Lights and thoughts before that

When we do photo shoots we have some walls we use that are actually cardboard trifold presentation boards. Some have been transformed into various rooms and others are plain solid colors. We have floors that are already created as well. This allows us to have a nice background for a photo. 

]

Our barn set, the floor is made from scrapbook paper that looks like hay and we got scrapbook paper that was a wood floor cut it into boards and glued it all in, made fake windows by printing them out. 

It looks like I am in the an actual barn. 

These are not lit the best as it was raining that day. BOO but it allows you to get the scaled background idea. 

Other scale backgrounds we made for play and photography are a vet office...

School...

Wall with a mirror...

  And the new Confetti wall for mom's new shop Confetti Doll Designs.  All that confetti is glued individually on foam core. it fits inside the normal plain white tri fold.

You can find some great outside places that look scale for people as short as me as well... two of our favorite photos of me in real world are...

Old Train station, brick wall and sidewalk and 

 Walking the dogs with a creative focus. Because I am close and the buildings are so far away in the photo background it tricks your eye into thinking we are in scale. I am actually 1/3 scale. LOL

Now once you find a good background, you need to think about where the light is coming from when you shoot the photo. For example this is full sun in my face with the dogs. It can lead to harsh shadows so you have to be careful you are not in shadow in your photograph or it is something you can fully crop out later.  The sun is behind photographer.

Where I am against the brick wall that day was overcast. I had plenty of bright light but with a nice cloud cover to diffuse it so it eliminated the shadows.  That is the best light. I makes my eyes look bright and alive but no weird shadows on my face. The sun is behind the photographer and it was a different day and time. 

The two in the grey dress were shot inside the house and the light was coming from behind the photographer on her right. She is as far to the left as her body can be to not block her light source. 

The camera is held as level to me as possible, if at a slightly upward angle our eyes can look a bit odd so just slightly higher angle is best to make us look the most lifelike. 

So rules for a lifelike doll photo a recap:

1. Background scale 

2. Good light, Bright but not too harsh from behind photographer.

3. Angle of your photographer the sun and the camera.

Let me know if you would like in depth tutorials on background making. 

Saige