Just in Case

I didn't want you to think I've deserted you, I'm still here, just busy with other things. 

There comes a time in your life when you realise it's time to downsize your collection. Not just sending one off to allow you to buy a new one, but really cull them hard. It's always been difficult for me to see them fly off to new homes, even though I may not have "played" with them for a long time.

All my Blythe dolls went some time ago, along with the odd doll here and there. More recently, several of my Paola Reina Las Amigas have found new homes. So I thought it would be a good idea to make photo books of my different collections, before they all go. 

The three books I have done so far are all quite different. The first was "Tales from the Elvin Forest", which not only features photos of all my elves, it also includes all the stories I have written for them.

The second one, "Ball Jointed Dolls ~ Human Versions" features photos of the dolls by themselves detailing how I created their characters, as well as some which were used for their photostories.

The third, "1:6 Scale Interiors" features all the dolls which have been photographed inside my 1:6 scale roombox. It also has information about how the rooms themselves were designed and arranged.

Books don't take up as much room as dolls, nor do they take much time or effort to look after. At least now, if I ever have to go into aged care, I can take all my dolls with me!

Photography Experiments

I don't use Photoshop, purely because it's all very techo and far beyond my capabilities. However, I have found a way to enjoy playing around with photos.

Step 1: I took a photo using my phone, of my little Acorn (RealFee Soso) standing on my desk with a very uninteresting background.

Step 2: I used Remove Background to do just that, then saved the "png" image to my computer.

Step 3: I used Paint 3D to import a background which I had previously purchased from Etsy.

Step 4: I overlaid the "png" image of Acorn and cropped the photo to the size I wanted.

Step 5: I overlaid a further "png" image, which I had also purchased earlier, so it looks like Acorn is singing a tune.

This was fun and for an oldie like me, I think I've done a fair job of creating an interesting photo. What say you?

Photo Editing

I wonder how many of you use a photo editing program and which one you use. This is something I haven't done for such a long time and there are so many programs to choose from now, I hardly know where to begin. I have looked at Photoshop in the past, but unless one is using it extensively, it seems an expensive way to manipulate the odd photo or two.

So today when I went looking for something that would allow me to remove the background from a photo I had taken, then replace it with a digital background. I came across THIS ADOBE PROGRAM which helped me produce the following photo.

I realise it's not perfect, but it was fun and I'd like to try making a few more of these types of photos using some more digital backgrounds once my blue Resinsoul doll gets here. Can you imagine how she would look against these backdrops?

I did another one because I wanted to try a doll sitting on a swing and it worked out okay.

 

Photography

I know some of you already use a ring light to take photos with your phones, but I was wondering if anyone uses a Neewer RF550D Macro LED Ring Flash on their DSLR cameras?

Finding many of the Macro LED Rings were really expensive, some even more than what I paid for my Canon. I looked at quite a few reviews before I read this recommendation.

"If you're working to a very limited budget and simply need a ring flash that works, we'd recommend looking at the Neewer RF550D Ring Flash. While it doesn't have anywhere near the level of functionality of other ringflashes on this list, it is incredibly cheap and gives you the basics of what you need to start shooting macro. Compatible with Canon, Nikon and Sony cameras with macro lenses attached, it can be used as a flash or continuous light, with manual and auto modes available. The build feels plasticky and cheap, though that's mostly because it is, but the flash itself works pretty well, and provides a tidy amount of illumination where you need it."

So I looked for one to see exactly what it was and this is what I found:

Description: This RF- 550D Macro LED RingFlash is specially designed to use in the field of macroshot, scientific research, medical and personal photography in very close distance shooting. It can provide continuous and stable semi light or full light to meet higher photograph needs. The device fits any model of NIKON or Canon brand DSLR.

Package Contents: 1 x Macro ring head
1 x Power control with LCD display
8 x Adapter rings (49mm, 52mm 55mm, 58mm, 62mm, 67mm, 72mm, 77mm)
4 x Flash diffusers (amber, blue, oyster white and transparent).

I was drawn to the "personal photography in very close distance shooting", as I thought it described exactly what we do when we photograph our dolls. I wasn't too fussed about "it feeling plasticky and cheap", I was happy that "the flash itself works pretty well, and provides a tidy amount of illumination where you need it".

