Do you prefer your doll's photos to the doll?

What in interesting topic.......For me, photography is a huge part of my enjoyment in the hobby...........I venture to say if I couldn't photograph my dolls and share what I see through the camera lens with others I might not even be in the hobby anymore. (I certainly wouldn't have as many dolls as I do now, LOL) As Marilyn said before, I too have been know to move a doll on if he/she doesn't photograph well. For me the photography part is a creative outlet much like painting, sewing etc is for others. It totally relaxes me to sit down with one or two of my dolls and play around with them in front of the camera, trying to capture an expression, a sense of realism, a feeling with just the right pose, tilt of their head, etc. I"m not a professional photographer by any means, but it really is a major stress reliever for me to enjoy my dolls this way.................beats the television anyday, LOL!

 

This is and interesting topic although I think as someone who is waiting on
their doll to come home I don't have as much of a say but I do know
that photographing other peoples dolls is definitely what put me over the
line and made me decide to get my own.

As someone who has photographed dolls and human models many times there
is so much story and life and fantasy you can share in a photograph that
real life can't provide. On the other hand a photo is just a moment, and
a fraction of a second, its lights and skill and framing but for me the true joy
in photography is making something come alive, because even a human
can look dead and lifeless in a boring photo.

 

I had to make myself slow down and read through this thread, probably one of the most interesting things I've read in a while.

I can approach this as a fresh doll owner, someone who for the last five years has only been able to look at dolls in photos. This is how I fell in love with them, wonder how the hell people kept getting stunning images of these dolls and where they were from.

So photographs began my love for BJD's, but I can't say I love one or the other.

Ghost spoke to me through his first photographs, I had no idea of his personality or thoughts until I captured the first few images of his distant eyes and quiet but disdainful personality. His complexity seems to emerge in photos.

I am also in love with his real presence. In a very tactile sense I love the smooth feel of his resin legs, the weight of him, how he sits in my arms. There are also some things I'm not skilled in capturing with the camera. Right now Ghost is sitting in his chair on my desk by a candle. He looks divine, the light is in his eye, but I couldn't take a proper photo of it.

I totally agree with the concept of 'playing' with dolls through photographs, however, it really is one way to bring life into them and breed affection for them.

So after that long winded reply, I guess my answer is similar to others in that they both have their merits and there are many things I love in both pictures and the presence of my doll.

 

It's opposite for me. I love my doll irl, but everytime I snap a picture I don't see the same doll, this could simply be due to the fact that my photography sucks, or the quality of the camera, maybe even the lighting. I don't know.

 

It's always a surprise to me how my dolls become something somehow greater than they usually are in photographs! I'm so not a photographer; I don't have much interest in photography per se; I have an old, inexpensive camera and I can barely use Photoshop (resize and rotate is all I use it for)! In fact, I just realized this is my first visit to the Photography section... and I've been a member here since 2005!

I have had dolls that I like better in photos, but that wouldn't cause me to keep one that I felt I needed to part with for whatever reason. It just makes it way harder when listing one for sale, and I have to be very committed in my decision! Ultimately I'm a 3D person, not a 2D person: A sculptor first, a painter second, and a photographer last of all! What I'm saying, I guess, is that all other things being roughly equal, I'd keep the doll that I liked best in person, as opposed to on film (screen).

Raven

 

Interesting topic!
I find that I've been having the OPPOSITE problem here lately... I can't seem to light Sanyu properly indoors and it's too cold to take her outside... so I can't seem to translate the beauty I see in her into a photograph. I really swoon when I look down at her sweet little face and play with her clothes or brush her hair out of her eyes... but I can't seem to translate that swoon into a picture. It's gotten really annoying, actually.

 

i like my doll thats why i buy but i usually take pics of other girls during meets.
i try not to be shutter happy cause of HD space. at 12 mega pix and 4kx2k size HD space isnt infinite.

but i do like to see how other people frame and take pics of my own girl.

 

I love my dolls far more in person than I do in photographs. Well, that's mostly true. I think Seraphine photographs really well and her personality really comes across, but with Cesavier his personality just doesn't come through in his pictures at all. I find it really difficult to get a picture of him that I can tolerate. He's such a beautiful, personality packed doll in real life, but his pictures just look flat. That's probably something to do with my photography skills (or lack of) as opposed to the doll himself though. I definitley prefer something I can pick up and hold to something I can just look at.

 

Thanks, Rockin' Resin Addict for resurrecting this thread. It's fascinating!

I recently did a blog post that addresses this topic in a way, because it deals with why Wiishu is so darned fascinating to me.

