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Forums for doll/figure photography?

Sep 25, 2013

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    1. I like our little section here. Lots of interesting ideas and helpful people. However, I was wondering if anyone has ever come across a forum that specialises in doll and figure photography, or a photo forum that has an active section for this? I amble though a few photo fora and find them useful, but would dearly love to have one where peopelare grappling with the same, very specific, issues. I would also like somewhere where I don't feel the need to apologise for or explain my quirky specialism. There are so many excellent doll and figure photographers out there that I would be both surprised and disappointed if there weren't somewhere like this to compare notes. Any ideas?
       
      #1 MadamMauMau, Sep 25, 2013
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    2. OK. Looks as though it is a no.

      I am wondering whether it is worth me setting something like this up, for committed anthropomorphic toy photographers. Would anyone here use such a thing, if it existed? I will be asking around on my action fig sites too, to see if there is sufficient interest.
       
      #2 MadamMauMau, Sep 27, 2013
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    3. Photography is a large part of the hobby for me so I might be interested in such a site, as long as it isn't strictly technical.
       
      #3 phanuel, Sep 27, 2013
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    4. Photography is a necessarily technical subject, so the purpose will be to share technical information and ideas as well as creative ones. What I would strive against, however, is the competitive ethos on too many photog fora that leads people to brag huge equipment lists (but still take crap photos) and answer queries with the purpose of showing how technically informed they are, rather than trying to help a person make sense of stuff. I see it so often in this area. Use as many unexplained technical terms as you can, ideally using abbreviations that the person is unlikely to understand, don't use basic principles but instead cite a very specific, specialist and, ideally extremely expensive piece of equipment as being the only solution to their problem etc etc etc. Nope. I think, given that toy photography lends itself to a ghetto approach and it is an area that will tend not to attract the braggarts (not much to brag about in toy photography), it should be relatively safe.
       
      #4 MadamMauMau, Sep 27, 2013
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    5. I would love something like this. The closest I've ever found is the Behind the Plastic group on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/behindtheplastic
      I love seeing other people's setups for props and lighting and such. There's not much discussion there though.
       
      #5 cowpewter, Sep 29, 2013
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    6. This. I belong to a number of action figure groups on flickr and I see SO much talent out there. However, it is very difficult to have a discussion on flickr, so my aim would be to drag some of those amazinf photographers into one place to share their ideas around. OK. I will continue to explore the viability of this.
       
      #6 MadamMauMau, Sep 30, 2013
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    7. I'd love a forum like that!
      I'm very interested in figure photography (and other dolls too) but Flickr is really not the best place to discuss things like this.
      I agree with MauMau, there should be a good mixture between technical basics and...well, a realistic approach to things and newcomer.
      I always heavily disliked this whole jacking off on equipment, especially when the results were barely mediocre, and mocking and scaring away of people with less fancy cameras and less knowledge about how to do X/what to buy for Y.
      At the same time people shouldn't be scared away for having knowledge and for having a good equipment (it always goes both ways) as long as they are polite and modest.
       
      #7 Ara, Oct 1, 2013
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    8. My thoughts exactly, Ara. As I said, toy photography tends to lend itself to a ghetto approach, so I would hope there wouldn't be too many tech bores around. And one of the many, many, many great things about ghetto photography is that it forces you to go back to basics, understand what the light and camera do and use your ingenuity to make them produce the result that you want. Now THAT is where technical understanding and creativity form a perfect marriage.
       
      #8 MadamMauMau, Oct 1, 2013
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    9. I also would love to join a page like that. I use Flickr alot, but there we not discuss the photos so much, it is more like about they like my pic, either the pic or the doll that is on it... so a plase we could inspiere and guide even more, would be great. The category macro could use in some discussions, but not in all.
       
      #9 Prege, Oct 2, 2013
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    10. I would definitely be interested in a doll photography forum. Photography is one of my favorite aspects of the hobby. I would love to have the opportunity to have discussions with other doll photographers. It would be a great way to share ideas and improve our photography skills. It would be nice to have sections for both the technical side and artistic side of doll photography.
       
      #10 punkturtle, Oct 2, 2013
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    11. OK. There seems to be some interest here and there has been some interest amongst my action figure people, so I will start to think seriously about this.

      Any ideas about what sort of things you would like to see? My first thought would be sections on equipment, editing, lighting, general tutorials, critiques perhaps. I would urge against segration of the different types of toys. They are all toys. Any other ideas for what you would like to see?

      I have a mild concern about how the very different types of people from the various toy hobbies might mix. I hope it isn't a recipe for distaster.
       
      #11 MadamMauMau, Oct 2, 2013
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    12. Sounds like a great idea though...
       
      #12 Mich, Oct 2, 2013
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    13. I'm also against a segration, but maybe you should make it possible to use little post icons (like here in the Photo Reference area, just with "Dolls"/"Figures"/"Kits")?
      While they are all toys they all make different things possible, like you can't really pose a kit since it lacks joints, and knowing what you are looking at makes it easier for you to understand how the photographer worked/what kind of problems he might has to face etc. and makes it easier for you to write a proper comment.
      That way you could also avoid it that people just post in one area/avoid looking into other areas.

