Doll Photography FAQ and Tip List

I just preach the gospel of the tripod!

Some of the older digital cameras (ie: I have a Canon Powershot G1 that's two or three years old) are almost useless without the flash if you are trying to hold it in your hands. The shutter is just too slow to keep it from blurring.

You can find decent tripods that will more than suit the needs of doll photograhy for $20 or so, and it's a worthwhile investment.

Also, if you like the look of reddish toned pictures (can be very nice for giving flesh a warm, lifelike glow without looking faked), incandescant bulbs in regular shop lamps make for excellent cheap lighting, and most come with clamps so you can perch them anywhere. I like to have three on hand - two to create ambient light, and one to have as a spare for shots where I want direct lighting on the subject.
With the incandescant bulbs, as long as you are using a standard medium wattage (60-100 watts) you can drape a white sheet or other cloth over the lamp to filter the light. Just don't leave it there for long periods or it might burn!

 

Ah, thank you for this. ^.^ I'll have to try your advice. Sadly my digicam can't be adjusted other than "regular" and "macro" so I'll have to experiment ^.^

 

Photography is always my downfall. What looks good through the camera looks totally different on my computer. I'm always grappling with myself to get what my mind sees. Thanks for the great advice. I will definitely give it a go again.

 

I agree at tripod really helps! You can be your own photo-assistant with a tripod, I often set my camera up on a timer, then I can hold a reflector board up (or background!!) and then i can be quite self sufficient with the pics.

 

While I fully agree that diffused light is best, I'm sorry to be a 'devil's advocate' on the flash issue. I'm going to have to disagree with the 'no flash' suggestion. Flash is a useful - and sometimes necessary - tool in the photographer's toolkit. A flash unit in the right hands can create beautiful, soft and diffused light and a quite natural effect, even with a static subject like a resin doll.

I would never tell anyone to avoid flash because photos can be greatly improved by using it. Using flash beats cranking up your ISO any day of the week, in my opinion. High ISO photos mean grainy/noisy photos, which will require editing to fix, and in my opinion, the less editing you have to do, the better.

My preference is for my flash unit, but if all you've got is your camera's built-in flash, there's still no reason to avoid it when it's the better option for your photo situation. Most flash units have a diffuser built into them, and many also have a 'bounce card' (a small white piece of plastic that pulls out). They can also be aimed in various directions, allowing you to 'bounce' the flash off walls, ceiling or other objects. The other advantage of flash units is that they can be adjusted to flash at various levels of brightness. If you want less power so as not to 'blow out' your subject, you can turn it down.

When to use flash:
1. Indoors - When there is little or no natural light, when you're shooting in low light, or when you're purposefully shooting in artificial, directed light (such as a portrait lighting setup), flash is your friend. Aiming the flash straight at a subject can create harsh shadows and can often make the image look flat, but you can bounce the flash off the wall or ceiling to create softer and more diffused light.
2. Outdoors in bright or direct sunlight - If you're shooting outside on a bright sunny day, and you're getting a 'silhouette' effect with your subject, chances are good that the light is behind your subject, and this is a good time to use flash. Of course, if you can move the subject so that the light is not behind them, that'd be better, but let's say you can't move them because of the background you want in the shot. The flash acts as a second light source and fills in the parts that are underexposed. Some parts get underexposed because the camera's light meter focuses on different parts of the image (like the sun). Some cameras allow you to change where and how the camera meters light, but that's a whole other topic.

When not to use flash:
1. Indoors - When there is adequate and appropriate light for your subject, you don't need flash. If you have to use ISO 800 or higher on your camera or if your shutter speed is 1/50 or slower, you either need more light or you'll need flash.
2. Outdoors - On a cloudy or overcast day, in the shade, or when you aren't shooting with the light behind your subject, you shouldn't need to use flash outdoors. Cloudy/overcast skies are a natural diffuser and create beautiful lighting for outdoor shots. In the shade, your subject is less likely to be 'blown out' by harsh, bright sunlight and the sun is still doing the work of lighting for you. If you're shooting out in the sun, see if you can position your subject so the sun shines to the side instead of from behind them, and this should avoid the need for flash.

If you're shooting with a built-in flash...
There's not much you can do about aiming your flash if you're shooting with the built-in flash on your camera; however, there are some things you can do to get better results from it.

1. Built-in flash doesn't have a lot of power, so it's better to be closer to your subject to get the best illumination possible. I would say 2.5 metres or closer (for Americans, that's about 8 feet or closer). You might want to get closer than that if you're shooting very small subjects like dolls.
2. Use slow-sync flash, if your camera has it. The slow-sync setting picks a slower shutter speed and then fires the flash while the shutter is open. With slow-sync, you don't lose whatever ambient light you have. You may want to use a tripod for best results with this.
3. Make your own flash diffuser. The easiest way to diffuse the light from your built-in flash is to put a piece of semi-transparent tape over the flash. This won't turn off the flash, obviously, but it will soften the light and eliminate some of the harshness that comes with firing the flash directly at a subject.
4. Make your own bounce card. You can use a small white card, like a business card or recipe card to direct or 'bounce' the light from your built-in flash. You may want to use a tripod for this as well. Also, with the bounce card or with the DIY diffuser, you may need to fiddle with your camera's exposure value compensation settings because the camera will not automatically know that it's light has been adjusted.


