Blythe Photography Indoors

All through May and most of June, I've truly enjoyed photographing my Blythe girls outdoors (regardless of the horrible herds of blood sucking mosquitoes that have tried to eat me alive). The lighting out there is always good and my garden has provided nice locations for the girls to pose in. Creating beauty that would even begin to compare to the fresh green nature and sunlight is next to impossible on the indoors. However, this high up north, 8 months of the year it's dark and gloomy out there and 5-6 months of that the ground is covered in snow and we're dealing with freezing temperatures, so it's essential that I learn to photograph my girls also indoors, or I'll have little fun with them in any other season. Even during summer months, it can get rainy, like right now, which will effectively persuade me to start practicing my indoors photography with these dolls.

I have a good amount of 1/6 scale props and furniture from other types of dolls that I've collected in the past, so I won't need to make any great investments there. My Blythes will more than make do with what I've got. My skilled carpenter father made me 3 pairs of folding frames, which will give me the opportunity to build ever changing rooms and spaces for the dolls indoors. I also have a good amount of backdrops for my BJDs, that I can use for my Blythes as well. I love to see green in my photos, so I'll be making use of any kind of fake plastic vegetation I can get my hands on. I will haul in some genuine tree branches from outdoors for authentic flavour sometimes as well.

In order to get the dolls to stand in my photos, I've been practicing using the stick/knitting needle method with my Blythes that I learned from my friend Jane and later observed on Eileen Lam's Little Mischiefs videos on YouTube, thanks to link my other friend Jane shared with me. Thanks ladies!! It's working like a charm!! Essentially, you just jut a stick behind the doll's head (good to secure it in one of the screw slots), place it one the ground and let the doll lean onto it. This provides extra support to the doll when it's standing or walking about. With really long haired dolls like Ailis, this is particularly easy, when her hair covers the stick entirely from view in every frame. With short haired girls like Cherry, I have to be more careful with angles, so that her leg or something hides the stick from view. It helps to have a long enough stick, so that it's as far behind the doll as possible.

I started my indoord photography venture by building a little room diorama, only to notice that it lacks... everything. It just didn't work very well at all. The lighting was hard to achieve there, the mood was dull and pictures turned flat. It just looked stuffy and as if it was the girls' grandmothers livingroom. I took the whole thing down.

I tried with a backdrop instead. I don't use stands for any of my dolls, because that will just look silly and result in loads of photo editing. It's hard to balance the Blythes with their big heads even sitting on chair sometimes, so building a scene, I must take that into consideration. I must remember to include enough furniture or props that the dolls can lean on. I like the iron and wooden benches, because they are sturdy and hold their weight well. The ceramic plant bowl works well too.

Backdrops tend to look flat and lacking in dimension all by themselves, which is why I always add some props on top of it for a more 3D effect. The props will also help to hide awkward shadow the dolls might cast on the backdrop. My father's folding frames work marvellously to create shapes and interest to the flat scenery. I can also change them up in little ways.

This time with Prunella, I added some wooden decorations to it. I've attached them with magnets so that I can change them and I won't end up with any bluetack or tape stains on those precious frames.

Blythes seem to want to hang out with little critters in most everyone's photos and mine are no expection. Monty the dog, Mr Mouse I and Mr Mouse II have been constant companions for my girls. They also like toys, plush animals and dolls, handbags and other little props that want to carry around with them.

With photo editing I can get the same backdrop looking quite different in mood. Adjusting the colours, hue, saturation, lightness and such, one can get quite a different atmosphere from the same backdrop.

There's what I've discovered so far and I'm looking forward to discovering some more as my journey with my Blythes continues. I'll be offline now for a good month travelling (without dolls) but in August my Blythe vetures will continue with fresh new steam! Hehe!