FDQ: In Focus

As a photographer (http://www.faeyephotography.com/) and doll collector, I started photographing my dolls almost simultaneously as I started collecting them. There are many inherit difficulties in photographing dolls that just don't exist when photographing things on a larger scale. Styling, scale, stands, reflections, all of these things present problems. After buying many issues of FDQ over the last few years, I was excited when the In Focus book project was announced, and eagerly awaited it's release.

I have to say that the book did not live up to it's promise. Hear me out! Many of the problems of doll photography were expertly addressed, and I definitely learned a couple of things that I never would have figured out otherwise, but I think they needed another round of editing! I hate reading a book full of typos, and this one definitely is. Also, while I understand the urge to try to make the book an all-in-one volume that instructs the reader how to everything from start to finish, this book both tried too hard to reach this goal, and also failed at it at the same time. As a semi-professional photographer I know how to use my camera. Not only that, if I were trying to learn how to use my camera for macro photography, there are much better written and more instructional books on the market that would do a better job of explaining. While reading the first chapter, I felt like an elementary school student being told how to operate my camera in the simplest possible way (not to mention that many of the camera tips in this book and statements of so-called fact directly oppose much of what I have learned both in personal experience and from my other sources of instruction). That was the trying too hard part. The failure part comes in that they give many tips for improving your photography, but there is no actual instruction. They survey their staff and contributors, which elicits answers from all across the board, basically telling the reader to experiment until they get their best shot. Use available light, studio lights, or sunlight. Use a real background or a location. Use props or don't. Plan your shot out well before hand or let the shoot determine how your photos turn out. You get the idea. Considering where I am with my photos, I think I would have been better off with a PDF list of top doll photography tips than reading this book cover to cover.

So is it a good purchase? If you have almost no photography knowledge, you're a creative person who can learn on your own with just some vague ideas to guide you, and you just started considering photographing your doll collection, yes. If not, e-mail me and I'll give you the best tips I learned from reading it, so you don't have to. :)