Photography First attempt at a Doll photoshoot! ;D Thoughts?

I like the angle of the second and third ones. Great for a first shoot. The only thing that I would say is that maybe get rid of some of the flyaways. The red hair against the white skin is really dramatic . I bet your doll would be great from moody shots with heavy shadows or maybe even black and white

 

I really like the second photo! I think it's an interesting angle, and the doll is in great focus and looks deep in thought. I can project emotion onto the doll in that photo, where as in the other two I just sort of thing, "Oh, that's a nice picture of a doll". Mind you, having a nice photograph of a doll isn't bad! But if you are going for character and emotion, I think the second picture shows that the best.

On the hair, I agree with Maishka, smoothing flyaways is always good. It looks like your doll's wig is pretty straight, so it should be an easy job to sweep the hair away and smooth it into place with a teensy spritz of water - or if you have the solution for wigs some places carry - even better! I struggle with fly-away hair myself (or my dolls do, ha ha) and I have been advised that newborn baby brushes are really great for taming wigs. Maybe it can help you, too?

Overall I think you did wonderfully for a first go! Some days I take tons of pictures and only get one good final shot out of the bunch. You just have to keep trying, and you will naturally improve. Definitely check out some of the tutorials on DoA that are available to you. Thanks for sharing, and I look forward to seeing more!

 

The second photo is a very good photo due to its angle and the amount of space your doll takes up in the frame... try and get a 2/3 to 3/4 ratio going in your photos and that will often help compositionally.

TennaD, you may have just solved my flyaway problem! I will acquire a newborn brush as soon as I can!!

 

Some people carry one of those little $1 travel-size water spritz bottles with them at all times. If a wig is really dry, it could use more aggressive conditioning, but the water bottle works great for short-term fixes. Even if you just wet your fingertips and stroke the hair into place.

That's a lusciously colored wig and makes a great face framer.

About the only other thing I'd suggest, since her eyes have quite large irises, is either a little white reflector card to throw some extra light into the eye area, or later digital manipulation. I don't know what it's called in Photoshop. In my program it's called Tone adjusting, and lets you adjust shadows, mid-tones or light tones separately. A little mid-tone adjustment would make the eye whites pop a bit more.

 

I think the photos are good and agree with the comment about the hair. Those wig strands drive me nuts when I take photos. I seem to remember an oil or spray I was going to get to help with that from one of the big doll manufacturers but forgot until now. I'll try the spritz bottle routine first, now that I've been made aware of that. Hobbywhelmed's idea of a reflector card is a good one to get some extra light into the darker areas at the edges of your photos. It's always tough adding more exposure since the often light-colored resin can get too light if you expose for the shadow areas. But these can be manipulated using layers in Photoshop to adjust brightness/contrast or exposure. I would imagine the controls are similar in Corel's Paint Shop Pro (way cheaper than PS) or GIMP (complicated freeware).

 

I second the reflector! Due the lashes being in front of the eyes and the eyes being rather deep in the head they look rather dull and badly lit. Shining/reflecting a bit of light will let them pop out more

Also the flyaways are sometimes a bit too distracting. If you are going for a wild or "crazy" look that's okay, but too much will make the eyes blurry (since the camera will focus on the hair in front of them) and the flyaways need to be correctly positioned for this (i.e. brushed in a certain way, not let them flying around like mad) , or else it looks just like a badly cared for wig.

 

I think these are awesome for your first pics =D I hope mine look as good when i get my girl!
I do have to agree about the lack of light reflection on the eyes though. Please could someone explain roughly how reflectors (such as white paper) might be positioned in relation to a doll in order to achieve this?

 

I think they turned out really well. The only thing I can say is that maybe next time play with the eye placement. Having the eyes look in a different direction that just straight forward can add some life...but that's purely optional. The pics are good without.

 

The second photos angle grabbed my attention! I found myself lingering on that picture longer than the other two :3
Gorgeous doll and great for a first attempt!