Antique Lilac
  • Home
  • for Sale
  • Galleries
  • Favourite Photos
  • Tutorials
  • Blog
  • Links
  • Books

Creating a 'Stage'

9/30/2023

 
After finishing the Phantom, I needed to take photos of him. In the stage production he appears on a giant staircase in the middle of a New Year's Eve Masquerade ball, but that is beyond me, so I decided to recreate the same 'stage' set I used for the photos of Christine four years ago..
Picture
So I printed out some photos of it and we set to work. Jan hauled up the draperies we used last time, which I had originally found at Value Village. The French doors to the dining room were moved into position to support a beam for the drapes....
Picture
The long set of drapes were put up first...
Picture
Then the valance was pinned in place, using Rex's height as a guide....
Picture
The drapes were tied back, and a second fringed drape was pinned in behind, and plain black fabric was pinned behind that to fill in the hole. This is the back view from the hall.... 
Picture
 Now it just needed all the candle stands....
Picture
Picture
I would light all the candles, and then take the photos straight on, level with the doll's eyes. The photos were all taken in the morning or early afternoon before it got too bright out the dining room window. Then when the candles were lit, it created just the right dramatic lighting I needed....
Picture
I'd blow out all the candles after every photo session, change the doll's poses, light the candles again, and take more photos. The candles aren't very big, so burn down too fast, plus it's a lot safer to work with the dolls when the candles aren't lit. I spent two days taking photos, and by the last scene with Rex and Bianca, the candles had become a lot shorter....
Picture
The final shot of the two of them...
Picture
 The key thing to remember when photographing dolls is to always take the photos straight at their eye level. Doesn't matter how tall or tiny they are, if you want the dolls to look 'real', the photos should always be taken straight on at the doll's eye level.
Dorothy
9/30/2023 10:23:49 am

Yeaaa, behind the scenes! I didn't realize that the curtains were actual curtains. I thought that you had created them for the scene. They work perfectly.

I like how you have the dolls' boxes labeled in several places. Are the original boxes inside of these boxes? How did you find just the right size boxes?

Thanks for sharing these photos. It is always fun to see how you create your scenes.

Martha
9/30/2023 10:48:58 am

Yes, those are real, full size curtains.

The boxes under the table are the 'transport' boxes for when I take dolls out on location for photos. Everyone's original company boxes are stored in a walk-in closet in the basement. Those are important to keep, but useless for anything other than tightly fitting a naked doll, which totally defeats the purpose. So we made special cardboard boxes for transporting the doll, in all the sizes for my different dolls, and each one has a soft stuffed mattress in the bottom and a second smaller pillow to go on top of the doll and hold it in place.

So whenever I want to take some doll photos out on location, I just choose the appropriate size box and lay the doll with it's stand in it, and carry them into the car. Eight boxes will fit nicely in the upper storage compartments in our RV and I will change the labels before each trip, so it's easier to pull the right ones out of the overhead compartments. Right now they still have the labels from our last major trip back in 2019. I just keep some fo the most frequently used boxes under the dining room chairs for easy access. But with all the chairs removed for this set, the boxes are all visible.

Dorothy
9/30/2023 07:09:09 pm

Thanks for answering my questions. I like the idea of transport boxes.

I too have a gazillion doll boxes in my house. I keep them in case I want to sell a doll, which rarely happens. The boxes did come in handy when I moved recently. It was time consuming to load and unload the dolls but at least they were safe.

Svenja
9/30/2023 03:52:59 pm

Thanks for the insights. I like the behind the scenes documentary as much as the picture stories.


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Martha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes.
    Read More... 

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.