract, weigh the pros and possible cons.
Advantages
Disadvantages
A photo studio offers a photographer a controlled shooting location, but New York has many other scenic backdrops for different needs. Giggster has 4357 listings, guaranteeing a conveniently located photo studio or intricately designed space for your project.
Photo Studios – Portraits. A photo studio is the best example of a controlled backdrop with natural light. Rent one for your family portraits or professional headshots. It's usually equipped with cameras, lights, and an experienced crew.
Gardens – Events Photos. Most events unfold in the most beautiful locations with plenty of garden space. The lush grounds are ideal backdrops for event photos, backed by natural light and scenic views.
Galleries – Fashion Editorials. Galleries are the best backdrops for artistic projects like fashion shoots. Some empty spaces leave room to convert them into the most elaborate sets, while others have art hanging on their primarily white walls.
Mansions – Engagement Photo shoots. New York has brownstones that would provide the perfect settings for engagement photo shoots. Schedule the session with a celebratory party, so family and friends can join!
Restaurants – Food Photography. You can host a celebratory dinner or book a restaurant for a cooking competition. It's also the best backdrop for a magazine editorial or food advertisement.
Finding a photo studio or scenic location sets everything in motion. Giggster can help you book the best studio; once you do, use these tips to produce quality pictures.
Choose the Best Photo Studio – Treat a photo studio like a painter's brush, ready to create your masterpiece, and then find an optimal setting to bring out your vision. Contact the owner to check out the space physically.
Plan a Test Shoot – A test shoot is an excellent way to determine whether a photo studio or photo shoot meets your requirements. Take a couple of photos at different times of the day to identify lighting issues. It's wise to have a photography team with you so that they can assess the space for other technical challenges.
Hire a Photographer – Professional photographers know how to work in natural light settings and studio locations. They can advise you on choosing equipment and the best placements in different rooms. They'll usually come as a package deal with their photography gear and assistants.
Use Props – Props can highlight your theme or the photo shoot subject or add interest to the shot. Use everyday items to dress up your photo shoot set or DIY log signs. If your budget allows it, get costumes to complete the look!
Your photo shoot can set you back, but it depends on how you plan it. Plan a successful and cost-effective photo shoot using these tips:
Use natural light.
Natural light is a photographer's best creative tool, and best of all, it's free! The early morning and evening hours are the photo shoot times. Also called the "magic hour," the golden hour is the last before the sun goes down and the first after it rises. Choosing an outdoor photo shoot location might favor you more than an indoor space that needs lighting adjustments.
Can you rent equipment?
Leasing photography equipment is cost-effective and lets you access the latest cameras, lights, and sound equipment at a fraction of the cost. In most cases, if you hire a professional photographer, they'll bring their gear as a package deal, which is also cost-effective.
Book a studio at an hourly rate.
Photo studios have varying prices and rental terms. Renting by the hour is economical because it allows you to book the photo studio only when needed. You can still access the full range of equipment and technical services.
With a better understanding of the different types of photo studio locations available and which suit your project, you are now ready to rent the best. Giggster has hundreds of photo studio locations in New York; your ideal photo shoot location is a few clicks away.
Written by: Madison Troyer
The 1950s are an interesting time in New York City’s history. Having been established as one of the world’s greatest cities following the end of World War II, New York was home to 7.89 million residents in the early parts of the decade. However, by the end of the ’50s, the effects of suburbanization, which saw residents and industries alike leaving for cheaper pastures, actually led to a significant decline in population that would hold until the early 1970s. With this decline in population came an increase in crime, growing wealth inequality, and an overall step back for the northern metropolis.
There were other, smaller, changes the city experienced as well—the shifting of neighborhoods, for example, as Chinatown began encroaching on Little Italy, or the proposed renovation of landmarks like Grand Central Station and Central Park. There were differences in the city’s economy, as certain industries began shrinking and more and more women joined the workforce. There was also plenty of growth—new museums, new buildings, new community groups.
It’s hard to explain in words exactly what New York was like during the 1950s. So Giggster combed historical archives to compile a collection of pictures that exemplify what the Big Apple was like during the decade. From Times Square newsstands to the daily commute, keep clicking to see what the world’s greatest city looked like some 70 years ago.