What it boils down to for me is, it's so synergistic, I can't separate one from the other. I can say, as beautiful as the large dolls are, and as wonderfully photogenic for portraits as they are, their limited posability is a turnoff for me every time I lay hands on them, and I think that stems from the amount of enjoyment I get from photostories. I'm a writer/artist/graphic novelist, so the fact that Wiishu expresses his experiences so easily in photostories is a huge part of how much personality he has for me, and so how much I love him in RL.

It's not that the large dolls can't be posed, but it takes a lot of work to achieve subtlety. Wiishu and Pooki...I'm just along for the ride and to take the shots because they pose so quickly and easily that the moment I have an idea for what might be going on, they'll comply with the basic stance, then the little idiosyncrasies of their body language take over and dictate the details (and suggest the next shot). They are fabulous muses.

I love messing with the photos, I love the stories, I love reading them, but I also love making the clothes and seeing the stuff I've collected over the years find a whole new life with Wiishu. I love "hearing" Wiishu's little house-elf pidgin voice in my head giving me his take on...everything, whether it's watching the Avengers or turning on the pond waterfall or seeing a peony emerge from the ground. He adds a whole new perspective to the world. He's easy to take with me wherever I go and large enough that people will interact with him without that too-careful body language people get when they're dealing with something they think is delicate.

My other dolls are all adjuncts to Wiishu. Morgaine and Vanye have their own predetermined lives and personalities from the book/graphic novel. So far, I haven't had a lot of time to mess with them. Likely I'll do more when they have their wigs and faceups, but while they pose well, even they (ChicLines) are limited compared to Wiishu. I do love them, but the amount I photograph them is pretty indicative of the amount of time I spend with them. Pooki (a FL pukipuki) is Wiishu's tagalong...he rarely does anything on his own, but together, they're dynamite.

I'm arrogant enough to say I can get a good photo with just about any doll. Frankly, I've done so much art over the years, I'd better be able to, but I love personality over looks and the body-language nuance of the smaller dolls just makes them more eerily real to me. Add to that the emotional versatility of the Shiwoo sculpt and for this storyteller, you've got the ideal combination. When I think of getting another doll, I'm looking at LTF types...but then I find myself worrying about Wiishu's feelings! I suspect that after a year or so, the "new" of the world will begin to wear off and Wiishu will begin to want a friend his own size...but that will again be an adjunct to this one, crazily photogenic little house elf. A means of expanding his story.

So, yeah, for me...it's definitely both. However, without Wiishu, the camera just becomes a means of capturing beautiful or interesting images in the world around me. With Wiishu, the camera becomes a story-telling device. Without the camera...Wiishu would still be my little house elf. So...he's more important than the pics.

 

When I still had my Volks Iris, she had more meaning to me when photographed than when I physically interacted with her. She was very photogenic. The disconnect is part of why I eventually sold her. I miss her sometimes, but don't generally regret passing her forward.

Vin's point about posability for photos really hits home with me. It's why I favor Dollfie Dreams (and the III versions over the II's), and why I sold off most of my resin. Proper posing communicates mood and attitude so much better visually.

I recently (finally) joined the smartphone community. So I've been gradually looking through my old RAWs and reprocessing my work so that it fits its 5:3 aspect ratio better (and uses my greater experience and improved software). It's quite nostalgic. I fall in love with a doll when they're in front of me, and when I make or see a photo of them I get reminded of that love.

 

I find that this is true with my Dollfie Dreams. I think it's because they're already made to resemble two-dimensional drawings, so when seen in a 2D photo they look even more like the characters they're patterned after than in 3D. I think there's also an issue of scale - in person they're pretty small, but in a photo you lose the sense of scale, and with a portrait you notice much more detail than when looking at them in person.

I actually find that I can pose my BJDs much more easily than my DDs. The DDs just feel so stiff to me, and I always feel like I have to force them into poses I want, while the BJDs are so easy to get into all kinds of cool poses 'cause they're just a little bit floppy. (Not enough that they can't hold poses, though.) The BJDs also have the advantage of being able to take advantage of all kinds of trick joints that rely on the ability to dislocate their joints thanks to the elastic stretch, like locking knees or thighs that can pop out so they can sit with their knees higher.

 

personnaly I prefer BJDs irl cause i can change her clothes, wig and eyes. in photos I can't, I can also bring her everywhere I want and go to doll meet

 

When you take a picture of them you are capturing a feeling, a thought, a moment. Think of how much cuter your little fairy dolls look in the forest versus your curio cabinet. When they occupy your shelf space they seem to be more doll than anything else. It's the photographs that really helps to capture their essence and bring them to life!

