Requesting photography sets, please?

I use Foam board in different colors and styles. Some times matte board or fabric for my piccies. I also use presentation boards and you can create your own backgrounds from paper and collage. The presentation boards stay stable and doesn't fall over when you are photographing.

 

These are all good ideas, especially the card one!!

 

I use the REALLY big peices of matt-board, like what you put around a picture. I have plans for using fabric and such, i just haven't gotten around to that.

 

I iron bedsheets (pillowcases for small dolls) and tape or pin them up at a ~45º slope.
Fabulous picture~

 

I used black velvet tossed over a trifold foamboard for these. It's easy to fold up and push out of the way so it doesn't take up much space and there's minimal fuss. (Ignoring the time to remove rogue cat hairs since my cats like to use my fabric as places to sleep.)

 

But, I tried to make that some times, my experience isn't good, maybe you know how to do it to have the dolls and all the complements ,furniture etc in his way ,every time I try all ends lied in the ground.

 

OMG!!!!! so cute!!! you are so creative!

 

WOOT!!!!!! Great tips here!! I love it, thank you all!

 

Sheets are usually the easiest backdrop (I even used them for my school photography courses where I was shooting actual models)... I have a tendency to stockpile different colors at home from thrift stores, you can get them super cheap there. Just tape them to a wall or attach the top using thumbtacks and you're good to go.
Another good option is curtains... I can't find the pictures now, but I did a photo-shoot using my floor-length curtains and a black pillowcase and the pics turned out great.

 

Excellent ideas, can't wait to try some of these out

 

that is a very good idea. i have a hard time with reflections and clutter getting in the picture. thanks

 

Great tips, thanks! XD

 

awesome tips thank you so much

 

Leftover wrapping paper is good too!

 

I use fabric...some are better than others....we also use the brick of our fire place...but now I have tons of new ideas!!!

Thanks!

 

Just popping in to say how helpful this thread has been...I bought some fabric today to use as backdrops so I'm going to play around with it and see what happens. Thanks everyone, for the great tips!

 

I've used good ol' printer paper for a back drop for my puki. Turned out rather well

 

What great ideas and Fabulous tips , I need to get a Desk lamp , do you just use the normal light or a special one ?

 

I've thought of doing that with my smaller dolls too. I also have some card stock paper that I'm going to try.

My place is small and there isn't much room for an area to set up for photos so I have to use what space I have. I don't really like all the clutter of daily living showing up in the photos so I thought that backdrops would be a good way to cover all of that up.

I also want to try to take some outdoor shots once the weather improves.

 

Perhaps you could take a photograph in front of some curtains? That's what I presumed everyone else was doing. It might look nice, if not very plain, if you have pretty curtains. I'm lucky, my house is full of pretty curtains.

 

Thanks for the idea, Morgue. I don't have any curtains to speak of in my place but my parents do at their house so I may take some of my dollies there the next time I visit.

 

Posted once before, but just replying to let everyone know how well these ideas work in small places...
I live in a single room dorm right now and have used the fabric/sheets methods to do photohoots in the 2 ft of space between my desk and door. The shots looked gorgeous and you couldn't even see the industrial-grade carpeting on the floor underneath '>.<

 

I pick up odds and ends in the discount bin at my local craft shop. It might be satin or fur or cloth... but the effect is the same. I prefer fur and satin (or shiny stuff) myself, but I like "textures". You can even use a bath towel or your own bedding to achieve a particular look using various colors and textures.

My pictures are nowhere as good as the others here but here are my "secrets".

Here is a piece of fur draped over my cats' scratching post:

Here is a piece of satiny material held up over my television stand with a cat ornament:

Here is a mixture of textures, cloth (tacked to the wall) and fur (laid on the ground):

 

I've shot most of mine with a standard desk lamp... or in one case, a flashlight taped to a chair. If you want to change the shade/temperature of the lights, just get a scarf made from non-flammable fabric and drape it over the light - just don't forget to remove it after you're done

 

Getting a nice matte (nothing shiny, that'll reflect light and draw attention to the background) black fabric or finding a white flat paint wall is what I do for those sort of photos. I have a lamp I got from Joann Fabrics that's one of those fancy daylight lamps. I'm still learning how to set up the light where it needs to be but it works extremely well, have a lamp that can be moved and aimed in many directions is a HUGE help. Regular lamps have a tendency to make everything yellowish. If you don't want to get a daylight lamp, then those High Watt light bulds that say real light or white light or whatever work really well too, a normal everyday light bulb is what will give you the yellow wash.

