Taking pictures of Tan dolls

Can be such a pain hey!

I try to cheat by not using fancy settings at all, just good ole' fashioned light. I pick the best room in the house that has very light walls and use the light coming from the window there.
Realskin in natural light


Granted that's not always an option now it's cloudy, this is when I discovered my second and most common choice.

My second choice is to use my 'doll lamp' (Just a regular desk lamp) bringing the lamp closer makes for warmer tones, the further the less 'hot' looking, just experiment with what you like.


'Doll lamp'


Closer for warmth



I remember having such problem with photoing my NS and Tan Lishe together, the NS would over expose during flash shots, and the tan would look dark and shadowed without it. The 'doll lamp' really helped with getting a good balance, moving it around taking shot after shot 'til I got what I wanted.

(Excuse these pictures, they are quite old and not too great but you'll get the idea.)



For me it's all about light and shade, and the position of it. I've managed some quite dramatic shots with that old lamp. It gives a nice depth, moving the lamp by hand really makes you feel part of creating the final shots.

There's nothing worse than shooting away only to find out later when the pictures are on the computer that the shots aren't quite as focused as you thought, it's quite disheartening. Just make sure everything is in focus and snap away. Should be fun!
Nothing like knowing you just nailed the shot you've been trying to take.
Keep it in front of the doll rather than behind as that will just create a silhouette and try not to get in your own light, that will cast a shadow of yourself over the doll.

Failing the desk lamp option you could always try adobe to manipulate the pictures lighter?

Hope that at least helped a little.

 

No problem!
I saw that video yesterday, it was kinda funny laughing along with it, so true! Hope you'll post some of your outdoor shots.

 

For photos, you can also use the adjustment filters in post processing software to lighten just the darkest tones in a picture. In mine, its called tone map, but there are other names. That can make the difference between seeing a tan dolls features or not in an otherwise light picture.

If you don't have extra light sources, you can also use a large piece of white cardboard or foamcore board to lighten shadows via bounced available light. Failing something white, plain cardboard can be covered with a large piece of crumpled/smoothed aluminum foil, or even gold foil wrapping.g paper for bouncing light. ( You crumpled it first to break up any harsh reflections from variations in a perfectly smooth sheet.)

You can practice moving a reflector around and noting where the reflected light hits before taking the actual pictures.

 

I have multiple tan dolls and the one thing I have learned is that dressing them in all-white will mess up your picture because the white tends to make the camera overexpose, especially when you're out in the sun. i did a photoshoot with both of my boys, one dressed in red, grey and black and the other dressed in white, the one in white I just couldn't get clearly focused, properly exposed pictures of. Of course that was with a simple point-and-shoot cam, my new one has a button to adjust the white balance, haven't tried that out in proper daylight yet though. It goes with other colors too btw, another of my dolls has a lot of red in his color scheme which is apparently so bright that my camera can't get it focused properly.

 

Great shoot Latefa

 

I have quite a few Iplehouse dolls, and all but one are real skin. I find the best photos are taken outside in natural light on an overcast day, or in the shade on a sunny day. To get their eyes to show in photos, I use a sheet of white foam-core to bounce the light into their faces.

Shot without white card...


And shot with white card bouncing light onto their faces....



I have lots more photos of my Iplehouse (and other dolls) here - http://www.antiquelilac.com/favourite-photos.html

 

For photographing tan dolls the most important things are:
- light
- correct white balance
- surroundings

Natural light makes it a lot easier than artifical light, especially when it's very warm light, since your tan tends to look TOO saturated then and everything around it is also way too orange.
The tan skin might appear too dark while the clothes are very light, and when the face for example is finally bright enough everything else is overexposed.

Here are my tips:
- For REALLY sunny days, use a reflector. Instead of letting the sun shine directly into the face, turn the doll with the back to the sun and bounce of the light with the reflector into its direction.
You get a soft light on your whole doll instead of hard sun and hard shadows.

Play a bit with your white balance, either change it manually or use, for bright daylight and an overall not too orange/not too blue look, the one for "Daylight".

If you are uncomfortable with the sun, go into a shadowy spot. Still use the reflector, it's really the easiest way for getting a soft overall light on something.
In shadow, change the white balance to something with more reddish tones in it, like the setting for "Cloudy" or "Shady", since you need to get out the colder blue tones.

- Inside, natural light is still your absolute friend. If you don't want to use a reflector, a white piece of paper is for portraits already enough. Again, instead of bright sunshine through a window, which is usually quite yellow itself, try to get colder light on your doll (sunlight + white paper = cold light) and fix it with your white balance till it looks like you want.

- For artificial light either use something that is quite cold itself, or use warm light for a saturated warm look. Again, instead of holding one lamp straight at the face try to soften it a bit.
Usually using at least two lamps makes it a lot easier, you get rid of too extreme lines (hard shadows vs hard light) and it makes it easier to get everything in light.

