davidd's A Doll A Day 2019

[davidd]

Hmmm.
I like the EOS colour balance best on the first set, but can see it's a bit soft.  What f-stop are you using?
I almost always use manual focus on the dolls....

Thank you for sharing that article excerpt. I like the idea of using an angled wall o' text as a focus test! I think I shall try that. (Perhaps I shall use a page from an encyclopædia; because, yes, I, too, still own a set!)

I purchased a very detailed after-market book on using the Canon EOS 80D. The camera offers a focus compensation setting if the lens has an issue with back-focus or front-focus, but I have not yet read that chapter. The camera is supposedly "smart enough" to learn each lens it is paired with and to automatically compensate. It will also compensate for barrel distortion at wide angles. Again, I have not read that chapter, either.

Part of the issue is that I have become accustomed to using one particular point-n-shoot camera almost exclusively for the past three or four years. I've forgotten everything I knew about shooting with a DSLR, and I have not yet mastered the quirks of the other small cameras I have at my disposal.

Speaking of "disposal," the new Lumix TS30 is on its way back to Amazon. And... I found a pre-owned TS5, like the one I dropped and broke, on a used camera site online that is graded "Excellent Plus" condition and was available for the same price as the camera I'm returning. So that one is on the way.

Also on the way is an extension tube (again, pre-owned but excellent) that will allow the lenses I have for the Canon EOS to focus closer. The not-quite-sharp Pinky photo was taken with a 50mm lens (at f/2.0 I believe). But the 50mm will only focus to 12 inches, so extreme close-up shots of tiny figures like Pinkys are not an option. The extension tube should address the focus issue, although at the cost of a couple of stops. The "Thrifty Fifty" is one of Canon's most highly regarded lenses for its combination of low price and high performance, so it should produce good images. As you say, the color rendition is nice, as is the handling of the gradation of tonal values.

Camera shake was definitely an issue. Looking back through the EXIF data, the fastest ex-posure time was 1/30 on most of the photos with most of the cameras, and I was shooting hand-held. I know perfectly well that it is next to impossible to hold a camera steady at ex-posures longer than 1/30, and it is even more difficult to avoid motion blur when working with small subjects at short distances. So my own laziness and impatience was a contributing factor to the poor photos.

After the photo-shoot, I was eventually able, through a combination of reading and random button-pushing, to set the Canon EOS to single-point focus, which is what I am accustomed to using when shooting toys and dolls. I like to select my own focus point (eyes, on figures that have eyes, usually), and I know enough about the effect of f-stop on depth of field to work from there. Multi-point focus is fine for landscapes or active subjects, but it doesn't lend itself to doll and toy photography.

I should try this eksperiment again in decent light while using a tripod. Well, except for the TS30; that thing was junk and it's on its way back to Amazon and I'm glad to see it go.

Thank you for taking the time to look at the photos, think about the concerns I raised, and offer suggestions. Now I'm feeling kind of excited about trying the focus point exercise and running another camera comparison test.

(Today's Carly pic was snapped with an iPad, which doesn't have a very good camera - it's not as good as the one in the iPhone - but it offers lots of filter apps. When all else fails, layer on the filters with a trowel!)