 

Sometimes, yes! When I have them out, the actual dolls take up a lot of physical space- if I am just looking at pictures, I can view all my current dolls, & also past dolls I no longer own- I guess they then become my virtual dolls

 

Hmmm this is a really complicated question for me. I love my boy in real life (even though he's mean > m<) and of course the pictures I take of him too. However the main basis I think is really that without him I can't take photos of him, if you get my meaning. When seeing him in real life, it more 3D and I can pose him in whichever perspective I like and to change the pose if I want to. But in pictures, I can capture the moment and look back to how he posed before, also I think sometimes it can be hard to recreate certain images and poses.

But overall I don't really think there was much of a 'prefer' or not? Gaah I confuse myself. I just like my boy the way he is ^^ Though sometimes taking photos of him is difficult because I have bad lighting all the time! Haha.

 

I totally do this all the time! I need to take more pictures so I can fall in love with some of my dolls again!!

 

This is a great thread. I came to BJD's through the art of Hans Bellmer and photographs of the wooden dolls of Ryoichi Yoshida prior to the introduction of the Super Dolfie resin BJD that started it all. So my initial experience with them was through photographs. And yes, I did want one of Yoshida's dolls. When the resin scene started I finally got a doll but was disappointed when she arrived because she didn't look as....interesting as the photographs on the web. However, once I started dressing her up and taking pictures that started to change. Perhaps because I'm older my primary motivation was as an art interest though I wouldn't say that when I got her it was purely for photography. I think it was mainly to own an object that referenced that time when I was obsessed with Bellmer and Yoshida. But once you have a doll a connection develops (or at least in my case) and she suddenly seems less like an object and more like an amalgamation of my imagination projected into the object. Over time, the focus of our relationship began to revolve around photography more than "hanging out" or dress-up. As a photography student my work doesn't involve the photos I make with Celine so those are more of a private affair. So Celine becomes a way for me to generate artwork and interestingly, a private work that is for it's own sake. I built her a very extravagant coffin and am working on some furniture which is completely outside the other things I do. I greatly enjoy the photographs I take of her and find the emotional aspect confusing in a pleasant way. There's a quote by Maurice Merleau-Ponty that I think sums up the relation to photography very well:

When I dress up Celine eventually I have to make dinner, do laundry, go to work etc. But with the photos I can enjoy that moment when she was completely dressed up, over and over. Now that school's done I'm looking forward to devoting more time to photographing her. The other quote I'll leave everyone with is by Emile Zola:

In this case I'm taking Zola to mean "seen" as a form of knowledge which probably brings us back to Merleau-Ponty's quote about photography allowing us to live in that instant of time.

 

I have dolls that I prefer on photos, and ones that I prefer in real, sitting on the shelf.
That's usually true for the ones that are hard to photopgraph, some dolls are just not as photogenic or their charisma gets lost on photos. That's actually rather frustrating because with these dolls I can't show others how they truly look like :C

 

I like being around my dolls in person: dressing them, posing them, holding them, and just hanging out with them. But they're just dolls. When I look at pictures of them, they come to life. The characters I've created for them shine through, and the photograph breathes life into what most others see (in person) as pretty hunks of resin. That's my two cents on the matter. It's been really interesting reading everyone's responses to this topic, too.

 

I love my dolls! But since i first was photointerested indeed, before discovering bjd-s, my photos of them gave them an extra lift and limit! Even a doll without faceup was amazing. Now I am more into dolls than the first days. But seeing on my pictures times I think that that or thatdoll is not so good models anymore, I see, they real are! ANd I love them even more. Both in reallife and as my models.

 

Sometimes I feel that I like them in person and sometimes I like them wayyy better in their pictures...

 

I love pictures because they feel like tangible (even if they're digital) products from my experience with my dolls. I feel like something good and creative has come from owning and having them, and that the pics are like separate pieces of art. I do love my doll photos, but I am able to separate that having pics is different than having a doll. I love to look through my pictures every once in a while, but nothing compares to having the doll right there next to me.

 

I feel the opposite! Whenever I look at my dolls pictures I can't help but feel I haven't really captured them perfectly and in real life they look much better.

BUT... that could just be my poor skills as a photographer more than anything else

 

I like my dolls more in real life. I like to touch them and look at them and dress them. But I'm not sure if that will change sometime... 'cause at the moment, I'm not really that good at taking pictures. : D They're okay... but not gorgeous.

