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Your input on doll photography is requested.

I have begun to plan a series of articles and would like to address the needs of collectors who photograph their dolls. It would be wonderful if you could take a little time to answer any or all of the following questions and send them to me via email. If you want you can answer them here as well. If you have anything else to add, feel free!
Thanks in advance.

-What areas of your doll photography would you like to improve?
-What aspects of your camera don’t you understand?
-What are your biggest challenges with doll photography?
-Do any of your photographic results displease you?
-Do you have questions about doll photography?

Image Source

More Swallow

 

These photos were taken in my studio with strobes and a DSLR. 

Sybarite Swallow Has Arrived

Swallow is a dream to photograph. These pictures were taken with a point and shoot camera and I don't know if I changed some setting but I haven't taken such good pictures of a doll with this particular camera, ever.
I shot four ways: in sunlight, in shade with flash, in shade without flash and indoors with flash. Three of the ways are represented in the images below. Can you tell which is which?

Swallow is dressed in Apple's outfit which is tight across the bust as you can see. I prefer the newest body type better than this as the newer body poses better and the legs are more secure feeling.

Swallow's original black fashion stained the dolls and I knew in advance that this gal was arriving with stains on her feet and legs mostly with a few across her lower back and a spot or two elsewhere. I spent about an hour with a Mr. Clean eraser pad on her legs and lightened the stains a good deal. I also learned that when sanding resin one should wear a dust mask. Duh.


Spoiler alert below...don't continue unless you are not planning to guess about the pictures.

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Answers to Question:
1. Shade with flash;
2. 3. & 4. Shade no flash;
5. Sun (Photoshopped;
6. Sun;
8. & 9. Indoors with incandescent lamp light and flash.

Of all these my favorite exposures resulted from the photos shot in the shade. It was bright shade as the sun was still shining. Pictures shot in full sun have a yellow cast as do pictures shot in incandescent (regular light bulbs) light. The camera flash on this point & shoot is not strong enough to overcome the yellow cast of house bulbs although the yellow is less than those shot in sunlight.
Is all of this color of light talk gobbledygook? It's important for accurate color rendition. It is also important if you are still using regular bulbs at home to light your images.

Next I will shoot her in my studio with strobes and my DSLR. I really should use the same camera first as I used today because most digital cameras read color differently. We shall see how ambitious I feel.

Winners of Challenge Two

The CCDC winners have been announced. Here they are in order: beginner, intermediate and professional.

Dmitry Puzanov

 

 

Dmitry was the winner in the beginner category and his work certainly deserved to win on that level as it was head and shoulders above the other beginner entries in terms of concept, execution and design. It was inspired by the game of Diablo and is a totally original concept. Click on the image below to go to his page.

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Elena Prokhorova

Elena was chosen as winner in the intermediate category. There was a lot of competition in this category. Elena's design was based on Assasin's Creed. Click on the image below to go to her page.

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Maria Ustynovska

Maria was the winner in the professional category and her work here is attractive, precise and very well executed. Personally I think it's a overly literal translation of the concept and design from the game Hitman. Click on the image below to go to Maria's page.

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The winner of the photography segment this time was Anj Calvo. I like the image.

Photography Winner - Anj Calvo

Anj Photoshops her images. She won the last photo challenge as well and it didn't exactly conform to the rules which I have copied below:

16. In the two extra pictures, designers are able to show their photographic skills. The use of props and appropriate backgrounds are encouraged in these two photos.

17. For all photos, photo manipulation is only to be used to resize, refocus, or adjust the brightness/dimness of your original photo. Do not crop in backgrounds nor paint in corrections. Also, do not form a collage of several pictures. It is acceptable to merge together pics of different looks of the same outfit. For example if a designer has designed an outfit with three different looks, it is acceptable for the designer to take pics of all the looks and merge them together into one photo (see example). Each picture needs to stand on its own, and give the judges an honest presentation of your outfit. Overly photoshopped pictures will not be accepted.

As I said previously, the contestants were not properly placed in categories this year.  I wonder if they themselves categorize their levels or if they are pre-judged by submitting images of work they've created. It's great that the contest is open to everyone but those competing at levels above beginner should be pre-screened. Perhaps there should only be two categories - new and experienced - or some variation of that.

It would also be useful if the judges remarks were more specific and 'educational.' It hurt me to read over and over that "There is the wonderful thing on the internet called GOOGLE!" That was a snotty and mean way to tell a contestant to do research. I'm not saying that only positive evaluations should be offered. Honest and fair evaluations with suggestions for improvement would be helpful and more valuable.

Message to Rob:
It's Philip Treacy not Phillip Tracey: you can find out the proper spelling of his name on Google.  :-)

Doll's House Museum

Since its opening in 1998, the Doll's House Museum on Barfüsserplatz in Basle, Switzerland, has attracted between 60,000 and 70,000 visitors a year. The museum changed its name March 1 to Toy Worlds Museum Basle, which more closely reflects its purpose. Each year, the museum stages two themed special exhibitions and a Christmas exhibition on the world of toys. The museum boasts more than 6,000 teddy bears, dolls, toy grocers' shops, dollhouses, and miniatures, and is home to the world's largest collection of teddy bears - more than 2,500.

Click on the image above to visit the website.