The most definitive and longest-running variety show of all time, “The Ed Sullivan Show” was filmed in a studio just north of Times Square. Here, an advertisement hanging in “the center of the universe” celebrates the anniversary of the most popular series of the ’50s.
The 1950s saw the rise of the career woman, especially in expensive and progressive cities like New York. Here, a trio of well-dressed women head to their offices in Manhattan’s financial district.
Tipping your cab driver became standard practice in the 1950s. On the other hand, certain things, like how much cabbies would charge per mile and the color of the cars themselves (yellow didn’t become the required color for medallioned taxis until 1967), weren’t at all standardized in the decade.
The 1950s marked the peak for independent newsstands in NYC. More than 1,500 of these booths were dotted around the city, selling everything from newspapers and magazines to cigarettes and candy.
This aerial shot, taken in Columbus Circle (named for the monument located at its center) looking north on Central Park West and Broadway, shows what the midtown neighborhood looked like before high-rises took over and reconfiguration projects were completed.
A group of well-heeled New Yorkers embark on their daily commute along 8th Avenue in Manhattan. Served by both a bus and a subway, the avenue runs from the West Village up into Harlem.
For most of the year, Rockefeller Plaza is surrounded by the flags of dozens of United Nations member countries. Given the fact that the U.N. was only established five years before this photo was taken in 1950, the flags would have been a recent addition to the plaza, which had been built in the ’30s.
Grand Central Station, a New York City institution since its construction in 1913, almost didn’t make it through the 1950s. When this photo was taken in 1955, two proposals were being considered by the New York Central System which would have seen the Beaux Arts building knocked down and replaced by a more streamlined, profitable space.
The 1950s marked a period of decline for New York’s garment district (and its industry) as more casual styles, which involved cheaper labor practices, became popular. Here, a deliveryman carts reams of fabrics across 8th Avenue for one of the few remaining factories.
Central Park has always been a haven for New Yorkers who don’t have much access to green spaces. But in the 1950s, that could have all changed when the city’s parks commissioner, Robert Moses, proposed eliminating a great swath of the park, just north of Bethesda Fountain (pictured here) to create an indoor-outdoor senior citizens center. Fortunately, the public outcry was so great that he never moved forward with the plan.
In the 1950s, Little Italy was still a fairly large neighborhood with a fairly homogeneous population (about half of the area’s residents identified as Italian American). Here, a group of women congregates outside of one of the neighborhood’s grocery stores.
The ’50s marked a period of growth for Chinatown, which neighbors Little Italy and essentially surrounds it today. This photo captures one of the neighborhood’s oldest streets, which was home to both Chinese and English businesses.
Parks have always played a large part in New Yorkers’ social lives. Here, a group of men relax with chess games in a Greenwich Village park.
In the early 1950s, the Bronx was still a thriving, moneyed borough. The row houses, pictured here, would have been occupied by white and Jewish families. By the end of the decade, however, the acceleration of white flight meant the area was largely Black and Latino.
New Yorkers peruse sidewalk carts in the Lower East Side that sold everything from clothing to homewares. The area was a particularly ideal place to get delicacies that could typically only be found in other countries (Italy, Ireland, China, Germany, etc.).
Tired from a long day in the office, these New Yorkers head home on foot.
Opened in 1931, El Morocco was New York’s biggest nightclub in the ’40s and ’50s. Frequented by the rich and famous, the hotspot was famous for its blue zebra-patterned booths and in-house photographer. In this image, taken to accompany the first print of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” couples dance cheek to cheek on the club’s main floor.
In 1950, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, a pedestrian walkway that affords unparalleled views of the Manhattan skyline, was opened. Here, a group of boys paddle around in a canoe in the East River, with a small portion of that view in the background.
A newspaper strike in 1953, which resulted in the temporary shuttering of six daily papers, left these subway commuters with nothing to read while on their way to work.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, opened in 1959. Here, the modern art gallery, which was designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, can be seen during the early stages of its construction.
