Freebie Friday - Happy Snaps

My hubby got a shiny new camera for Christmas (from a little elf called Moi) and has been happily snapping pics of oh, pretty much anything.  Like this:

And this:

And this:

And I think you'll agree that Himself is catching on fast.  And he even did a great job photographing my latest doll, the Soul Whisperer, but we felt that our back drops weren't the best and we struggled to get decent lighting.

   

There was a discussion on my online doll club Doll Street's distribution list regarding lighting for photographing dolls and a bunch of the Street's illustrious members came up with some great links to free tutorials.  I found them really helpful, so here they are in all their glory for your edification.  May they be your guiding light or should that be your guide to light?

This article gives some good basics for photographing art and craft pieces.  The focus of the article is taking pictures of gourds, but the tips apply equally to doll making.

If you need help to know what cameras to buy and how to get close-ups, try this article to start with.

Here's a great article that covers the basics from Mimi Winer.  However this does not seem to cover digital photography.

The secret of photographing doll's well seems to be a light tent.  No, you don't camp in it, but you place the doll in it so that it photographs well (I know, I was disappointed too, I thought there would be Smores). Here is a tutorial on how to make your own inexpensive light tent.  And here is another tutorial on how to make a light tent.

Not sure what to do with that light tent?  Here is a video about using a light tent to photograph small objects.  The video is obviously aimed at selling a certain brand of collapsible light tent, but it does give beginners a good idea of how a light tent is used.

Personally, I'm tempted to buy another brand of tent recommended by several Doll Street members, the EZ Cube.  It certainly isn't free, but it is collapsible and I certainly don't have room in my shoebox, I mean flat, to store a regular light tent.  I'll have to put it on my list of 'Gotta Have Its' and in the meantime I'm draping fabric over my kitchen counter to snap photos of my dolls.  Sigh...