I also thought the diffusers could be fun to use. The price was definitely affordable and it was readily available at a number of online stores. So for AU$51.99 including free delivery, I chose to order mine from Amazon and it should be here on 4th September.

When it arrives I'll take some photos with it and share my thoughts on how effective it is. In the meantime, if you have used one, I'd love to hear your review.

Sir Cecil Beaton 1904-1980

Cecil Beaton is one of the most celebrated and distinguished British portrait photographers of the twentieth century and someone who's creativity and drive I have admired throughout my life.

An accomplished illustrator, painter, writer, costume and set designer, he is renowned for his portraits of well known faces from the worlds of fashion, literature, film and royalty. His long and varied career and his ability to attune himself to changing fashions enabled him to capture a diverse range of subjects on camera.

Marlene Dietrich - Cecil Beaton 1935

Beaton had a lifelong passion for the theatre, inspired by the plays he attended and the actresses he met in his childhood. He directed sets and costumes for 12 films and numerous plays, and his own play The Gainsborough Girls was performed at the Theatre Royal in Brighton in 1951. He first visited Hollywood in 1929 and returned many times over the years to capture the glamour of the big screen stars.

Audrey Hepburn, My Fair Lady - Cecil Beaton 1963

Amongst the celebrities captured by his camera, are fashion designers Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and , artists Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, screen beauties Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman, ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev and rock star Mick Jagger.

Cristóbal Balenciaga, Paris - Cecil Beaton 1962

Beaton’s career as a fashion photographer grew naturally out of his work as a society portraitist and flourished under the patronage of Vogue, first in London and Paris and by 1929, New York.

Vogue - Cecil Beaton 1954

The success he achieved in the 1930s reached its height when he was summoned to Buckingham Palace in 1939 to photograph Princess Elizabeth. The event was a great success in itself, with praise in the press for the photographs, but also the starting point for Beaton to become the Royal photographer of choice. It was he who photographed Princess Elizabeth in her uniform of Honorary Colonel of the Grenadier Guards in 1942, he who was chosen to record her coronation in 1953 and later the wedding of Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones.

Princess Elizabeth - Cecil Beaton March1945

In 1940 Beaton was appointed as an official photographer for the Ministry of Information. The portraits that he took at the time in themselves extended his range, beyond the glamorous and the grand to children and old men whom Beaton portrayed with clarity and sensitivity. In September 1940, Life carried Beaton’s portrait of three-year-old Blitz victim Eileen Dunne on its front cover.

Eileen Dunne in The Hospital for Sick Children - Cecil Beaton1940

Beaton remained in high demand as a photographer, but was keen to expand his practice beyond, and began to work as a costume and set designer on projects such as The Grass Harp (1952). A year later, he enrolled in a course at the Slade School of Fine Art, which allowed him to improve his painting and drawing. By the mid-1950s Beaton had firmly established himself within the field.

Artwork by Cecil Beaton, fashion designs and figure studies for - Jemma; The Divine

In 1963 Beaton met Kin (Kinmoit Hoitsma), a former Olympic fencer and a man thirty years his junior with whom he became romantically involved. His personal story is long and complicated, in some areas coloured by other people's judgment of him and he often found himself experiencing a sense of shame for his feelings.

Nevertheless, he was a talented man who left behind a wonderful legacy that influenced fashion photographers, portrait photographers and photojournalists alike. Beaton was not only influential to his contemporaries, but to his successors. Many of his photographs exude a timeless quality that could still grace a magazine cover today.

British Vogue September 1950, London-Paris Collection, cover by Cecil Beaton

Between 1955 to 1972 he earned many honours, awards and medals for his work. He published six volumes of his diaries while he was alive and was knighted in 1972. However, by the end of the 1970s, Beaton's health had faded and he passed away 18th January, 1980 just four days after his 76th birthday.

-oOo-

Now if you know of a movie with more glamerous costumes than these, please let me know! Anyone who has ever sewn a stitch, should be able to appreciate the amount of work that went into producing each one of them, and hopefully you might find some inspiration.

Ascot Scene from My Fair Lady by Cecil Beaton

SEE IT COME TO LIFE

in perfect monotone with gowns and millinery to die for!

-oOo-

I hope you have enjoyed this post as much as I did putting it together.

Big hugs,

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