Products

I went with the first idea that popped in my head for the product assignment - Barbies! Excitement central, going through all my old Barbie stuff and coming up with interesting ideas... well that was the beginning. Now I'm glad I don't have to touch another Barbie again. I have plenty of Barbies from when I was a little kid, so ideas weren't a problem and ranged from Beach Barbie, Doctor Barbie, Workout Barbie, Ballerina Barbie, and even Shopping Barbie (complete with the trolley and miniature food items). The final ideas I ran with ended up being Dorothy, Ballerina, Esmerelda, Winter Wonderland, Bathtime Kelly and the Birthday "party". When setting up, I used fishing wire and trusty blu tac to help hold them up, which at times was frustrating...(especially with the little Kelly dolls and their big heads). So the only photoshopping done was to remove the wire and blu tac.

My first shoot was with Dorothy, which went smoothly. I had painted the background and foreground myself, and she came with a little basket and dog Toto, so the setup was simple. To capture her glittery red shoes lit up, I had all the room's lights off and set the shutter speed to 5 seconds.

Next came Ballerina Barbie. I wanted to try and create a stage-looking scene, which is why I set up the coloured fairy lights in the background behind some soft white material. This shoot took longer because I couldn't get the right lighting to make the fairy lights appear nice and soft in the background, while keeping the doll sharp. Finally with Julian's help, we used a constant light and there you go.

Originally my third shoot involved a Beach theme. I had set up the scene with real sand and sea shells (thanks Chi!), a beach buggy, and Barbie lazing beneath an umbrella. However I didn't like it in the end and ditched it. Sadness. So the next shoot was with Bathtime Kelly. She came with the little pink bathtub, bathmat, soap and the foam duck. I used one of the glass blocks from the studio as my background, and a tile as the foreground. The lighting turned out a little warm, and even though it was meant to be a bathroom setting it was a bit flat.I got sticky bubbles, which compared to normal bubbles last alot longer. But we soon found out that the downside to this was that they leave white stuff everywhere...

For Winter Wonderland Barbie, I got some white tulle material which had these little glittery bits scattered all over it. Along with the white glittery foreground, it appeared like snow (almost!). This shoot went well, with the only problem being a harsh shadow on her right side which was easily removed with a reflector.

Next came the Birthday Party. The two Kelly dolls came wearing their part dress and hats, and also with presents and balloons. The pink bunny added a girly childlike touch, while also hiding the blu tac that held up the balloons. I also used blu tac on the bottom of both doll's feet, lots of blu tac... The lighting caused shadow on their left side, which was fixed with a reflector.

Finally, I ended my Barbie shoot with Esmerelda, who comes from the Hunchback of Notredam story. As she is a performer, I made her appear as though she was in mid-dance. I used the deep purple material for the background, which makes her appear more prominent. For the foreground, the gold glomesh type material was used to add more colour.