Best Camera to use for photos?

That doesn't have to do with the camera but with your settings. Whether you're using "regular old cameras" to shoot in actual film or newer digital cameras make sure you can adjust at least the basic settings. SLR and DSLR are your best shots at this BUT if you know someone who develops photos that is good enough and you do shoot in film you can ask them to adjust the process to bring out the colors you like and lessen the 'yellowing' effect.

Also make sure you make use of your lighting sources, your dolls, just like people, won't look good under a certain light. Both the light color and source matter tremendously for that, but you might want to consult actual tutorials and books about photography about that.

 

First off, I think this properly belongs in the photography section of the site.

It would be helpful to know if your camera is digital or film. I'm going to guess digital, but most of this applies to both digital and film anyway.

It's possible to take lovely photos with just about any camera, if you know what you're doing. I've taken photos with a 'regular old camera' (cheap digital point & shoot), my SLR and DSLR, and my iPhone. All have turned out to my satisfaction. Bearing in mind there are some things an SLR/DSLR or a 'bridge' camera are capable of doing that you won't be able to achieve with your iPhone and may not be able to achieve with a point & shoot, you can work within the limitations of your equipment to take some truly nice photos.

If your pictures are coming out yellow, you may need to adjust the white balance on your camera to account for the type of light source you're shooting with. Different kinds of light create different colours, so you should check your camera's settings to see if you can adjust it for various lighting conditions (sunlight, shade, incandescent light, fluorescent light, etc.) Many cameras will have a setting called "white balance" but a lot of consumer point & shoot cameras have programmed presets instead. The programmed presets choose a shutter speed, aperture, ISO speed and white balance setting for you. Sometimes programmed presets will choose a flash mode for you as well.

If your camera is digital and is capable of allowing you to change and set your ISO speed, set it to 100 for outdoor shots and 400 for indoor shots. If it's a fllm camera, those are the speeds of film you'll want to use for outdoor and indoor shooting. The thing with ISO is this: the lower the number, the less grainy (or noisy, if digital) the photo will be. Photography, however, is all about trade-offs. Lower ISO film allows less light to reach the film or the digital camera's sensor, so more external light is required to shoot with lower ISO. If you're not sure about all this, ISO 400 is your best general purpose shooting choice. Some digital cameras are capable of going to ISO 6400 and beyond, but the clean quality of the images gets lower the higher ISO you use.

Other ways to get more light into your sensor, or onto your film, is to open the aperture as wide as your lens will allow. Again, there's a trade-off with this. A wider aperture will give you a shallower depth of field, which may cause things in the foreground (in front of the subject) and the background to be out of focus. Sometimes you might want this, but sometimes you might not. A narrower aperture will give you more depth of field, but allows less light to hit your sensor or film.

Lighting in photography is extremely important. You have to bear in mind not just the source of light, but the quality and direction of light as well. Shadows can play as much of a role in a portrait as areas of light can do. There's a great lighting tutorial here in the Photography forum about "playing with shadows" that you might find interesting. One thing to remember about lighting is that the more direct the light source is, the sharper the shadow it will create. If you shine a direct light straight on to your subject, you will get a defined shadow. This is not to say that you should never shine light directly onto your subject; diffused light is best because it softens shadows. Placing your lights at an angle to your subject works best, but you can point them straight onto your subject if you want to. To diffuse your light, you can use a softbox, umbrella, big piece of translucent white fabric, or frosted glass. There's a softbox tutorial here on the photography forum as well. Diffused light can also be found in natural light, outside on an overcast day.

Also, don't be afraid of using flash! A lot of people who take doll photos will warn you away from flash, but I am here to say that a flash unit in the right hands can be an excellent tool. If you're using the built-in flash on your camera, you can create your own diffuser for it by simply placing some pieces of translucent white tape or a white tissue paper or waxed paper over it. (Don't keep it there permanently, though!) The problem with built-in flash, of course, is that it's always aimed directly at the subject no matter what you do. With a flash unit, you can aim it away from your subject, bounce it off a wall, the ceiling, a white card or anything else you choose. "Bouncing" the flash will diffuse the light as well. Flash can be really useful to fill in shadows and act as an additional light source to the light(s) you may already be using. Natural light is best, of course, and if you can avoid having to use flash, all the better.

Backgrounds are also important. If there are objects in the background of your photos, remember that they too will cast shadows just as much as your subject will. Darker backgrounds will absorb more light than white or pale coloured backgrounds.

There's probably a lot more I could say, but at the risk of being pedantic, I'll stop here. Best of luck!

 

The answer to your question depends on what do you want to shoot. A lot depends also on your photo skills too. I think that all cameras provide us an opportunity to make beautiful pictures. As for me, I use a mirror cam Nikon D3110. It is a very popular model for the beginners. It has all basic options. As for professional photography shoots as in glamorous magazines and cards, then you need special education and a lot of practice too. I would recommend you to find photo school or a teacher or special books on composition, colour and so on. You can also try to copy your favourite photos and then modify them to your taste.