5 Photography Tips for Mini Dolls and Mini Toys Photoshoots

Ciao lovelies, it’s Lunaria here, bringing you a fun-filled 5 List post!! As you may know, I love doing doll photography, and that includes mini toys and figures as well. Since I’ve had this hobby for many years, I’ve picked up a lot of random tips on taking fun photos of mini toys! So in this post, I’ll be explaining and showing examples of 5 different tips for taking fun and dynamic photos of your toys! 

A bit of info before diving into the list, each example photo is from my own photography from the years, edited in Canva, Picsart, or Meitu. I will be noting on each example which editing app I was using, as I know that can help others find the photo editing features they want! But as I will be mentioning these photo editing apps by name, here is a quick disclaimer:

OFT and Lunaria are NOT affiliated NOR sponsored by any brands mentioned within this post!! Any mention of brand names or app names is purely for personal recommendation only. I am not paid for these endorsements in any way, it’s all just my opinion! 

Okie dokie!! With that out of our way, I’d like to present to you lovelies…. 5 Photography Tips for Mini Dolls and Mini Toys Photoshoots!

TIP #1: Make use of natural backgrounds, regardless of scale. 

With mini toys, I think we often box ourselves in with photo ideas. I feel like I have been doing this lately, thinking that mini toys should be photographed in mini settings that correspond to the proper scale of the toys. But using natural backgrounds, even though the scale will be vastly off, can still work just as well and produce a dynamic, interesting shot. In this example from a few years ago, I took a photo of this Monster High Mini mermaid Frankie at a local park in my hometown. Any post editing was done solely in Canva to add the watermarks and borders. This example is one of my favorite ones to show nature in this context. The viewer of the photo can tell that the doll is small compared to the surroundings, but it still makes for a cute photo setting!

TIP #2: Don’t be afraid to mix brands/franchises.

This tip is kind of self explanatory, but I often find that I get really fun photos when I mix toys from different types of things. In this example, I put a simple hello kitty toy in a jurassic park jeep. I really like how this looks, it’s very fun and interesting! The below example has been edited only in Canva to add watermarks and borders.

TIP #3: Let yourself have fun and be creative with filters and edits.

I sometimes see this idea that just because a photo is edited or has fun filters on it, it’s not as good or quality compared to others. I think this is absolutely ridiculous. Photography like this is for enjoyment, and if it brings you joy, you should be able to edit the photos how you please. Anyway, so I like adding filters from apps like Meitu and Picsart, because these apps have lots of filters, especially creative and artsy ones too. This example photo is edited in Picsart, with a color adjustment, filter, and sticker overlay. I really love how it turned out! Oh, and the follow up edits for the URL watermark and such is from Canva. 

TIP #4: Make use of perspectives for dynamic photos.

If you’re an iphone photographer, you know that there is a feature when taking a photo, where you can tap a part of the photo to bring it in focus. Using that feature, you can change the focus and clarify certain things. This is a nice feature for mini photography, by selecting the toy as the main focus, it slightly blurs the background, and creates perspectives that go beyond just the basic photo. The example below was taken on my iphone (*older model), with using that same feature, and the decorative elements were added later in Canva, as with all these examples here. 

TIP #5: Making your own props and scenery adds a fun personal touch!

This last tip is one of my favorites, because it makes photos so creative and personal! I like drawing scenery and backgrounds, or making props for the photos out of craft supplies. I first found this tip through the youtube channel of MyFroggyStuff, who does doll crafts and in her older videos, would do doll photo props diy videos, and mentioned that they were good for taking fun photos. I totally agree! In the example below, I drew a racetrack for Vanelope’s car, and added stickers for the cute candy effects too. Then I added the other decorations and url in Canva. 

What do you think of these tips? Do you have any photography type hobbies? Let me know what you think (and any tips you would give) in the comments below! I always love hearing from you lovelies, your comments bring a big smile to my face every time. Thank you!

Thank you so much for reading! Some quick promos before I sign off:

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Thank you again so much for reading! Now it’s time for my favorite part, where I get to tell you all to STAY AWESOME, because there is only 1 of you, much like fingerprints and cat nose patterns are so unique, so are you! You are awesome, and you should remember to love yourself as well! You deserve so much, including your own kindness!

Thanks again for reading, I’ll see you in my next post, video, or whatever comes next!