 

This a good question, and my answer varies for each doll. For instance, I love photographing my Crobidoll Yujin, but the actual doll looks a bit scary (even ugly from some angles) in person. On the other hand, I adore my Little Monica Vampire Dyuke in person, but can't seem to get a decent picture of him from any angle. His face-up is very intricate, and I can never seem to capture it.

I also thinking photographing dolls is a good way to determine if you want to keep them. I'd considered selling my Crobidoll Yeon-Ho in the past (about a year ago), but once I starting taking pictures of him for the sales post, I realized how much I liked him and felt a bit sad about selling him. Whereas, when I took pictures of another doll that I did end up selling, I felt nothing while taking the sales pictures.

 

And if one's eyes aren't the most accurate any more, there's nothing like the stillness of a photograph to let you catch some of the beauty - and flaws! - that you missed on quick in-person perusal!

 

I think it depends on the doll...some dolls I like better in photos, others are better in real life because they don't photograph as well. I can't have all my dolls with me when I'm staying in my hostel during school time, so photos are really important, but there're some dolls that I rarely take photos of but I really like them and play more with them than others...it really depends.

And funnily enough, I realise that with my closer friends who know I have dolls and aren't scared of it, I would try to bring the doll out to show them, haha. Especially since my apartment mates are pretty interested to see the things irl than a photo anyway.

 

actually i love my dolls more than the photos. I'm toooo lazy to take the photos, even my friends who come to my home take more photo shoot with my dolls than me. hahahaha.

 

Huh I just thought about this subject the other day. My friend whom I haven't seen in a long time came over to my apartment and after a while, she asked "Aren't you into dolls? Where are they?" as she looks around my apartment (it's a studio so you can see everything in one glance). I just told her they're stored in the closet and she gave me a confused look. I never really explained the hobby to her so then I thought about the fact that it's not the dolls themselves that I liked but the photographs of them which is when I think they really come to life. Maybe I don't actually come off as a crazy doll lady.

 

I totally agree with this. I love looking at my dolls (and other people's dolls) in photos but in real life my dolls sit in a cupboard until it's time for a photo shoot. There have been exceptions: I took one of my Blythes everywhere with me the year I lived alone in Japan - I never worried about her getting messy and I enjoyed having her with me. I'm hoping that my first bjd will be the same. She'll be bigger than my other dolls (momoko) so more fun to carry around, but I might be more worried about ruining her face up or her wig falling off or something!

 

Right now I prefer my dolls, because I had to return the camera I had borrowed and just have a piece of junk atm. It is giving me such a headache. I can't stand it any longer . But I will stop whining right now and end this unbearable situation either tomorrow or after the weekend.

 

I like my dolls in real life a lot more. However, for some odd reason, I absolutely love other people's dolls in photos a lot more than in real life. The way they create scenes with them, the costumes... it's fascinating to look at.

 

I'm a photographer. I love making photographs but I can't cuddle a photograph. Dolls win out, every time.

 

I like my dolls much better in their photographs, but i love them in real life too. In my photos they have more character and they're alive! but on the shelf they're just dolls but beautiful dolls at that

 

Like many of us, I love my dolls in the two cases, but I think I prefer them in photo because they seems to be more alive !
Howerver, I can looking her during hours in real life !!!

 

I prefer both equally. I love seeing them in-person, holding them, dressing them, fussing with their wigs... but I also love how they "come alive" in photos. It's very rewarding to see them as the characters they were meant to be, where they look in-scale and realistic

 

Funny! It seems like IRL I adore my Blythes more, and want them around. But when I look at photo's of my LTF and RealPuki then they are so much more beautiful and realistic! Never really thought of it until this topic came around :-)

 

I think for me it's a little of both! Sometimes I think my photos don't show their true beauty and other times I am like wow that's looks so lifelike! I seem to prefer other people's doll photos to mine too!

 

I'll join the crowd who has their dolls all over the place. Mine are all out and about. I particularly like having them all looking towards me cos I can see their pretty faces. I understand not liking a doll in RL and preferring pictures, but I don't understand owning one if all you like are pictures of dolls.

 

I actually have the opposite problem.

I prefer my dolls to the photos because they just look so perfect in real life but I can't seem to capture that perfection in photos. Sometimes I have my doll in a certain pose with great lightning that make their eyes shine beautifully...I take the picture and the magic is gone >_<

I don't know if it is the type of phone I have (I don't have a camera...I use my phone to take pictures) or what but I'm never content with my photography. :[

 

Anyone who knows me knows that I love photography, and I love to photograph my dolls. I'm generally happy with the photos that I take of them, and I enjoy looking back on the photos I've taken. There is something about a photo that makes the doll seem "alive" to me, probably because a snapshot freezes a single moment in time so you don't see the reality of the doll not moving or interacting in the times before and after the press of the shutter button. Photos are cool like that.

