Nervous about Standing dolls?

Do you have to stand them? If you are that nervous, why not have them seated? You can get all sorts of scaled miniature chairs off eBay, or just use a box.

If you HAVE to have them standing, you could use a stand, but then you would have to either put up with it in the shot, disguise it somehow with fabric (never really works) or Photoshop it out (also a bit dodgy).

For stability, make sure their elastic is thick and tight enough. Both help with standing. Also, having them standing on a smooth surface (ie not carpet, although shooting on the floor is not a bad idea) helps. Make sure you have adjusted all knee, hip and ankle joints so that they are as "locked" as they can be.

If all else fails, you could fake it. I have seen a few doll photos where the photographer has laid the dolls on the ground, on a plain backing, and shot them from directly above, to give the impression they are standing. Ingenious and works pretty well.

 

Laying down on the floor and tilting the camera up a bit could let you take a shot of your doll while they are on the floor. You could also swede the joints for added stability and possibility. Just restringing and tightening the elastic should add lots of stability. You could also go to a hobby store and buy a doll stand. Major doll companies also sell doll stands if you'd like to try there for a stand. Best advice: Restring your doll, then see if your dollie needs more support.

 

I am also fearful of my dolls face-ups hitting the floor during photoshoots^^; I generally stand them on the ground (carpet is good!) and lean them against the wall. Then I lay on the floor to photograph them lol When I do balance them standing unaided, I am always within 'catching' distance! If they are on a raised surface they are generally sitting or on a doll stand

 

Another good option is to have a friend be a "spotter" for the doll. They just keep an eye on the doll and are there to swoop in and catch them should the doll start to fall. This leaves you free to focus on taking photos.

 

On a solid surface, like a tabletop, I have my doll on one of those regular stands (not saddle stands), place the vertical support behind one of the legs, and place a small thin decorative carpet on the table over the base of the stand, with the doll's feet on top. You don't see the stand at all, and the doll is nice and sturdy.

 

When I'm in an especially nervous mood, I like the "Wall Lean"
Laria in leopard by bambidarling, on Flickr

 

Honestly I just stand mine up. I've had four of them at once standing on concrete outside all in a line before! I was within "lunging to catch" distance, and did have a spotter off to the side for that one as well. I've had a couple falls but only one had any faceup damage and that was from hitting a piece of doll furniture on the way down (and was easily fixed). I know which of my dolls are the best standers, and how to stand each to be stable, and for photos I'm almost always within arm's reach for the few minutes they are standing. Most of mine are sueded and a couple of them are wired, and I tend not to keep dolls that can't stand reliably. I find that many of mine, once they're balanced well, will stand for hours. Some won't, so for those I stay within arm's reach and/or make sure that what they might fall on is both close and unlikely to do damage... carpet, grass, cloth, a pillow in front of them just out of frame, something like that. Or else they sit.

If I'm doing a group shot I'll put the ones on the very back on stands or sitting on something, but the front ones stand up alone - if they fall forward I can catch them, if they fall backward the other dolls will prop them up. I just don't like having stands in photos. If I'm having a difficult time I'll usually resort to sitting the doll down or finding a way to prop him-her up invisibly if possible. It can look pretty cool to have a doll leaning casually against a wall, or have it's hand resting on a doll-size chair that it's standing beside, or something like that.

 

Whenever mine are standing I have to be right there, always prepared in case someone falls foreward/backward. I seem to have the most trouble with the smaller ones... you would think they would be the more solid standers!

 

Hm, it really depends on the photo I am trying to take. If I know certain parts of the body won't be in the shot then I don't mind having the doll sit or use a stand that won't be visible. But if I want to take a full body shot I usually just have the doll free stand.

I think it's really beneficial to just take a little time fiddling with the doll in question. Don't really set out to take a photo at that time, but maybe sit with it on a table and just see what kind of poses it will take.
Where will it balance? Can it lean on one leg? Can it stand on one foot? How do all the joints like to line up? Where do the feet like to be pointed?
Then when it is time to take the picture, you already have a good working idea of what the doll can do easily, and what you might need to cheat to get. Hehe.

