Miss Edith's A Doll A Week 2018 I Hope

[Miss Edith]

hi

All the people who have been on this forum for many years know I don't take many/any photos of my large family. I have ALWAYS wanted to, at first lack of confidence in my shitty photography stopped me. Then with my health declining, my hands shake too much and I can't move around enough to do it some days.

Reading DeadlyNova & ddavid, I REALLY wanted to try. So I am. My photos will be inferior to everyone else who posts in here but at least some of my dolls, bears & others will get their faces on screen. I decided on one a week to start with. IF I manage to keep that up I might do more. In other words, this will be random and not very interesting but I hope you all won't mind me playing in the corner.

Today is January 3rd so that's a good start (it's in the 1st week ) & I chose my lovely part custom Lunatic Alice, whose name is Calliope. I brought her home in the outfit you see & it suits her so perfectly I can't bring myself to change her

psst - lookit the shoes

calliope by Mz Black Widow, on Flickr

[Alliecat]

Yay yay yay!!! I am so looking forward to seeing your gang! She's really cute in that hat, and I agree the whole outfit suits her perfectly. You have a cool background.
Have some confidence -- how do you know your photography will be bad? Maybe it isn't. Nuthin' much wrong with this one. And the more you do, the better it will get and the more confident you will be... and the most important part is to have fun with it anyway; we're not going for World Press Photo of the Year, here! Just have fun showing off your collection!
Re the shaky hands... do you have a tripod? You can get a mini one for fairly cheap at many shops or even eBay; it can help a lot to stabilize your shot. (Failing that, you could even just brace the camera on a solid box, a soup can, a block of wood...) Then just choose a fast shutter speed if your camera will let you adjust that.
I'm really glad you are going to post some pictures. I'll tell Scarlett she may finally get to see your crew

[DeadlyNova]

Aaah, this is so exciting! I've wanted to see photos of many of your dolls for a long time, so I really hope you stick with this and I'm very glad to have inspired you!!

Calliope is fab - I love her outfit and her whole look, and her hat!!! Aaah!!!

As for photos, practice makes perfect! I'm not at all confident in many of the photos I post, but for every photo I don't like there is another that I love. You're not going to hit the nail on the head every time.

The advice Alliecat gave was great, a tripod or steadying your camera should definitely help if you feel your hands are too shaky. This photo looks fine, though!

I'm so excited to see what you post!!

[Miss Edith]

Alliecat & DeadlyNova - thankyou so much my motivators

[davidd]

The middle of the first week of the New Year is the perfect time to start A Doll A Week project! And you're off to a great start with that fun picture!

As for shaking hands or shaking camera, that is an issue for anyone taking doll photos. When taking close-up photos of small objects like dolls, camera shake is much more evident in the photos than it is when snapping photos of full-size objects in the real world. Like Alliecat suggested, try bracing the camera or cameraphone against something... anything. I sometimes brace my hand that's holding the camera against a wall or the shelf on which the doll is sitting. I also usually snap ten or twenty photos and select the one that's the least blurry!

Also, if you're using a phone or tablet, you can always layer on the photo filters to turn a less-than-optimal photo into an 'artsy' photo. ;-)

I'm happy to see someone else joining in the fun!

[Cornflower Blue]

Calliope does indeed look great in that outfit. You may also find you'll improve as the weeks go by, so it's a very worthwhile exercise to give this challenge a go.

[Offgenemi]

Yay! I can’t wait to see your dolls! I know you have a wonderful collection ! First girl is adorable ! Keep them coming

[Miss Edith]

thankyou CB & Offgenemi - I hope I shall

[Lejays17]

Love her hat (and I did take particular notice of her shoes as requested )

Look forward to meeting more of your gang.

[GreysPrincess]

Ooh, she's gorgeous! I'm not the biggest fan of the glitter eyechip trend on my own dolls but she is definitely rocking it! Good luck!

[Miss Edith]

Suadade by Mz Black Widow, on Flickr

My week 2 doll is the stunning Kiki & Chrysanthamum commission, sad ghost girl Suadade I was trying settings on my new camera, this was slightly porcelainised. Sadly, most of the photos I took were unusable so I chose this one of her with her new friend Fluffy.

[davidd]

She looks appropriately ghostly! Love those lavender eyes!

[DeadlyNova]

I remember seeing the customizer's photos of this doll! She is so unique and beautiful!

[Miss Edith]

thankyou both.

DN, Diane (the 'Mum' half of the partnership) handmade every stitch of clothes. I sent them a pic of the general idea of what I wanted, Diane couldn't find the right fabric for the dress so she hand sewed every little purple flower on there, handmade the fingerless gloves :O & the shoes (Japanese flipflops ? ) The headband ribbons are a perfect match for the dress colours and the 2 little pearls hanging off it match the necklace ... I was stunned when I got her home. And the faceup - I wanted sad, they went so far past what I thought was possible. There's a few slightly clearer photos in my Flickr & I'm going to keep trying with this girl especially. I got upset in the end & gave up - and I just typed a novel

sorry

[davidd]

The wide photo with the bat-bear on Flickr is a much sharper image.

Taking doll photos against a black or very dark background is very challenging. I understand your frustration. It happens to me, too, like, all the time! The camera reads the overall light in the scene, so if the scene is dark, the camera tries to compensate with a longer eosure time. You might have noticed that the "click" sound the camera makes in dark scenes is slower than it is in bright scenes. This means the camera shutter is open longer, so any camera movement will cause the image to blur. In dark scenes, it is extra-important to hold the camera absolutely rock-steady.

I used to be able to hand-hold the camera in fairly dark scenes, but that no longer seems to be the case. I am discarding about 90% of my indoor shots if I try to hand-hold them these days. I either brace the camera or my hand against something... anything... to try to get a steadier shot. A few days ago I finally went to the effort of pulling my camera tripod out of storage. I'm hoping that it will help me get sharper photos.