And in the end:
Photoshop or any other programme that lets you work with Curves or Color Balance.
If your doll looks too bluish, just reduce the amount of blue in the photo, afterwards take away a tiny bit green and you will get a wonderful reddish tan skin.
Same when it's too red, take away red and it will turn more of a yellowish/green tan.


I try to give you a few examples now.
That one here is to show you how important correct white balance is.
It's taken at my window with soft autumn sun shining in, no reflector used, no editing.
Camera is a Canon 5D Mark II with my 100mm 2.8L Macro lens, they all use the same stats.

(Only linked, since it's quite big):

http://i.imgur.com/o8GaI.jpg

Except for the Daylight one they are all quite off, the shadowy/cloudy are waaaay too orange, and artifical light is of course way too blue.
Daylight however gets the right warm light combined with the cold surroundings, also his skin color is close to the original one.
With a bit of Photoshop you get a perfect result as close as possible to reality:



In comparison, that is how the same settings look like with a reflector used (also white balance set to daylight):

http://i.imgur.com/pFf4R.jpg

Why was daylight not the correct white balance anymore?
Because the bounced off light was very cold compared to the direct sunlight.
You also get in this case a whole different feeling in the photo, I prefer the one without reflector in this case.

I must admit though that I'm usually quite lazy and just go down the Photoshop route. I take a setting that makes it easy to edit later instead of getting the perfect one right from the start.
I also don't aim to portrait their tan as close to real as possible, instead I go for something that fits the shooting and what I want to achieve with it.

For example my Dollshe Saint in pale tan, look how different he looks in the end on my photos:
http://i.imgur.com/48ibp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/AOCbW.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/oKewf.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ASTOe.jpg

And NONE of these show his real color XD

 

-Natural light, for sure! With your white-balance setting on Daylight/Cloudy/Natural. Especially if you are photographing Iplehouse Realskin/Brown resins. Iple resin has so many sub-tones in it, it photographs a different color in every light-source you try. Natural light makes it look most like skin.

-Fog/clouds/overcast are better than direct sunlight, giving richer tones & less washout. Tan dolls look more tan if the light is softer; in harsh light they can come out looking Normalskin. I don't like photographing tan resin outdoors on sunny days, anyway (UV exposure increases risk of discoloration).

-If you have a choice about time of day: Wait until late in the afternoon, pre-sunset, when the light gets golden. Or, if you're a morning person, get up at the equivalent post-sunrise Golden Hour AM. You get so much more warmth that way.

-Trick #1: To brighten the eyes post-production = If you're using Photoshop, dab the brightest part of the eye with the Dodge Tool brush. Adds a little more sparkle & a bright spot to show the color.

-Trick #2: If your camera is a dinky little point-and-shoot, like mine, I find it helps to include something white in the photo with a dark-skinned doll-- to give the camera some help detecting the white-balance. But if my photoshoot isn't supposed to have any white in it, I trick the camera by using the timer: I hold some white fabric/paper/etc. in the shot, then half-press the button until the camera makes a selection I like, then press the button, & then take the white fabric away while the timer ticks down. While the timer's ticking down, that's also when I grab the reflector (if needed) to bounce light into the eyes.

Example: Normally, a photo with this all-black-and-brown composition doesn't render quite enough light on Hassan's features (Lt. Brown Tedros)-- especially in the eyes. But I tricked the camera, and used a reflector, & it came out with almost the same lighting as I get when Hassan is wearing a white shirt.



By comparison, if he's wearing any white, life gets a lot easier - this one was done without tricks, & without even using a reflector on his face. (It was also taken about a half-hour later, at just the right Golden Hour of the evening, so his skin looks much warmer.)



Ironically, I find the biggest pain-in-the-ass is when there is a blonde doll in the shot with the tan one. Blonde dolls do not function the same way as a piece of white fabric. Either the blonde washes out, or the tan doll disappears into shadow. ;;^^ That takes some tinkering! Actually, it ALL takes some tinkering & practice. Take endless pics of your tan dolls for a few years, & you'll figure out what works for you. :>

 

Oh my gosh, this is so true.
I had the opposite of this problem when I cosplayed as the same character with my doll. I'm tan and she's white skin. It took forever to get the right balance.

 

Thanks so much for all the useful tips, Ara* and JennyNemesis!

Small question since I've never used the reflector technique before: where exactly do you put the white sheet? Under the doll's feet? In front of you opposite the doll, tilted up?

 

You can't really give the perfect answer for that, you simply need to try out.
You have to take in account the direction of the light and what you want to light up with the reflector.