      True, true.
      But I guess if we make sure that people understand that this is mostly a place to share photos, talking about techniques and ways to achieve certain looks etc. and less a place to discuss rarity of your collection, feelings/characters of your plastic toys and how toy x is better than toy y it should be possible to keep the drama to a minimum?
      While the overall topic is "Toy Photography" the emphasis is here on photography.
      We have all our places to discuss our hobbies and the toys itself, but we don't have one to discuss strictly about the picture taking part of them.
      People should understand that right away to avoid confusion.

      I second your ideas.
      I also think that as soon as the forum is up you can still ask people what kind of other forum categories they might would like to see and then let people vote (or decide on your own) which of them should be added.
       
      #13 Ara, Oct 2, 2013
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    14. Thanks for that very useful input, Ara. Yes, I like the idea of the icons, which would be optional as I am not sure an icon could be found for every toy photo situation (look at the work of Brian McCarty and try and categorise that!). But, yes, it would certainly help.

      As for the mix of hobbyists, I was thinking more that the styles of communication that might cause a problem. I have to watch what I say on BJD fora, for example, as the culture is that criticism and outright disagreement are undesirable and people can be quite offended if one doesn't choose one's words very carefully. On the action figure fora, however, it is possible to dish it out and get it dished back again quite amicably. I am just wondering how those different styles might mix. I guess there is only one way to find out. The forum would certainly be pointless if the only feedback people sought or gave was "Oh! That's lovely!"

      As for limiting content, I don't have a problem if people want a chat section. People who have similar interests in one area are likely to have some similar interests in other areas. I have found some great stuff from the chat sections on other fora. I really can't see it being a problem. If people only want to talk about the photography, they just don't need to look anywhere else.

      Thanks again for your thoughts. I will see if I can get onto this at the weekend.
       
      #14 MadamMauMau, Oct 3, 2013
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    15. I would also love something like this as I am very new to photography, and would love somewhere to learn more about doll photography
       
      #15 Bridget McCall, Oct 3, 2013
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    16. I would like this very much too. From basics really as I found there to be no particular guidelines on anything much for doll photography and also other models that I make. I try and take a decent picture and just crop it afterwards, but a bit on editing would be nice - I see pictures with sparklies in them or coloured wisps of smoke and I think - I'd like to try that, but when I fiddle around in photoshop - my eyes cross and I give up as I can't find the right bit.
       
      #16 ceejay, Oct 3, 2013
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    17. LOL ceejay. There are heaps of Photoshop tuts around. The trouble sometimes is identifying which search terms to use to find the one you want (you would use a custom brush for both of those, btw. Lots of free ones on DeviantArt). It can take considerable patience and dedication to track down what you need.

      I am currently looking at other photog fora and drawing up a plan for this one. Any ideas for necessary sections warmly welcomed.
       
      #17 MadamMauMau, Oct 3, 2013
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    18. Oooh, I get what you mean.
      I think the way many doll collectors behave comes due people putting so much emotions in their characters/dolls/this whole process of "bonding", it's easier to get hurt by...well, everything then and thus many forums try to keep that down as much as possible so nobody "gets hurt".
      This doesn't mean though that everyone is like that, it's just a "better safe than sorry" mentality for the sake to keep the drama to a minimum and because we know how sensitive people can be, but I'm sure a good bunch of BJD collectors can actually handle critic as long as it's not "Oh my these dolls are super fucking ugly, why do you spent so much money on them and don't collect X instead?".

      Anyway, still very interested about this and I see a lot of potential for it.
       
      #18 Ara, Oct 3, 2013
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    19. That sounds as if it could be really useful and interesting - I've been trying to improve my doll photography for a while now and found this part of the site v helpful - a dedicated forum with a wider breadth of dolls would be great! In terms of site areas / sections - one of the photo threads I've really enjoyed here has been the 'picture challenge' thread Keladry started - with a particular theme/s for each week to take and post a photo of (and ideally, with lots of people participating, to see how other people approached the same concept)... I've also really liked the 'behind the scenes' and pre- and post- edit glimpses that give you a better idea of how the final image came about... The comment culture differences sound interesting to say the least! :)
       
      #19 shrinkomatic, Oct 9, 2013
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    20. A Games section! What a great idea. Put some fun into it. Then people can start threads like the photo challenge or association game, which people can join in with if they like. Fabulous idea. Thanks for that.

      The rest of that would go into the lighting/post processing/etc sections, I would think.
       
      #20 MadamMauMau, Oct 9, 2013
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    21. Wow, I'd love that too! Photography is what I like most about this hobby, and have always been dreaming about a forum of that kind. By clicking there I kinda hoped that there would be a link to a place like this... I'll bookmark that thread to watch for updates!
       
      #21 shlimbo, Oct 21, 2013
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    22. In progress...
       
