Doll Photography Tip #9: Set up a Studio for Photographing Your Dolls #DollCollector #CraftRoom

Visit ChellyWood.com for free, printable sewing patterns for dolls of many shapes and sizes.

Indoor photography can be a real hassle when you have to set up the kitchen table for a photo shoot right after breakfast, hurry though your photos, and then take the kitchen-table-studio apart again in time for serving lunch or dinner.

In 2015, I moved all my doll photography stuff out to the kids’ playhouse. They were in junior high and high school, and they didn’t use the playhouse anymore. So it seemed like the ideal location.

I filled the playhouse with all the necessities: my photo studio lights, a coffee table, and some shelving for storing dolls in tightly-sealed containers. The scenario worked out nicely. Here’s a shot of one of the scenes from Romeo and Juliet, for example, set up on the coffee table in the playhouse:

Visit ChellyWood.com for free, printable sewing patterns for dolls of many shapes and sizes. Image shows the open door of a playhouse. Inside, a Ken doll (dressed as Romeo) stands on a coffee table, in front of a doll-sized theater set.
Visit ChellyWood.com for free, printable sewing patterns for dolls of many shapes and sizes.

That was six years ago. Now that my oldest daughter is in college, I’ve converted her room into a sewing-room-plus-photo-studio, but when we were crunched for space, the kids’ abandoned playhouse was perfect for my doll photography. A lot of my 2015 – 2016 doll clothes tutorial videos were filmed in that little playhouse. You can even hear the space heater running in some of my sewing tutorial videos!

When I reached 5000 subscribers on my YouTube channel, I gave you a tour of my latest sewing room and photo studio space. Here’s that “Craft Room Tour” once again, just in case you missed it back then:

So whether you carve out a space in a linen closet or find a spot in the garage, you’ll find your doll photography can be much more efficient if you use an indoor studio that’s designated as your own, personal space.

In this video, I mention the Fovitec 2-light tabletop photography studio set. That link will take you to the Amazon page where you can buy a set for yourself. And your purchase of the set will help bring much-needed income to my website, to help keep it running, as I’ll get a small percentage of each purchase made.

In this Friday’s blog post, I’ll be discussing how my website will be changing to include a few links to Amazon, eBay, and Etsy that will help you purchase the things you need for your sewing (and in this case doll photography), while at the same time helping to support this site financially.

Blessings and good wishes everyone, and I hope you enjoy your sewing and doll photography adventures!

2 thoughts on “Doll Photography Tip #9: Set up a Studio for Photographing Your Dolls #DollCollector #CraftRoom

  1. What a wonderful tour of your sewing and photography room!!!! I immensely enjoyed viewing it. I was delighted to see how you store all your supplies–mine are in small totes and someday I hope to have a room exclusively for my doll sewing and displays. I have a good-amount of real wooden small doll furniture from my childhood [50’s-60’s] that is on display with my original Barbies and some dolls, 10,5″ Little Miss Revlon and Uneeda Bob [bought on eBay], and newer Barbies and Kens. I have been adding things like real cast-iron cooking and pot bellied stoves and other things to make displays that change with the seasons.
    I enjoyed your collection of tiny quilts and hints for photography. You gave some wonderful ideas for storing craft and collection items in the old home entertainment center. It is so nice to see other collector-seamstresses and the setups they have. Thank you so much for sharing.

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