Photography Tip

The infamous M said it best, “It’s the community that builds growth.”  Or, in this case, it’s M that gives me the scoop on how they’re getting these amazing, magazine-quality looking images:

I mean, just look at the lighting, the pose, the everything! These could be in a magazine spread and they’re using a home setup and a smartphone for pictures. How does M do it?! Turns out, I’ve had the raw materials all along, I just didn’t realize it. I'm done facepalming myself over it…at least until I finish writing this post.

I have an LED magnifying table lamp (I use mine for painting tabletop roleplaying miniatures), which is used for the lighting and a few pieces of foam board (because what hobbyist doesn’t have that kind of thing lying around?). Combining the two, I end up with this very home-made looking mess:

The last ingredient to our little project is dolls. Of those, I have plenty. So, so many dolls. Lie the doll flat, which is a lot easier than trying to get them to stand, pose them, and pose the hair - then simply take the picture from the side, and viola:

Part of me loves this, but another part of me absolutely hates that it was this easy, because it means I’ve been overlooking something incredibly obvious for way too long. Now, I can’t use this method, minus green-screen and way more photoshop prowess than I possess - for pictures taken in dioramas. That said, at the moment, the dioramas are being overhauled, tweaked, and moved – so I can’t use them anyway.

Thank you, M, for sharing with me and letting me share with our lovely readers.

Have fun, and good luck with your doll pictures!