      #22 MadamMauMau, Oct 21, 2013
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    23. I'm a beginner and I'd love to improve my photography, but I have trouble knowing where to start and what to do ^_^;; When I look up photography, it's either so unrelated to photographing dolls, or it's just technical talk and explanations of camera features (it's boring and confusing, so I give up quickly). I've read a few explanations of what ISO and Aperture, etc are, but I don't know what to do with them to take nice doll photos. I'd love to see some simple tutorials, like -- do these things to get a photo like this. That way I can learn what settings and lighting give what effects and eventually apply it to new ideas.

      I found a couple tutorials on figure photography, but I couldn't apply it to my dolls because they are just too big!
       
      #23 Yukamina, Nov 9, 2013
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    24. Well, that is just the sort of stuff that would be coevered, so hopefully it will be of use. Still sorting out, but I will keep this thread updated. Trying to do too many things at the same time, as usual.
       
      #24 MadamMauMau, Nov 9, 2013
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    25. Thank you for your update!

      Yukamina- don't worry, at first it may seem very confusing, but you'll get used to it. In the meantime, you can look for tutorials that are not specific about doll photography but will help you understand the semi/manual modes, there are a bunch of videos on youtube too -I learned the basics on my powershot G11 with a video. Photographing dolls is not that different from photographing people -I'd say the only difference is that it's smaller.
      Best way to figure this all out would be to take your doll, one or two light sources (I like to use simple desk lamps) or even natural light, switch to manual mode and experiment with the different settings -see what happens when you increase aperture, lower the iso, tamper with the shutter speed... See how it affects your pictures and how you could use that to make your pics better. For example, a low f/ number (like f/1.8) will make your background more blurry (there will be less depth of field)...

      I'm sorry for going a bit out of topic, and I'm not exactly sure this will help. Anyway, if you need additional help, you can PM me (I do not come here very often, but you'll get your answer sooner or later if you are not afraid of my poor english skills).

      Anyway, I'm glad to hear news of that project, and will be glad to contribute if needed when it's all set. :)
       
      #25 shlimbo, Nov 10, 2013
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    26. Thanks for that, shlimbo. THat is a very useful contribution.

      I know the technical aspect of photography can be daunting. However, when you can see what effect each change has on a picture, it makes more sense and, eventually, it becomes intuitive. You no longer need to think about what changing ISO, aperture and shutter speed do. You just know from experience. I know that my areas of strength are in concept and composition and my areas of weakness are some of the details of technique (only just found out that the closer you are to your subject, the narrower the depth of field, hence why I had been producing blurry pictures of my small dolls. Doh!) and equipment. But I am determined and I continue to teach myself and continue to improve technically. This is part of the pleasure of photography. You can be doing it for years and still find ways to improve. Or perhaps that is just me being a slow learner. XD

      Right, we have a forum, but I want to get some content in it early, so am returning to the crib sheets that I made for myself as I was learning and turning them into tutorials, which is acting as a very useful revision process as I am adding to them, based on what I have learned since. Once I have a few of those, I will link you all to the forum, and off we go!
       
      #26 MadamMauMau, Nov 10, 2013
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    27. Well, you seem to be the opposite of myself xD I've learned quite a lot of technique, but always feel like composition is a big mystery to me -I always do this instinctively, and I'm really not sure if I'm doing it right or not, lol.

      I don't think you are a slow learner. That's one big reason I love photography: you ALWAYS learn things. Even pros I've talked to tell me that after years of practicing, they still learn new techniques!

      By the way, it's great to know the forum is born! x) I can't wait now, I'm so impatient! Thanks a lot for your work ^-^
       
      #27 shlimbo, Nov 19, 2013
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    28. No problem. I am actually working on my notes for composition at the moment, so that might be one of the first ones to appear on the forum. I just have a very busy month workwise, so trying to find time to do it all in is my current (and constant) issue, but it will be there. Yes it will.
       
      #28 MadamMauMau, Nov 19, 2013
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    29. Composition, my biggest problem. I always feel my pictures lack something.

      As such I would also be very interested in this forum.
       
      #29 Cloudedmind, Dec 4, 2013
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    30. OK. The forum has just this minute gone live. It is rattling around with emptiness at the moment, but that is where all of you come in. Join up, ask questions, post solutions, do whatever you want with it. I have heaps of content to add, but getting my head around setting it up is enough for one Sunday afternoon.

      http://thecaptivesubject.forumotion.co.uk/
       
      #30 MadamMauMau, Dec 15, 2013
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    31. Thank you, Mau Mau. I browsed your new forum and already learned a bunch in just one hour this morning. Very helpful, as always!
       
      #31 T4124, Jan 26, 2014
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    32. You are welcome. I have also learned so much from being on there. I hope you signed up!
       
      #32 MadamMauMau, Jan 29, 2014
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    33. I did, except I'm a bit afraid of posting my pics seeing as you're all so much more skilled than me >_<
       
      #33 shlimbo, Mar 14, 2014
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