When you use one you see the change by moving the reflector.
Just grab it and move it around your doll a bit while watching your doll's face :3

 

Yeah, it depends on your setup! The reflector goes wherever it'll be able to catch the light source. Then you move it around until it's bouncing the light into your doll the right way. (If you get too much reflected light in the doll's face, sometimes you get that horror-movie up-lighting effect, lighting the nostrils and making the eyes all scary. ^^)

I use a piece of cardboard covered in tinfoil, some people use a sheet of white foamcore board, some use a sheet-- I have a friend who uses the shiny lid from an aluminum saucepan-- anything that's bright-colored & easy to manipulate with 1 hand.

In the camera shops, you can get nice professional reflectors that come in either silver or gold... someday I want a gold one, to get some warmer light on those brown-skinned dolls. Maybe Santa will bring me one this year.

 

JennNem - gold is easy to make - it's almost the Xmas season - just grab some rolls of gold colored foil wrapping paper! Crinkle it up and then spread it out to minimize harsh reflections, tape to cardboard of choice, and there you go! (And the various shades of royal blue, green, and other foil colors is great for FX --

-------
-------
50mph winds, the creek behind the house is rising but the rain is light and so far no trees down and we still have power - my ice cream stash lives!

 

I know, you can use anything gold-and-shiny-- sequin fabric works too, if you don't mind your doll having a slight disco-ball effect-- but it's just someday I want one of those sexy little professional dealies of my very own! So I can stop using pieces of cardboard covered with things! They make 'em silver on one side & gold on the other, folds small for storage & then pops up like a puptent, I got the perfect one all picked out, just have to wait for Santa...

 

Jen — I'd recommend that you ask Santa, real nice-like, to get you a Lastolite "Tri-Flip 8:1" kit.

That one gives you a nice, big 75cm folding triangular diffusor screen with two reversible reflector sleeves. The sleeves turn the diffusor into a reflector in a range of hues from white, through two different shades of silver, to three different shades of gold. Plus one solid black, which is a lot more useful than it sounds. And it won't break Santas bank.

 

for the price, but for all those different lightings & textures...! Wowza, you could light up any-colored-resin doll, in any tone you wanted. I'd settle for 2, but now I can dream of 8. *frowns* I would have to start this whole year over again, in order to be a good enough cavegirl for Santa to bring me that... or else I'd have to be verrry nice to Santa indeed....

Actually that's just me being silly - you can get something professional for the cost of a pair of doll shoes or less. I just have to go shopping. ^^ I swear the internet has everything.
http://www.focalprice.com/DI085Y/60cm_2_in_1_Gold_Silver_Illuminator_Reflector_Gold.html

 

Well ... the Lastolite set costs $80-ish I think, and I've seen doll shoes plenty more expensive than that, so I have to agree...

But the focalprice.com prices do seem good ... very good! Come to think of it, a bit along the lines of "if it sounds too good to be true..."-type good... Have you bought anything from them before? 'Cuz if they're that cheap and there's no catch, I could see myself placing an order or two with them...

 

I usually play around with the white balance function on my point & shoot camera when taking pictures of my tan dolls. I've only taken pictures of them indoors during the day with light from a clerestory window that is nine or ten feet above so the light is a little on the blue side most of the time. But during sunset the light does tend to go warmer so I try to take this into account when taking photos.

In the photos below taken using natural light indoors, notice on the left how the resin looks "ashy" when using the "white balance/cloud" setting, but on right with the "white balance/sun" setting the resin looks the way it should look with all the rich tones present.



From my experience the resin looks better when there's less blue light falling on the resin so I try to play around with the white balance function by taking two or three versions of the photo, each from a different setting. Then I can pick the one that I like best. This saves me time because I won't have to fix the photo later on Photoshop. ^_^ (Doll: Iplehouse Tan Soo-Ri v.2)

 

To show her eyes to the best advantage you need to get in close.

To get the tone right you need to get the WB right. The very best
way to do this is to use RAW image capture on your camera and correct
the WB in post processing. Include a neutral gray card or even white
sheet of paper in one of the scenes and use that to establish the right
WB for all of your shots.

Avoid direct sunlight light the very plague. Not only is it damaging for the
resin but harsh light will drop those eyes into shadow. I do almost all of my
doll photography indoors with diffuse light from a north window.

Here are a few samples.

1 David, an Iplehouse Ryan in RS.




2 - Iplehouse Isar in lt brown skin



3 - An Iplehouse ebony skin with a Dollmore lt skin



Mostly it takes practice...

Tom

 

Wow! Your dollies look amazing! I hope you don't mind me asking which camera you use and if you use photoshop or a specific editor? Thank you!

 

thats why i never owned a tanned doll its dark and hard to photoshoot i sometime get confused when i see some tanned doll sharing to be more pinkish orangish dont know how to tell ... i think its all photoshop use photoshop and it really makes miracle it will help you bringing on their feathure ^^

 

I have 2 tanned minifee girls and i have found that complete natural light works great for me, anything other then that is a problem, maybe if you had studio lighting but i guess that would work out expensive lol i normally take mine out in the garden or find a spot in the house with loads of natural light coming in, i hope this helps in a small way