First Of All, Let Me Get It Out Of My Systems: Let There Be Lights!
I'm not an expert, I just love taking photos of models as well as flowers, products, jewelry, glass beads and water drops, I'm actually still learning by doing with reborn babies photography, I found doll skin surface become translucent when hit with lights, a teeny bit more difficult to photograph using artificial lightings which I prefer to use and I'll tell you why. Some reborners insist on using natural light but it make us depend on the wheather and on gloomy days it's difficult to get decent photos, you work so hard reborning the doll, I think it's important that your photographs do justice to it.

One of my pet peeves is looking at reborn doll photos that are dark, blurry and pixelly, if the doll is well made, it's hard to tell because the photos are so dark! Why?!! Why so afraid to use additional lightings! It's not a sin, people! There's daylight bulbs! Don't get me wrong, I agree natural lighting is the best for photographing reborn babies, but on those not so sunny days, you can always use lightings aid. I use the lights coming from the window too sometimes but I still use lighting aid on top of that. This tutorial is for beginner, If you are struggling to get good photos of your reborn babies, I hope this tutorial will help. I will go over camera setting a bit but I can't be specific, because we all use different ones. Let's get started, shall we? Oh by the way, English is my second language, so please excuse it.

Must Have Basic Equipments - Tripod, Lightings & Diffuser
Beside a decent camera obviously, you must have all 3, I don't care if you think you have the steadiest hands, especially with small, light cameras, camera shake is bound to happen. And shaky hands means blurry photos. If you really can't get one, then you can take your photos while leaning your body and the side of one arm on the wall or a table, anything to help reduce the risk of camera shake. But please, get one of those cheap mini tripods, if your camera is small and light, you can get the really cheap, thin and bendable one, I think that's the cheapest in the market, but if your camera is bigger and heavier, get real tripod or the sturdy mini ones. I prefer real size tripod tho, because it's easier to set the height and to move around looking for the best angles.

Let's talk about lightings now. Use at least 2 lights. but one 1 is better than nothing, you can use natural lights and add one lighting on top of that. Never ever use the flash from the camera, because the flash is very hars and it will make the baby looks shiny. Always use daylight bulbs, and never shine the lights directly to the baby, instead, bounce the light into a diffuser. You can buy cheap photography daylight bulbs at Henrys or Ebay and buy a light stand and an umbrella and to diffuse the light. Or if you're on a budget, you can use regular tabletop lightings with daylight bulbs, and to diffuse the lights, use a white thick cardboard/foamboard that you can get from Staples or Michaels. The result will be basically the same. The key is to diffuse the light so it's soft when it hit the baby, and with tripod aid we can take clear, crisp photos.

I recommend using the lightbulb that is intended for photography or movie, I bought mine at Henry's for under $6.00. Just remember they tend to get hot, so don't use it for a long period of time, I turn mine off once and a while while I pose the baby and doing other things. Please make sure you keep the children away when you're doing this. Please click the images below to view them big.

Lighting Set Up
I put the lightings on the left and right side of the baby, not directly to the left and right but a bit to the front. This is just arrangement that suit me, I move it around depending on the situation at the time of day too, how bright that time of day in my living room, where I do the baby photography. You can put the light wherever you think best for your own set up. Below is a diagram of my basic set up.

Another Way To Diffuse Light -> Light Box/ Light Tent
Back before I bought my light cube for jewelry and bead photography, I made my own. You can make the same thing, only maybe twice or three times bigger for the doll photography. I made the cube following this cool product photo in a budget tutorial by Bill Hubber that I found online. It's a great, easy to follow tutorial, I'm a girly girl, if I can make one, you can make one. ^__^ Check this out: Homemade Light Box/ Light Tent. So the white cover is the light diffuser, and you shine the lighting from outside the tent, from either side, for jewelry/bead photo sometimes I shine 1 light from the side and one from the top. We can even use 3 light sources. It's really up to you, whatever suit your needs, also depend on the room and the situation in that room. Lots of trial and error will get you to your perfect set up.

Taking The Photos
If you are using small pocket cameras with no manual mode, then use automatic mode with flash off, set up the White Balance to Auto. If you are using SLR, then I am assuming you know how to use it. Take as many shots as you can, so you have a lot to choose the best from later. We can also edit the brightness and contrast using photo editing software, again, it's not a sin as long as we keep in mind that we are trying to show the baby as close as possible to the way they look in person, we are not doing it to enhance the look or hide it's flaws. I will continue learning by doing in this, if I learn something new later on I will update this page. Please click the images below to view them big.

If You Want Better Lighting Equipments - Where To Go?
Lighting Equipments: to save money I buy my stuff from different places back then like some of them at a store on a sale, and some I won on Ebay, now you can find set of lightings for a really good price, and you can get 2 complete sets of the lighting kit (stand, umbrella, reflector and the lightbulb). Just use the keyword: 'Studio Lighting Kit' or 'Continuous Lighting' when doing a search on Ebay. I suggest Ebay because to me it's the best place to look especially when you're on a budget like me. ^__^ I bought some of my equipments at Smith-Viktor too, they have quality stuff and some of them are affordable.

Here's an example, I found THIS DEAL using keyword search: 'Studio Lighting Kit', lowest price and shipping. This is cheaper than one Adrie's kit by the way. ^__^ This is just an example, you can go from here, I will delete this link when it's expired.

That's It You Guys!
I hope you find this tutorial useful, even if you just pick up a bit of information from this, then I'm satisfy. If you have any questions, comments or even better if you have learn something and you think it helped your reborn photography even just a little bit, please let me know, I want to hear from you. Please take the time to write a comment on my blog. If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them. Thank you and have a great day!

© babypinknursery 2009