Lighting Photographing white-skinned dolls

I took these pictures in complete darkness with my samsung XD Love how the white skin turned kinda blueish!

Imgur

 

Shooting with white skin dolls on a sunny day is really not the easiest! I tend to overexpose my photos all the time, even with tan dolls xD

The problem with overexposed photos (if shot in JPG) is the loss of data that can hardly be restored with filters, since JPG or png formats compress the informations. ^^;

If you are interested in photoshop editing, you could try out adjusting your camera to shoot in RAW format ^^ this one is a bit larger space-wise, but it doesn't compress and allows you a broad set of post-editing possibilities! It's easy to fix overexposure and tweak the colours using the camera RAW plugin in photoshop.

You can also switch to manual mode and play with the ISO, shutter speed and aperture. Maybe this can help you a little? How to Easily Fix an Overexposed Photo (Ultimate Guide)

 

I find that the best lighting is indirect sunlight, usually just after the sun is passing its highest point at noon! It's really amazing what a difference lighting can make (even with the same dolls and same camera, sometimes the doll's skin looks like it's glowing at the right exposure level). Hope you have fun tweaking with your DSLR settings!!

 

I actually have the same difficulties with my pale-skinned dolls. (If it's an environmental resin pale, even more difficult.) ^_^ I second what others have said about indirect sunlight -- afternoon sun with light to moderate cloud cover are among the best settings I've encountered. The light becomes naturally diffused without the need for any equipment, which is awesome.


Dad and Eldest 01 by Yela Gatchalian-David, on Flickr

 

You need to learn to use your exposure offset.
Either that or go to full manual exposure but I'm presuming you want to
stay in auto. In auto exposure you can still use exposure offset.
See my tutorial here.

http://www.photosbytom.net/PDF/Exposure.pdf

Feel free to message me if you find this confusing.

 

Thank you for this tutorial! I have a hard time with photography and I'm rarely on speaking terms with my camera. Most tutorials either try to teach everything at once, or are useless without additional knowlege, or use too much specific terminology without explaining it, but this one is perfect.

 

Just to add on to what others have said it also helps if you understand metering and when to use which one when shooting, Understanding Metering and Metering Modes. I'll often use spot metering for photos of my white resin dolls, and have the camera metered/focused on their resin.

Shooting in the shade or using an item to diffuse the light if shooting in direct sunlight.

Shoot in RAW and investing in a good photo editing software like Photoshop as someone mentioned or Lightroom, which is what I use. Sometimes I'll even under expose my pictures a bit because I know I can lightening them back up in Lightroom.

 

I do a lot of on the fly snapshots rather than studio set up photography. I'm tracking a story in my head and trying to translate it to images as fast as the kids are talking to me. And the stories are taking place in the real world, outside or in, and when the kids start talking, so there's not a lot of controlled lighting, and the sun is what it is. I've found that with beauty white Pookii, and even natural skin Wiishu, it's easiest to do as Cloudedmind suggested and underexpose, then use something as simple as fill light in the processing. I use Paint Shop Pro, which is a very powerful photo processor for under $60 once the "new" wears off the current version and a lot less for the older versions. And you flat out own it. If you use, as Tom B suggests, the offset, it helps "fool" the camera into under exposing on the auto settings.