Also, tripods. I cannot stress enough the importance of tripods for any kind of photography. If you're shooting with a shutter speed of 1/60 or slower, you'll definitely want a tripod because slow shutter speeds are prone to creating photos with 'ghosting' or camera shake effects and can result in badly out-of-focus photos.

 

Has anyone ever used the photo backgrounds like are shown in many of the pictures used by companies such as iplehouse? I have seen them fairly reasonable in price but am not sure how they work. If you want them standing in a forefront, do you fold the backdrop so there is a wall and a floor in front? That is the only thing I can think to do if you are going to show a whole body, obviously with just the closeup or upper doll (not showing feet) one wouldn't have to worry about that. I would love to hear from someone that has used the pre made backgrounds picktures.

 

I have one here, and am going to be ordering several more within the next month. While I don't have nearly as nice a setup as some here, I've found they cover for the fact that I have no naturally good backgrounds anywhere around here (apartment with stuff along every wall and no outdoors). The "floor" part sits on my table, and the "wall" is taped to a dowel that I can hang above it, to create the background for me. It also then rolls around the dowel for storage, eliminating issues with wrinkles and folds. I'm by no means great at the photography element of this hobby, but I do feel that, as long as I get it properly set up, it looks good and does the trick.

 

Going to resurrect this thread for a bit once again to refute one point, and add more about flash/lighting.

SapphireStargazer is absolutely right; flash is a useful tool in any photographer's toolbox. Stating to avoid it is likely due to lack of experience using it. The only thing I want to correct from that post is the suggestion to put semi-transparent tape over a built in flash, mainly because it wont do anything to soften it at all, and that's explained with my other additions.

The key to using flash without it being harsh and overpowering is making sure that the source of the light is large relative to the subject. This can be achieved in two ways. One, as the previous post said, move closer. The closer the flash is to the subject, the larger it is in relation to that subject. Option two, is to modify it. Bounce cards are a modifier because they bounce your light source towards a wall or ceiling, which then bounces it back on the subject. The wall you bounce off of becomes the light source and it generally is a very large, soft light source. The downside to bouncing, especially if using a low power built in flash, is that the light is thrown everywhere and the power diminishes a lot. If one gets advanced enough to get the flash off from on top of the camera, it's then possible to add modifiers like softboxes or umbrellas to further increase that size and create soft, flattering light on your dolls while maintaining a degree of directional output so the power doesn't drop off so much. The reason why tape over the flash doesn't soften the light is because since the tape is going directly over top of the light source, it's not actually changing the size of the light source and it will still end up being a hard light.

To go a bit further on the subject of light, the light source doesn't have to be a flash at all. Flash is great when you need a very powerful light, but if you're indoors and don't need so much power, LED panels can be bought for under $30 and they are by default, a bigger light source than a flash head. For even a SD sized doll, a $30 160 bulb LED panel is definitely big enough to create flattering light for doll portraits plus you can see the look before you take the shot which makes it easier in most cases. Outside though, it wont be powerful enough so be sure to keep that in mind when making your choice.

I hope this helps! I want everyone to get the best doll photos they can!

 

Whoa~~ That's a lot of tips!! Thank you people for sharing your experiences with newbies like me!

 

There is some great advice here and I'll add a couple tips of my own.
(I'm not going to get into the flash or no discussion)

I do want to second the suggestion to use LED light panels.
These are my go to lights for the dolls. Mine are about the
size of an iPad so equivalent to a 3' panel when used with
my 1/4 scale dolls.

The point was made earlier that camera position and angle is
critical. I agree and would like to expand upon it a bit. When you
take a photo of another person you usually hold the camera at
about eye level so you're shooting them at about eye level. You'd
like to do the same with your dolls. Either get down to their
level or bring them up to yours. This is the advantage of working
on a tabletop but you still don't want to work from standing eye
level, sit or kneel so you're closer to doll eye level. This is also
true when shooting children or pets. Get down to their level;
don't shoot from adult eye level.

Finally, about backgrounds. Over the years I've made a bunch
of 20x30 poster size prints and they make fantastic doll photo
backdrops. $10 each at Costco.
Enchanted glade

You do need to be careful to avoid casting shadows onto the
background. You can also take photos against a plaini background
and composite them into an arbitrary image along with other
elements as desired...
Enjoying the view