Photography Tips and Tricks

[tuneful87]

Oh, wow! So many great tips...! Thanks, everybody!

Also, does anyone have any tips for maximizing the quality on an admittedly weak camera? I'm stuck with my tablet's not-too-good camera until later in the year. It's good for quick snaps, but just looks bad as soon as I try posing/lighting things.

I have a pretty basic digital camera and one thing that I find it that soft natural light really helps. In fact, back when I was taking a photography class my teacher was rather shocked that my photos came out decent with the weak camera I was using!

This might be the place to show some comparison shots. For example, to show the same doll snapped under different forms and positions of light to show what works and what doesn't.

[Cate_Dartfinger]

I'll get some up tonight. I have some photos to take when I get out of work anyways.

[Galactica]

Great tips- thank you all for the advice!  Never knew that about the ISO...

[hamsteh]

Awesome tips so far.
I don't have a lot to add, but I just wanted to add one thing I don't think I've seen yet.
Something my dad always reminds me of with outdoor shots, as a general rule don't shoot towards the sun - try and keep the sun behind you if that makes sense. Don't think I've seen anyone mention it yet.

I haven't really tried any MH photography yet but I've been thinking about it cause I have a few now and often photograph other toys, I've just started a 365 toy project too, we'll see how far it goes. xD;

Taking photos with a bokeh of fairy lights is something I like to do, which I can at least attempt to explain. xD Maybe I'll have a go at it with a MH doll tomorrow... So far I've only tried it with small toys though. xD

Bokeh stuffs:

Spoiler

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

Dodotto! Dodo for short. <3 by Hamsteh, on Flickr

To get that effect, as a general rule I use a high ISO to get a nice colour, and the lowest aperture value my lens will do. Gotta line the fairy lights up nicely in the background while framing the subject decently which can be tricky. xD; I think I usually take the photo with flash, with low-ish lighting in the room and the fairy lights as far away from the subject as possible - that's important, or the circles will be rather small. Using the camera flash usually gets the subject exposed and darkens the background... Not sure how to explain that one, anyone is welcome to try! xD I'm not 100% on the mechanics of these things but I'm always interested to learn.

Also, once you've got that somewhat figured out you can do stuff like this:
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

Kokoro by Hamsteh, on Flickr

Which I should really try again. That one is pretty terrible quality, but I used a lens I wasn't used to so I could get a nice bokeh and it didn't go so well for the quality of the picture! Haha. I think I was also getting a little bored by that point. :x

EDIT: Huh. ><; Spoiler tab isn't working and I really don't wanna make a huge post...

EDIT2:
xD;
I kinda managed it:
visitors can't see pics , please register or login

Frankie 18/365 by Hamsteh, on Flickr

Something else I found is that it created a better effect with the lens... Fully zoomed? Idk it's 2am I can't think of the words. ; _ ; I ended up with a smaller aperture value when zoomed all the way (f4), but it didn't work so well. More of the background was visible and the circles were smaller.

I'm pretty happy with the picture anyways. Framing could have been nicer I think.