After many hours of hard work, it's a joy to sit back and enjoy your creation and to share it with others. Whether your doll is for a buyer, swap, a contest or just for yourself, it's important that your photographs adequately reflect her beauty. Even the most beautiful doll can look very shabby in poor photographs, and a simple doll can be made to look exceptional with the right photograph. Many of us do not have the time or money to have all our dolls professionally photographed. This article is intended to teach the basics of photography and to provide suggestions to help you take your own fabulous doll portraits.

CHOOSING A CAMERA

In general, most people tend to use 35mm cameras (either a standard 35mm camera or an automatic focus point-and-shoot type), or digital cameras. For my own photographs, I use the plainest 35mm camera with completely manual focus and aperture and light adjustments. Point and shoot cameras usually do not allow you to control your point of focus, nor to control the lighting. I have found it difficult to take close-ups with this kind of camera, and have also found that the flash tends to wash out facial features and some colors. However, many nicer 35mm cameras do have manual settings as well as the ability to add on special lenses.

CHOOSING A FILM

In general, the faster the film, the grainier the emulsion on the film itself. 100 film gives wonderful detail, but requires a lot of light because it does not expose as quickly. 800 film is very fast, but is quite grainy and gives a poor quality photograph. If you have a lot of light, 200 film is ideal. For most home photography purposes, 400 film is the best, as it is the most versatile.

PHOTOGRAPHY 101

First let me introduce you to the basics of a camera. As you know, light (your image) travels through a hole called the aperture, through the lens and onto the film.

Other than focus, you can also control the size of the aperture as well as the shutter speed, which is how long the aperture stays open to allow light through. When more light hits the film, you get a brighter picture. So, you can either make your aperture bigger or your shutter speed longer to let in more light. Likewise, less light gives you a darker picture. Most cameras contain a built-in light meter that lets you know you're in good range for proper exposure.

Let's get started. Look at the lens part of your camera. There are a lot of layers of numbers there! Look for the row of numbers that includes 22-16-11-8-5.6-4-2.82.

These are the aperture settings. Ok, this is confusing, but those numbers actually represent fractions so the SMALLER number means a BIGGER aperture, so 2.82 lets in the most light, and 22 the least. That number is called the F-stop. The other layers of numbers usually have to do with your range of focus. Don't worry about those, because when photographing dolls, you're always within a foot or two of the doll.

Now look for a set of numbers on your camera like 8-15-30-60-125-250. They are usually on a knob like this.

This is your shutter speed. The standard is 60, so that's a good place to start. If your light is very low, you may use a slower shutter speed (smaller number in this case), but you will need a tripod because any camera movement will make your picture fuzzy. If you are in the sun or at the beach, where it is extremely bright, you may need a faster shutter speed.

The other thing I need to mention is range of focus. Have you ever noticed, when you squint, or look through a pinhole in paper, that you can focus farther. That's because a smaller aperture gives you a longer range of focus. Likewise, the range of focus through a large aperture is very shallow.

This is important to keep in mind for two reasons. You can often photograph in fairly low light without a flash with an F-stop setting of 5.6 or less, but you need to be more precise with your focusing. A tripod can help here too. Also, if you have a lot of light and likewise a small aperture, your background will likely also be in focus. However, you can get an interesting fuzzy background if you keep your aperture wide (low F-stop number), and you may have to increase your shutter speed so you won't overexpose the film.

First, set your shutter speed at 60. Look through the viewer or wherever your light meter is, and turn the F-stop dial. You'll see the marker move in and out of the range. If you notice, you get the same effect by keeping your aperture the same and playing with the shutter speed. Whenever the marker is in the right range, you're ready to go.

There are three basic elements to a photograph that you need to keep in mind when taking your doll's picture.

1) subject

2) background

3) lighting

SUBJECT

Ok, this seems self explanatory, because your subject is your doll. But before you start clicking away, decide whether you want whole body shots, close-ups, or torso. Experiment with different poses before you begin. For instance, try taking a picture of your doll from behind, looking over her shoulder. If you are taking a close-up, make sure the camera will focus on an object that close (within 6 inches or so). Most point-and-shoot cameras will not, although many digital cameras will. With most cameras, your close-up will include the torso as well. If you want to get closer, you will need special lenses. Don't fret! There is no need to invest hundreds of dollars on an elaborate lens. For most cameras with removable lenses (Did you know your lens was removable?), you can purchase attachments called close-up filters, which are essentially just magnifying glasses for your camera. They usually come in a set of 3, for about $35.00. The typical set gives you +1, +2, and +4 degrees of magnification.

The attchments or filters simply screw on and can be used alone or combined for varying degrees of magnification. In fact, with all three at the same time, you can get as close as just one eye! Keep in mind that to magnify, these filters are convex pieces of glass, so no matter what your F-stop, they give you a very short range of focus. That means it may be more difficult to focus. But it also means you can get interesting effects, because other parts of your doll as well as the periphery of the photo will be out of focus.

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