Ends of wig fibers lighting up with flash.

Try not using flash? I find that using natural light is usually much more flattering on dolls. : )

 

Do you have an example photo that illustrates the problem well?

 

I completely agree. On camera flash does not flatter people and it does not flatter dolls.
Pose your doll by a window but not in direct sunlight; that's not flattering either and hard on the doll.
Turn on another light.
Use a tripod or set your camera on a couple of books and trip it with the self timer.
Anything but on camera flash.

 

Are you using an on camera flash? How about diffusion? Is the flash angled towards the doll?

Personally, I think using flash for doll photography requires a lot of skill and some specialist equipment.

Couple that with the nature of fur wigs and I don't know if it is possible to get a good result here, without either turning flash off or switching wigs to a natural fibre.

 

Another solution is to try and tame the ends as much as possible before you take the photo. I tend to comb the wigs through with a wet toothbrush before I start work. Set the doll up, comb the wig through with water and then let it sit and dry out a bit whilst you fiddle with the rest of the kit. If it is particularly static prone, you can rub a bit of hair conditioner through your hands and smooth it onto the wig before arranging it. It basically sticks the flyaways down. Make sure it's a wig that you can later wash as conditioned wigs tend to attract dust over time and get a bit claggy.

Sounds as though this isn't your particular problem, but having any light coming in from behind the doll is also prone to turn stray hairs into neon lights. If you are shooting in a lit room, set up a background that blocks most of the ambient light. I shoot at night in a completely darkened room to make sure that the only light that hits the doll is the light I have chosen.

Finally, and inevitably, remove the last stragglers in post processing. No matter how careful you are, there will always be a few hairs that stubbornly refuse to be tamed. You can use the clone stamp tool and the healing brush to get rid of those. The easiest ones to remove are the ones around the edges and I tent to go straight to the clone tool for those and clone the background onto them.

It would be useful to see an example, though, as the others have said.

 

I think this is true, but only for the extreme case that people typically think of when they think "flash photo", namely indoor pictures taken with a camera in full auto mode, such that the subject is lit only by the flash, head on, with hard shadows.

In the more general cases, I think there is nothing wrong with on-camera flash. About 90% of my outdoor doll photos are shot with on-camera flash contributing some fill to the overall exposure. Most of the rest are off-camera flash. I very rarely shoot with only natural light, it has to be early morning or near sunset with just the right conditions. Working solo, positioning reflectors is a PITA, so fill flash is my go-to solution. I use a Sto-fen diffusor cap when I have the flash aimed at the doll, or I bounce the flash off a wall behind me or in the direction the doll is facing. I never point the flash right at the doll without the diffusor on it, the shadows would be too harsh even at low power.

Flash is very useful for illuminating the face of the doll so that you can see the eye color and get nice catchlights, rather than dark, shadowy eyes with no highlights in them. It's not uncommon for my flash to be set anywhere from 1/64 to 1/8 power. Less is more with flash, use only what it takes.

Here is an example of a shot that would have been unusable without fill flash. The doll is in an unlit ruined building, facing away from the natural light source. Exposing for her face would have required a tripod and long exposure, or very high ISO, and would have resulted in the outdoors behind her being blown out to full white and merged with her white hair (this would look awful). Or I'd have had to bracket it, and it would end up with an unnatural HDR-ish look. But as-shot, she's lit fairly significantly by on-camera flash, but mixed with ambient and through use of the diffusor, it does not have the flash photo deer in the headlights look.

Window Sill by abs plastic, on Flickr

 

-adam- I agree completely that in bright sunlight a fill flash
softens that light and improves the photo without imposing
the normal harshness of flash used as the key light.

I don't think that was the question though.

 

My takeaway from Bobby's description was that he was using on-camera flash for fill, to see the doll's face a little better. I thought the anti-on-camera flash sentiment could use some counterpoint/clarification, as flash gets a bad rap sometimes. At full-strength it is definitely unflattering as you say, but Bobby's 580ex speedlite is one that's adjustable enough to be used on-camera without causing weird effects like glowing hair, and I wouldn't want to put him off on-camera flash unnecessarily because I think it can get him exactly the results he describes when used in moderation. It may just be a matter of tempering it with a diffusor or bounce attachment (e.g. a Rogue FlashBender).

 

Hey! I've been reading a post full of tutorials and I've seen one that maybe solves your problem. If you want to use your camera flash because you simply need the extra light, there's a very good way to do it, take a look: Apolic's tutorial on deviantart
I haven't tried the flash technique, but it looks very very useful and I'll definetely use it. If you give it a try, tell us if the wig looks better

I found the link on this thread: DoA Photography tutorials

 

soak the ends in fabric softener for a while. here is a tutorial