But, do I love photos of my dolls more than my dolls? Absolutely not. Photos are beautiful and fascinating and fun; they capture the emotion of a moment or the essence of a "personality" but they're nothing compared to the solid reality of a doll in my arms. I can't cuddle a picture when I'm sad. I can't play with a picture, brush its hair and dress it up. I suppose I could carry a picture around with me, but it wouldn't be the same as having my actual doll.

And the one thing I have to point out is this: without the dolls, there wouldn't even be doll photos.

 

I'm starting up on photographer so goes without saying that I don't enjoy my photographs more than my dolls. xD

I collect anime figures too and I often times notice myself looking at member photos of the same figure I own rather than my own figure itself. I enjoy photos more because they can tell a story and they can be captured in a way to make them really shine.

 

As a photographer, photos are fun to create for me as a piece of art... telling a story about a time or a setting / place or trying to bring out a certain mood / feel. I do love creating photos, but I feel like the more fascination you have with your subject the better you're able to translate that into a photo. So with that being said, I have to really enjoy my dolls to be motivated to create art using them. I definitely prefer my actual dolls to the photos I create with them. There's definitely more emotion for me when I have a doll that I adore next to me compared to just looking at a photo of that doll.

 

100% this. I feel a connection with my dolls, the hours of work on them to make them perfect to what the owner imagined.

 

Well, I don't have a good camera, but I take a lot of photos of my doll, I always find her more pretty in live that the photo, no matter how much I like the photo I took, I just can't feel that the image ovepass my girl in real life.

 

Hmm... I definitely prefer my dolls, no question in my mind. For those of you who say you prefer photos of your dolls, I challenge you! If forced to choose between keeping your dolls but have every photo you take/taken removed, which will you choose? xD

 

I only rarely take pictures of my doll, I just enjoy playing with her and would never give her back

 

I like my dolls in person just sitting around and in photographs. looking at them makes me happy, both in photos and not in photos.

 

I really need to like my dolls in person to be able to make good photos of them, if that makes sense... But coming from a Blythe background myself, I do understand that you have to get used to BJDs... The first time I got a 60cm doll, it absolutely took some getting used to, but she photographs really well... Mind you I had the same thing with my first Blythe as I only seen them online. It passes quickly!

 

awe that sucks I hope you can bond with her!

 

Wow, that's an interesting question... but I totally understand it! I have the same but with mirrors.
When I saw my largest doll in my hands in the mirror, I was like "yuck! No wonder my sister hates him!" But in real life and on photos, he looks great - but he looks best on photos.

 

Haha, it’s an interesting subject!

For me, I like my girls in real life more, but I do have to confess that I spend more time to look at their photos then them.

Some settings, dresses look fantastic in the photos. Though my girls are always beautiful to me

 

@Jandiring In this case... I do the same too But I'm still in the midle of creating faceups for them, only two dolls of mine are almost ready...

 

I like my dolls far more because I’m not very good at photography. That said, sometimes I like some owner photos of their dolls far better than the company photos or seeing the sculpt in person.

 

My dolls look so much better in real life that I get very frustrated that I can't capture with my camera what I see with my naked eye. I have experience with taking photos but the photos don't do the doll any justice. I think it's obviously because you can't compare a 2d object (photo) to a 3d one (the doll)

 

@Serdtse Haha, for me, usually happens the opposite

 

hmm, i like my dolls both in real life and in photos, though thru photos, i tend to understand and build their personality more, and in real life, posing them in certain ways or fitting them into certain clothes / them rejecting certain clothes would help me get to know them too. I dont know about the rest but I have always liked to speak to inanimate objects as a way to air my thoughts, so I talk to my dolls as well. xD

 

I'm also a photographer.
My dolls are my muses, my models my inspiration.
When they're not in the studio they mostly sit on their
shelves and largely ignored but they come alive in
front of the camera.
What continues to baffle me completely is that much
of the rest of the world finds doll photos disturbing or creepy.

 

aha same things for me !

 

I like both the same since each got its own pro and cons. Handling my dolls, dressing them up and posing them in a different way every other day is one of my favorite things to do in this hobby. But I also like to take photos!
... Mh now that I really think about it I do prefer the doll in comparison to the photos and this is how I interact with them most of the time