Photography backdrops for larger dolls

Over sized posters work well. I don't know what the selection would be for indoor scenes, but there are courtyard, cafe and street scenes that are interesting.

Just a thought!

 

You really have to worry about proportion to your dolls. It's hard to say without looking at the background in relation to your specific dolls. The American Girl stuff is sometimes more suited for Minis, but SOMETIMES it fits SD sized dolls. Really just depends.

And other posters, painting, whatever really you have to experiment. There is no hard fast rule unfortunately. Just remember that most of the SD dolls are 1/3 scale so everything needs to be in that size.

 

Here's a couple of room box tuorails to get you started
http://victorianwoodshop.com/box.html
http://cheridolloriginals.com/Tutorials/Frame-001.htm
Susan

 

I just use blankets pinned to the wall or draped some where... But having a set like would be nice for pictures.... thoses that are lucky enough to have enough space in thier rooms...

 

That's something Photoshop/Photoimpact and all those other image manipulation programs live for! If you have an appropriate picture, they have the layers to work it in with.

 

I have a "room" that I built for my dolls for taking photos with, here's a picture of it:



Those are SD13 boys (60cm tall) so as you can see it's quite large; 90cm tall, 140cm wide and 70cm deep. I don't have a lot of space normally, so the whole thing is built to fold up flat when not in use.

It was quite easy to build; the "walls" are three pieces of wood cut to size, and then there are two hinges on each end of the longest wall that join to the two shorter walls, allowing them to fold down flat against the long wall for storage. The floor is a thicker piece of timber, on which we glued and nailed small "lips" to hold the walls in place and stop them from moving. Basically it's just two thin pieces of wood nailed with enough space between them that the walls slot into it. These aren't necessary to put on, I just wanted them to be sure that the walls would hold perfectly still at all times.

The walls are wrapped with a grey fabric that I bought for the purpose, and taped to the back. The flooring is some carpet 'squares' that I bought while in Japan. (Unfortunately as you can see I don't quite have enough to fill the room, but it's close enough that it works for most photos!) And the furniture is just things you find over time.

I built the room together with my dad (he's the one with the spiffy tools, not me!) and it took roughly half a day. So if you can just set aside a day one weekend to build it, it really doesn't take that long. And I've found taking photos to be so much easier and satisfying since I built this setup.

 

I was more referring to using pre-existing backdrops as being tricky. It's always better to create your own environment. I have several environments, very similiar to ones already shown.

The original question about the American Girl backdrop and whether it would work: I think it was only 23" tall if I remember. A SD is roughly 22"-23" tall depending on the company, so it would barely be tall enough. Depending on where you stand the doll, you may or may not have the background in proportion to the doll. Does that make sense?

Maybe I'm missing the point of the original topic. Sorry!

Good luck with your decision! I would do as everyone else is suggestion though and make your own. Works so much better than buying something usually. That way you can create something that works for your own specific needs.

 

Re: American Girl Backdrop: Mercy is right, the 23" height sounds about right as the AG dolls are only 18" tall. The backdrops are made like a giant sized picture book and have a glossy surface. If you were using flash to take your pictures there may be some glare.

 

I don't think those AG backdrop would work very well. You also want to have enough clearance above the dolls when taking pics. Otherwise, you will have to be shooting at some weird and uncomfortable angles in order to avoid the top of the backdrop from showing in the pics.