Doll Photography Tip #12: How to really SHINE in your doll-related videos (thank you @salmajafri !) #Photography #Dollstagram

The image shows a women holding up a poster of three dolls wearing handmade doll clothes. There's a tripod holding a DSLR camera nearby, and the woman is smiling as she looks toward the camera. The text over the top of this image says, "how to really shine on video" and there is, in fact, a sparkle of tiny pale colored dots all around the woman's head, like stars. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

I get fan mail from my followers every now and then, and through our conversations, I’ve come to realize that many of you are using my free doll clothes patterns to help cut costs in your doll-related businesses, whether that’s selling your doll clothes on Etsy, selling your doll crafts on eBay, or making doll clothes or doll crafts for various in-person sales venues.

About five years ago, I created a series of “Doll Photography” videos in response to fan mail I was receiving with questions like, “How do you take such nice photos of your dolls?” Here’s one such video:

Some of you even asked me to explain how I made my videos, but back at that time, I didn’t feel I was all that successful with my own YouTube channel yet. I was still learning how to create my own videos for YouTube and grow my channel.

I mean, compare the video above to one I’ve produced recently (see below). Can you tell which one’s an old video and which one’s a new one? I still have a lot to learn, but in a moment, I’ll explain who has inspired me the most along the way.

Needless to say, my YouTube channel has definitely grown. In fact, I’m not far from having ten thousand YouTube subscribers. Can you believe it?!

The image shows a laptop with the screen open to a YouTube analytics page. The text below the laptop says, "How should I celebrate reaching ten thousand youtube subscribers? Leave your ideas in the comments section below. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Wow! I’m looking back and feeling pretty proud of myself…

But before I get too egotistical, let me say that I couldn’t have come this far without the help of Salma Jafri. I’m a regular subscriber to her YouTube videos, and she has taught me a lot about how to grow my channel and how to brand my business, using free and easy-to-use tools.

The image shows a doll that looks like Chelly Wood (doll clothes designer at chellyWood.com) sitting at her desk, staring at her computer screen which offers the URL for her website. — Visit ChellyWood.com for FREE printable sewing patterns for dolls of many shapes and sizes.

That’s the whole premise behind her YouTube channel, Salma Jafri – YouTube Coach. In her videos, she tells you all about “[her] journey on YouTube and what [she has] learned and how to relax into the camera and just be you” (from Salma Jafri’s channel description).

If you’d like to learn how to start your own doll craft or doll clothes YouTube channel with Salma Jafri, just click on this link to go to her blog, or click here to view the many helpful tutorials on her YouTube channel.

For “Doll Photography Tip #12” in my doll photography series, I thought about creating a tutorial video that explains how to make yourself really SHINE when filming YouTube video with dolls. I know some of you do dollhouse tours, unboxing videos, product reviews, and even DIY videos like my own. Maybe you could use some tips on videography.

But I decided, “Why reinvent the wheel?”

The front wheel of a bicycle has a purple arrow pointing at it. Above the purple arrow, it says in a pink textbox, "the wheel" then above this text, it says, "no sense re-inventing it..." — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Pretty much everything I know about making a YouTube video came from Salma Jafri’s YouTube channel, so I just asked her to give me permission to embed the following easy-to-understand tutorial in today’s blog post. After all, I need to give credit where credit is due. Thank you, Salma Jafri, for all you’ve taught me!

Therefore Doll Photography Tip #12: “Make yourself SHINE in your doll-related videos” comes to us today from Salma Jafri, a YouTuber of the highest caliber! (And no, she’s not my sponsor, and she didn’t pay me to say all these nice things. I just want to share the love.)

In case you would like to review them, here are my other “Doll Photography Tips and Tricks” links from past blog posts: