Do you have a photography style?

I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to doll photography, but I personally like to take pictures with very high contrast, and high or low saturation depending on the doll. The pictures are usually very stylized- by which I mean, not at all natural-looking- and I like very close up shots that focus on a certain feature. I'm aiming for a kind of film-noir look, or something from a budget horror movie
Something I'd like to get better at is that kind of gritty, grungey, dirty look. I love it!

 

I Usually like to take portrait shots, so that's the majority of my photo's. I also don't really alter them that much in Photoshop either, but recently have been using the unsharp mask tool a bit.

 

I try to make mine look like commercial fashion or glamor pics, especially stuff like Japanese Idol/gravure stuff, when I can. It seems to play quite well with the audience. I make my stuff well-lit, sharp, crisp, and clear, and never go anywhere near the grunge/gritty look.

 

I take mainly portraits, but it's more a lack of skill in doing anything else... I'd like to do those pastely dreamy photos but I only ever achieve that effect if I take the pictures with the wrong white balance (usually too yellow) and then Photoshop magically tranforms them with autotune/autocolor combo...

I'm just learning my apertures and am too chicken to take my dolls outside to try my hands at true bokeh.

 

A friend of mine told me, after I got a new screen, that my photos have changed drastically.
Due to my old screen which was very dark with heavy contrast, I usually edited my pictures in a way which made them look less dark and with less contrast. On my screen they looked normal then, for others they had this dreamy pastel color + low contrast.
My friend always assumed that was my style, but in reality I just didn't know that my screen was that bad XD

Nowadays it's different.
I'm a sucker for Bokeh since I got my new lense, but since I usually take my dolls outside and search for suitable backgrounds I sometimes need a less dramatic blur.
I'd say it's a mix between heavy bokeh + much background.

Colorwise I LOVE it colorful and saturated with a good amount of contrast.
Also depends on the dolls a bit, my tan skin dolls (due to their story) usually have photoshopped backgrounds which are less saturated.

I want to let the pictures look as natural as possible, like screenshots from movies.

 

Lately, I use a bit of contrast and I really like playing around with saturation. My style is more bright and saturated portraits. Although, I'm trying to branch out a bit and try some softer effects, along with moving away from portraits to more scenery-type things. I tend to love photographing close ups, and that's not just with dolls. I'm trying to get away from doing that because it's really all I do.

 

This is me, too. They're portraits because that tends to be the only good picture I can get. Anything else doesn't work out. This is especially true when I have both dolls in the same shot, due to the fact that one needs to be propped up to sit right.

And for once, I'd like to take a decent photo where things aren't horribly yellow-looking. Even when I try editing that out, it makes the photo's colorings look funny.

 

I like strong and natural colors, and I guess it shows in my better attempts. I also like to have contrast a bit on the strong side and slightly blurred backgrounds. On the other hand I want the scenery there too, if there is one. I'll use different styles for different doll-characters though.

 

I like to use a lot of contrast and brightness, but it depends on the mood of the picture. I do have a tendency to use bokeh ^^

 

I wish i had a style it is something that you have, not the thing you can learn. As for me I am very much a beginner when it comes to doll photography, but time will show, maybe I'll find the style someday.

 

I don't really call what I do a style, but I have habits?

A) Shooting on a diagonal
B) Vignetting
C) Blue hues

everyone tells me I have a style XD and I guess that's it?!

 

I don't think I have a style but other people tend too say that I do. I like to shoot at out of the ordinary angles or from the side of the camera so my doll, or what ever I'm shooting actually, isn't in the middle of the screen. When I get my new girl I'm going to try and do more beauty shots and portraits as that will also fit with her character. So we'll see how that goes.

 

I'm new to doll photography, but in general, I usually end up taking high contrast photos. That's usually all I'll do in Photoshop. I also like taking macro shots so... I guess that could be considered my 'style'?

 

for me i like closeup shots/macro but i love how dark or high the contrast is for colours as well as for different dolls
i usually go high contrast for my MSDs and real dark for my SDs..
also i love the bokeh behind my shots
OH and also i love portrait shots a lot more than landscape
but landscapes only occure if i really need all that infomation in that wide screen or when portraits just doesnt look right for the shot.
love black and white too it brings out the "feel of the shot" ...

and i usually dont edit my pics after that unless i've really got to just contrast/brightness and cropping thats what i do... [but i stop doing that when i got my DSLR]


is that my style?
i dont know... kinda i guess i just do it without much though in it... or a habit?

 

Yes--it's called "Jiggle the camera until auto-focus gets somewhere close to where I want it". :P

Okay, okay, not what you meant, though it is something I'll be stuck with for a while. Since I don't have a DSLR, there's a lot of cool stuff I don't really have the control to do, but I'm trying to do the best I can with what I've got, which sometimes gives. . . interesting results. I try to limit overexposure where I can, but man, is it a struggle with my little point and shoot sometimes. Worse comes to worse I may try something like HDR, but we'll see what comes of that.

I do have certain tendencies in composition and doll posing--I'm prone to canted frames, use a lot of off-center location/relatively strong rule of thirds, and favor mid-shots from about the waist up to wide shots most of the time. (The only time that changes is if my storytelling calls for a wide shot/sudden dead center.) I also consider my posing of my girl part of my style, since I think that can often make or break a shot. I do try to pose her like I would one of my 3D animation rigs whenever I can; I try to keep her weight more on one leg than the other, and try to make the angle of her hips and the angle of her shoulders oppose each other, which gives her a livlier aspect. I also try to have her head at some angle, even if it's subtle; real people don't hold their heads perfectly straight most of the time.

Post-processing I usually don't do much beyond tweak the levels and sometimes color balance. I favor warm tones to cool ones usually, unless it's painfully, blatantly yellow, and do tend towards saturated colors just a bit. I am considering manually blurring backgrounds out, since I don't have much space in good light to work with and as a result often end up with some pretty crap backgrounds.

Heh, this was fun. I usually just do these things, but now that you've got me thinking about it, I do have some things I prefer to do over others, especially in composition and color. Actually, some of it kind of echoes how I draw. XD

 

I tend to do portraits, love photoshopping the crap out of things, and have fun goofing around with lighting (like backlighting like crazy through hair, flashlight-painting in the dark w/a long exposure, or setting the white balance using a different color.) And I like forcing really harsh shadows, especially on faces.

 

I mainly do portraits and macro shoots with heavy saturation. Though I want to try my hand a Bokeh and dreamy pastel shoots.

 

I suppose you could successfully argue that my "style" is more a posing style than a photographic style. I like to take shots that strongly suggest action, conversation between characters, or slice-of-life scenarios. If I do my job correctly, the dolls should appear to be pretty much unaware of the camera's presence. The camera moves around constantly, shooting from multiple angles and I typically zoom in and out like a madwoman. In viewing and culling shots, I tend to favor whichever ones are best at making the dolls "come alive," or express whatever emotion is appropriate. I shoot in profile and even the backs of heads, preferring to create a realistic scene of action/interaction over a pretty display of face or outfit.

When I first encountered the rule of thirds, I realized I had been utilizing it instinctively all along. Composition is not nearly as problematic for me as the mechanics of using my camera effectively can be.

I almost never take portrait shots, for obvious reasons, and I normally use photo editing only to correct glaring errors or undesirable flukes in exposure. I tend to shoot most often in low light condtions, of necessity, and enjoy playing with lighting and angles mostly to capture a difficult expression or enhance the overall mood in telling a story. When given a choice, I will choose emotion over perfection just about every time.

 

I'm w/Jill - once I finally completely figure out my camera, & get the lights/light box setups I want, I'll be going for that 'slice of life' stuff - w/time-out for portraits of my characters' cosplay LOL
Right now I'm fighting w/my computer over loading photos ~sigh~ & figuring out the combination of settings that let's me have manual control over flash & other things but not ALL things.
Maybe after I've been doing this a while somebody can tell me if I have a style LOL
BTW I DID learn photography in the Navy as a photojournalist, back in the dark ages w/35mm film (forgot sooooo much) but although I can't exactly put it into words too well, I can pick out photos that 'say' the things I want (assuming I can get the dolls to pose...). It's not artsy, just illustrative I guess. If that makes sense.

 

I like taking pictures that are scenes, instead of portraits. The photo almost always has to include scenery and must make sense with the picture. A super ultra macro of a doll's face is unacceptable to me, other people can do it, I just don't feel like it's 'me' though.

 

Lately I've been going for a more undersaturated, softer look in my photos since the main doll I work with is dressed completely in white, though I do like to do more heavy shadows when using darker doll wardrobes and sets. I like to add a cool teal tint to my photos too because my dolls show up a bit too yellow for my liking on camera.
I used to do more portrait shots, but I personally think it's really difficult to make a series of portrait shots interesting to the viewer, so I've been trying to work more on full-bodied poses and compositions to spare people from having to look at a million photos of my doll's face.

 

I tend to do mostly portraits or macro, because it's really simpel and i think close-ups are just beautiful. But I do work on developing my photoskills. The theme for my photos are a little dark, I would say, I don't do dreamy and bright editing. So I think I have a personal style, yes ^^

 

I definitely have a style--high-contrast and over-saturated, with deep blacks. This isn't just limited to doll photography, since I also do portraits of people and the occasional landscape. I love looking at people's pale and dreamy pictures, but when I'm editing my own I always find myself making the colors more like what I see in my head.

 

I'm still very new to doll photography, so I'm not sure if I have a particular style yet. I do notice that I like to shoot in a make-shift set rather than outside or a random place indoor. My picture is bright with a soft background. As for the editing process, I just use the some of the adjust function in ps like color balance, curve, and such. I'm not very good at it but I'm learning! ^^

 

Low light + point and shoot. Then make it worse with Photoshop! 8D

... T_T

 

I try to variate my pictures, but I do like angles. I always seem to turn to a blue-ish overtone when editing the pictures though, which is weird because I don't even like the color blue. ._.
But, yeah, I'm not sure if I have a distinct style. I try to catch the eyes, and when photographing Tekla, whom is a white skin, I try to have a good shutter time so that she won't be washed out because she's so pale.

 

I like to take a picture with "crisp" color, but since I'm a beginner in this "photography" thingy, I guess I will use photoshop for my crappy photos

 

So I was drawn to this because the way I see photography style is Micro, wide angle, fish eyed, telephoto, etc. And i was going to say I love micro photography because I love getting up close and mostly portrait because I like the idea of blurring out the background.

I would like to say personally editing isn’t a photography style but actually an editing style. Simply because you’re talking about how people change their original photos to make something totally different.

I personally don’t have photoshop so I just work with my Sony A77 (which has different options) because I like the idea of me being about to take that one picture and make it awesome on my one without having to go back and fiddle with it. But I can understand if you don’t know or don’t have a camera with that ability (I PROMISE I am not a snob! I know I sound like one -_- ) photoshop is your best option.


And also I find it interesting that it seems like almost everyone edits their photos…

 

Editing a photo isn't changing it to something entirely different. That would be photomanipulation. Also. It's not micro photography. It's macro. And even before editing programs existed, people edited their photos using different film processing techniques and chemicals etc. Even professional photographers who get paid hundreds of dollars for a shoot use post processing.

Style is more of the colors, angles, contrast, softness and focus of your photos. I personally don't think I have a style, because I like to change things up and try new things. Maybe if I come across something I really like I'll stick with it. I guess I get bored with things looking the same after a while and switch to something new. I think the style sort of comes out of what I see at a given time. Sometimes they're dark, sometimes there's a lot of a little contrast. It really depends on my mood or what I want to convey.

 

I'm not to great at photography but... Let me just say... BOKEH!!!!