Okay, I'm super busy sewing clothes for my Ryung - too busy to take much time for interesting doll photos - so I thought this might be the perfect time to start fitting in some simple doll photography tips.
It's warming up nicely outside, but there's still a lot of snow, including a huge pile in the middle of my patio. In winter I don't want to get down in the snow to photograph my dolls, so I prefer to pose them on something a bit higher - like on top of that big pile of snow. I'm aiming for a nice 'Feeding the Birds' photo this morning.
First Tip - watch the direction the light is coming from. The brightest light - which means the sun - should be behind you. If you shoot into the sun, or bright light, your dolls will be dark, little more than shadows against the bright background. Like this....
It's warming up nicely outside, but there's still a lot of snow, including a huge pile in the middle of my patio. In winter I don't want to get down in the snow to photograph my dolls, so I prefer to pose them on something a bit higher - like on top of that big pile of snow. I'm aiming for a nice 'Feeding the Birds' photo this morning.
First Tip - watch the direction the light is coming from. The brightest light - which means the sun - should be behind you. If you shoot into the sun, or bright light, your dolls will be dark, little more than shadows against the bright background. Like this....
Second Tip - make your dolls look like they are interacting with their environment. So often I see photos of dolls where they are just standing there looking straight at the camera. Someone will post a photo like the one above, and call it "Feeding the Birds", and they'll get all kinds of comments like "Wow, Great picture!". But it could be so much better.
Third Tip - take your photos at the doll's eye level, and not from above. That's how you make the dolls really look like they belong in their environment. I prefer to pose my dolls on something higher up so I don't have to get down too low. Which is why I posed them on top of a huge snow pile for these photos.
So often I see photos of dolls taken from above (standing higher than the dolls and shooting downwards) Like this.....
Third Tip - take your photos at the doll's eye level, and not from above. That's how you make the dolls really look like they belong in their environment. I prefer to pose my dolls on something higher up so I don't have to get down too low. Which is why I posed them on top of a huge snow pile for these photos.
So often I see photos of dolls taken from above (standing higher than the dolls and shooting downwards) Like this.....
Okay, I have the dolls interacting with their environment now, and the sun is behind me, but having taken the photo from above, they look like 'dolls'. The out-of-scale stone fireplace in the background also gives away that the girls are just tiny dolls.
Tip Four - Avoid background clutter that ruins the scale of the photo.
Tip Five - Get in close. But make sure you know how close you can get with your camera before your subject is out of focus.
So here's my final photo - taken in close with no out-of-scale background clutter (the edge of the fireplace can pass for a garden wall) taken in close at the doll's eye level, with the sun behind me, and with their heads turned and tilted so they are making 'eye contact' with what they are supposed to be looking at, which is the feeder and the birds...
Tip Four - Avoid background clutter that ruins the scale of the photo.
Tip Five - Get in close. But make sure you know how close you can get with your camera before your subject is out of focus.
So here's my final photo - taken in close with no out-of-scale background clutter (the edge of the fireplace can pass for a garden wall) taken in close at the doll's eye level, with the sun behind me, and with their heads turned and tilted so they are making 'eye contact' with what they are supposed to be looking at, which is the feeder and the birds...
Well, that's my lessons for today. Now back to my sewing.....
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