Photo background

I sometimes feel like I love finding a background almost more than I love the doll itself -- but that's a highly personal thing and I'm not sure how I recommend approaching it yourself.

If you want more blur on your picture backgrounds you have to consider the camera (or phone) you're working with and then tweak it in post if you can't get what you want through the way your equipment already works. On my phone I can adjust the aperture feature to simulate depth of field via the phone's concept of what it's seeing. It's not as polished as DSLR perceiving the depth of field in a more organic way, but it works fine most of the time for images to post online.
If your camera can't do that or if you want to amplify the effect on a photo you should try to use a blur background feature in an editor. There are apps for your phone if you are confined completely to using it. Lumi and photo editor pro are two I use for different things and they can both do that. (Ideally you want to rely on an app that lets you manually modify the area of blur in case it misunderstands what it's looking at.)
I hope that's helpful at all!
Good luck and don't be too hard on yourself! I think you'll figure out what you like if you keep experimenting.

 

I stopped using DSLR a few years ago too because ultimately the phone accessibility is what makes it possible for me to express what I want but the gorgeous depth of field in DSLR is tough to lose.
I hope you can find some apps you like! It really is my favorite night in to be editing photos on my phone casually and watching tv with a cup of tea

 

Probably shouldn't even be commenting on this, because I have zero photographic skills and I'm more of an old school Swiss Style when it comes to most things (except for the hoarder in me), more so when it comes to photography in general. I do appreciate people who have the skill to set up an intricate diorama that looks to scale, but most of the time if I am shopping for toys/dolls, I want to see the doll and not the "noise" in the background. I prefer using a simple foam board for the background and grounds in my photos because I suck at photography. As well as because I want the focal point to be the dolls/toys since I took a lot of time off my life to get them to look the way they look -- most of my toys/dolls have been modified or painted by me enough to not really look default. I want that to be the main focal point of my photos, to distract anyone from seeing how much of a crapfest my lighting and photography really are. Lol! DX

 

I don't like having my living space as a background so usually set up some fabric instead - that eliminates the clutter and scale problems quite easily Large sheets of paper, layered bubble wrap, foam and wooden boards also make great backgrounds as long as they're big enough to scale of the doll.

 

I like it when the dolls look like people, which is what I adapt the photo background to. When I have enough energy to build dioramas, I will, but I prefer to look outside for small trees and bushes that make my dolls look natural and in good light.

 

To blur the background with your dslr you want a small aperture number and your subject away from the background. Understanding Depth of Field - A Beginner's Guide

For indoor photos I use natural light from a window and a blank wall or scrapbook paper most of the time. Luckily I only have yosd and smaller so I don’t need a huge amount of background, but like @cobaltconduct said, fabric would work for bigger dolls, hang it with poster tack. When I first started I would try to set up elaborate backgrounds but photos were taking me hours so I started taking more simple portrait style photos.

 

I used to take mine outside for nature backgrounds ( I Know a lot of us worry about sun damage). I actually think I’ve lost some
Of my photography skills! I guess I choose a wall, I have a few choices in my space. Or I just try to do decent angles or colors in their clothing but I need to work on that too.

 

Agreeing with everyone else—blurred background saves lives. I shoot most doll pics at 1.8 aperture, and in that close focus even clutter in the distance becomes interesting shapes for a background.

My other fave trick is sticking dolls in windows. Backlighting gives a nice gauzy effect.

Barring that, go outside and put the doll in front of some greenery! It helps add life and contrast to photos.

 

I love to do outdoor photos with rocks/trees/grass/flowers. If I am doing photos indoors, I use my blackout curtains and my kitty sill (sorry cats) and I use my floor and comforter too. I would love to do dioramas but I lack the skills/space. I do try to give my dolls a few props but most of the time, they are the focus of my photos.

 

This is such a struggle for me too! I’ve heard people recommend finding/purchasing photo backgrounds, like the kind they use in photography studios. But so far I haven’t been able to find any that are small enough.

(either they are htf or I’m that bad at understanding measurements, which honestly, both options are likely)

 

A lot of those backgrounds are essentially just rolls of paper! So you can sub in with a smaller roll of paper in colour/pattern of your choice

 

For actual photo backgrounds scaled to dolls type in “BJD backdrop” in Ebay or Etsy and they’re usually labeled by doll size to make it easy to find one that works. I have a couple I keep on deck for when I want to be extra ~fancy~

Here’s a bunch of my AS girls chilling in front of one for visual:



I’ve also done the foam board thing and they also make great reflectors + my background on the pic up there is pinned to one. Love that you can lean them against things and have them hold themselves up.

 

No problem! I swear there used to be some there, but I just looked again and nada. Etsy does tend to run sellers off with their awesome business practices.

I got all of mine off Ebay. They’re on Taobao too, but idk what the search terms would be to pull them up there, we just had them recommended to us when we were buying doll clothes. Temu has a few that are 5x3 you could maybe fudge if you have big dolls (I might try one of the Halloween ones, they look cool!).