One of the big advantages of photographing inanimate subjects is that you play around with all kinds of dim lighting. Light a scene by LED tea candle? Done that.
Around the fire. Follow her adventure at www.mydolladventure.com
Set a scene by using a dim mini flashlight to cast moonlight on a campout? Done that.
Create an intimate conversation by using a mini log fire? Done that.
Camellia tells stories around the fire. Follow her story at www.mydolladventure.com
What all of these methods share is that they use the stillness of the subject to let you open your shutter in very dim settings and just leave it open until the camera has gathered enough light to take a picture.
For this week’s project, I wanted the little pixie in the Betwixt episodes to play in a nightclub-like setting (although, because of their size, this nightclub is inside a trunk.) And I wanted lighting that would suggest this scene.
Fortunately, for reasons of my own, I happen to own a disco ball light. Not the mirror ball (although I’d love a mini one of those), but one of those little contraptions with refracted light in different colors and spins around casting pools of colored light as it goes, like this.
As in all of these exercises, I turned off most of the lights near the doll dining room (where I’m taking my shots) and set my camera up on a tripod. You can’t focus in the dark, so you need to leave on a regular light near to you so that you can turn it on to focus and turn it back off once the scene is in focus but before you take your shot. Then just press the shutter and wait while the camera gathers enough light. Here’s what the scene looks like to me while the camera is taking its photo – first with the lights on, and then with just the light from the disco ball:
I have a great camera, but I don’t mostly use the controls for these shots, I just leave it on auto with the flash turned off.
Because it takes so long to gather light, this method doesn’t capture the spotlight effect of the lights. Instead, it contains all of the places that were lit up while it was capturing.
Shots on my way to capturing pixie Faye in a rock band, for the blog post at https://mydolladventure.wordpress.com/2018/07/07/unusual-lighting-for-doll-photographs-using-a-disco-ball-to-light-a-scene/
Shots on my way to capturing pixie Faye on a flower, for the blog post at https://mydolladventure.wordpress.com/2018/07/09/unusual-lighting-with-a-disco-ball-light-finishing-up/
I love the effect of this light on the little Maskcat Ester doll, although she looks far more spooky than festive. I’m going to try another round tonight and see if I can use a shorter exposure to capture a single instant, but, for now, these pictures give me much of what I was going after.