Once the doll is set up how I like, I'll usually just tap it a few times on the shoulder to see if the pose is really set and balanced. If it keeps its balance, then I'll take my few steps back and take my photos. ^__^

 

Becca: Freestanding by abs plastic, on Flickr

I pose dolls freestanding all the time, and in 4 years I've only had one minor incident that left my Iplehouse Cherie with a small scrape on her back shoulder blade, and this was due to the completely unforeseen appearance of an unleashed dog nosing her over. There are a lot of things to consider, in order to get a doll standing stably with low risk:

1. The inherent stability of the doll in question, due to: design, stringing, sueding. Some BJD are better designed than others to hold a pose, some are artistically wonderful but designed by engineering-challenged individuals who know very little about the mechanics of elastic cord and leverage, and may need modifications to stand safely (true of my Dollstown girl certainly, and the Limhwa dolls I've owned). Dolls that are prone to popping into a specific pose need special care.

2. The footwear. This a huge factor; some kinds of shoes greatly increase a doll's ability to stand and to resist slipping, and some shoes do the exact opposite!

3. The "safety net". Mine is a $4 polyfil pillow from Walmart that compresses down to almost nothing, yet can be quickly deployed to the "drop zone" (where the doll may fall). Often, the white pillow doubles as a fill light reflector, bouncing light up from the ground and filling in shadows---bonus! It's important to understand where the doll could fall if the pose fails.

4. Hidden supports, wires and safety cords. Some poses are just too risky to freestand, and I will use sticks to prop up the doll, which I position to minimize visibility, and photoshop out whatever remains. Supports need not be rigid though, I also carry with me some 1mm elastic cord from the beading section of Michaels crafts. This is handy for binding the doll to various environmental supports that might be available, or for lashing them to tree limbs or wherever... easy to photoshop out. Clear cord can also be attached between the doll's head and neck, and then tethered to something higher up than the doll, so that if they start to fall, it catches them like a hangman's noose. The doll's face is generally what you want to protect at all costs, and not allowing them to fall face down is important. I use the 1mm elastic cord for this as well.

5. Moleskin! This is the self-adhesive stuff from the pharmacy that you might use if your shoe is giving you a blister. I have it in my doll bag, because it's great for temporarily sticking to parts of a doll where they might contact an abrasive surface, to both prevent the doll getting scraped and to add friction so the doll won't slide down whatever they're leaning against.

6. Wind. Wind generally messes up posing dolls outdoors by blowing them over and blowing their hair around. Normally, you can't stop it, so you just have to deal with it and know your limits that day.

 

Adam, I am always blown away by your shots on flickr, and wanted to say thanks for sharing some of your tips for taking great shots! I stand my girl all the time on all kinds of surfaces. Although I will admit that once I dropped my camera to save her! LOL

 

I am seconding the hot glue sueding for posing stability, and I also want to say that a pillow works great if you are nervous about falls. I just take one from my bed and place it in front of the doll (since I don't really care if he/she falls backwards on my carpet). Another thing I've done is put a blanket/sheet around the ankles of the doll to build up stability to avoid propping it against the wall

 

My Dollstown girl arrived with a set of crutches that her former owner had used to steady her while standing. I made them part of her character.

Fawn's first new skirt by ladymadrigal80, on Flickr

The right shoes help a lot, too, along with the right outfit. Fawn has a pair of leggings that are snug and sturdy enough to help stabilize her wobbly knee joints. I tried wiring her, but didn't like the effect - and it didn't seem to make her any less prone to toppling over. I did suede her, though.

 

Wow thank you for the pillow suggestion! I never thought of that!

 

You could try to make your own things for the doll to stand next to (sort of lean on) something, like, for an example, say you were doing like a circus photo shoot/photo story, you could make a cardboard sign or something and inconspicuously lean your doll against it for the picture.

 

The cord channeling on Dollstown bodies is atrociously bad. They have some great sculpts, but they just give the joints super wide channels with no engineering consideration for cord tension throughout the travel of the joint. Ideally, you want the cord to slacken ever so slightly at full extension of the knee and elbow joints, so that fully straightened limbs stay locked. And you want no change in cord tension between the very extremes, so that a doll with a bent knee can hold a pose by sueding friction, and does not "kick" to full extension or "pop" to full flexion.

When I got the Dollstown 18-yr body, the first thing I did was measure the cord tension (at the neck) as the knee went through its normal range of motion, and then used Apoxie putty to make corrections to the channeling so that the doll could stand, rather than what it wanted to do originally, which was crumple as the knees preferred to be flexed.




I had to make the same fix to the ankle pieces, so that the foot could extend (point the toe) and hold that pose without popping to the fully flexed (right angle) state all the time. Sueding alone would not fix it, not even close...

Freestanding:

 

don't worry about it!! dolls are hella sturdy. also, sometimes they have a stand mode. gently raise the chest and see if there is a notch on the back. if so click it in and it will stand perfectly! if you need any help about that just ask