A very good thing to keep in mind though is that there needs to be a certain amount of light to get good photos. If you want a dark shadowey photo the best way to get that effect is take the photo in a bit higher light setting and then edit it, that way no detail is lost.

 

I use a general lamp with a general bulb, rather than a daylight one. If you set the white-balance by the light, the pictures come out fine.

I use a roll of wrapping paper as a continuous white background the same way professional photographers have backgrounds on a roll and use that as a continuous background. I hang it up from a good height (radiators are a great height for MSD-size dolls and shorter SDs, just make sure the radiator is off!) and then pull the roll to whatever length I want.

 

I hadn't even considered wrapping paper as an option~thanks for the tip!

 

wrapping paper is really nifty,
but you can also use scrapbooking paper taped together
they come in lots of colors and prints and are sold at almost any craft store for about 50 cents to a dollar per sheet
depending on the paper~



and this one was taken against a curtain
​

 

I use a tri-fold science board with fabric draped over it and a desk lamp. It's pretty simple and when your done you put the lamp back on the desk, and fold up the fabric and board to shove in the closet.

 

I've actually had really good luck with my washing machine! My kitchen gets a lot of great natural light and since my washing machine is in the kitchen, I was able to use the top lid to hold a spare curtain I had, and propped a doll in front of it! The results were astounding!




And here's a photo just against the washing machine itself, no flash used.



(Photos were taken with a crappy Kodak Easyshare camera, levels and colors edited in Photoshop.)

 

I have just put my guys in front of blank walls in my house (golden yellow in most of the house, orange in the bathroom). When I use a DIY craft foam flash diffuser in a dark room I get a black background with no backdrop at all (though I sometimes touch it with the burn tool in Photoshop just to make sure). I have been thinking of getting some fabrics and colored sheets to use also.

 

How do you guys deal with wrinkly/creased fabrics when using sheets, or taping together wrapping paper etc where the joins show?

 

My answer for both your questions is ... pull your subject farther away from the background however this does not work for all cameras.

If your lens or camera can not create a bokeh either Iron or drape the fabric better and carefully match the patterns/edges of the paper with double sided tape.

 

I found a light tent on schmeeBay a few years ago; photographers use them for small object photography, and the one I bought came with red, blue, black and white backdrops (that must be ironed, oh well!). Mine is a 36" cube, and it collapses into a steering-wheel-sized disk for storage. I watched an auction and I think I got it for about $20, but I couldn't swear to the cost. I find it a lot easier to control the light with the tent.

 

I'm not entirely sure if this is the right place to ask (please feel free to move it if it isn't), but I would really love to see the sets you've made for taking photographs of your BJDs~ I was scouring the boards, and it's a little bit difficult to find sets that people have made. If you can, please indicate what the scale was and what sort of set it is. (As in, take-down, diorama, case, etc. etc.) Thanks for sharing~ (If you do ;D )

Love you all~

 

People say they use cardboard for backdrops... But I just can't find anything that's large enough to take a picture of a full 60cm+ doll :/ Tinies or even minis are a different story.

 

If I ever set up a background, it's a fairly simple one, solid color and apparently often only for my black and white shots. 8); More often than not I use natural light too, I just prefer it.


Here's a shot using a white poster board in the background that I just got from an art store. Just natural light in this shot. This shot here, I use a lamp that's more overhead, same poster board. 8)b


This shot uses a curtain and natural light as the back light. More examples here and here.

Before I had the poster board, while there are more artistic reasoning that could be used for this method, I just tacked up a lot of printer paper. 8D; Worked just as well. Depending on the aperture, the paper would also blend into one solid white. Again, natural light used here.