Assisted 'Free' Standing Techniques

RandomShock · Post by **RandomShock** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 7:14 am

I've been wondering what other photographers here have been doing to give the illusion that dolls can really stand on their own, without any obvious support. I gave this a bit of thought before starting on this project, and have had some success with what I've implemented, but, undoubtedly, others have come up with different (and probably better) solutions.

First, to share what I've been doing:

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The above is a photo after moving Sakira into the standing position I want her to be in, rolling her over to the seamless, and anchoring her into my support system. The two green lines going outward are 100 pound test braided fishing lines that are connected to a few sandbags off to the side. I attach them to the neck via a little leather strap I made to avoid having the fishing line cut into the silicone (or TPE). Once I'm satisfied that she's held securely just by the fishing lines, I roll the 'cage' off the set, pop her head on, and start shooting.

This has worked moderately well, but it does require quite a bit of effort and fine tuning. Also, the fact that I am just using two fishing lines diametrically opposed means that lateral movement is completely halted, but there is still a bit of give in regards to moving forwards and backwards. If the doll isn't well-balanced at this point and does move along one of the non-reinforced vectors, the whole thing could end up collapsing (hasn't happened yet, but I have been pretty careful and have abandoned several poses when I felt like things weren't going to work out).

I have been thinking about getting a low profile stunt harness at some point, but that obviously would not work well in this case where she isn't wearing all that much. And, obviously, I could just lean her against some furniture or a wall, but, at the moment, I'm focused on full body model shots in the middle of a studio where it's just the model and nothing else. In the future, especially if I do location shots, I can easily use the environment to help support her, but we're out in space here! Oh, lastly, this would be easily solved with an assistant, but I don't have one (yet).

So, photographers and engineers of TDF, what do you do to make your dolls stand on their own two feet (or one (or hell....none!))?

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 7:25 am

'Ha ha, well I know that Arthur would have you believe that I'm happily free standing out in his garden in this pic, however he did deploy a little trickery here that doesn't involve PS or other editing software'....

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 7:42 am

And the 'secret'? A simple but effective stand made up of some steel tubing bolted to a plywood base....

MattUK · Post by **MattUK** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 9:37 am

They can actually stand unaided, if you're willing to spend ages getting the balance just right. Both these pics are unaided:

Hannah7.jpg

Shower_3.jpg

Hard floors help, as do stiff joints (especially ankles). Hannah now has a floppy hip so probably couldn't pull off either of these now unfortunately.

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 10:27 am

Arthur1960 wrote:And the 'secret'? A simple but effective stand made up of some steel tubing bolted to a plywood base....

! That's genius Arthur! Is that a 3"pipe? Do think pvc pipe would work?

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 12:55 pm

Hi Zippy81, thanks but I must confess that I nicked the idea from another member and since then a few guys have made something similar. I don't think pvc pipe will be stout enough as you want it to be as firm as possible and steel or aluminium will work better with the pipe joints I used. In fact I've made 2 of these now using what I had in the garage, so it's re-purposed garden parasol pole and a sheet of plywood. Got the 2 joints off ebay cheap, they are the ones used to make handrails you see on buildings etc. I used foam pipe lagging to make it doll friendly.

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 1:07 pm

Arthur1960 wrote:Hi Zippy81, thanks but I must confess that I nicked the idea from another member and since then a few guys have made something similar. I don't think pvc pipe will be stout enough as you want it to be as firm as possible and steel or aluminium will work better with the pipe joints I used. In fact I've made 2 of these now using what I had in the garage, so it's re-purposed garden parasol pole and a sheet of plywood. Got the 2 joints off ebay cheap, they are the ones used to make handrails you see on buildings etc. I used foam pipe lagging to make it doll friendly.

Okay thanks a bunch! Great idea none the less! I'll have to look into what i can come up with without power towels etc. :p

RandomShock · Post by **RandomShock** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:30 pm

Arthur1960 wrote:And the 'secret'? A simple but effective stand made up of some steel tubing bolted to a plywood base....

This is similar to an idea that I'd been toying with - making a doll stand with some 3/4" steel pipe fitted with some structural pipe fittings, then mounted to a circular wooden base (https://www.lowes.com/search?searchTerm ... 4294506723) . I had actually started working a little bit on this idea, but I hadn't yet moved forward with it because I wanted to minimize the amount of spot healing and clone stamping I'd have to do in Photoshop.

For the picture of Magda in the garden, do you mind sharing the unedited photo?

MattUK wrote:They can actually stand unaided, if you're willing to spend ages getting the balance just right.

Hard floors help, as do stiff joints (especially ankles). Hannah now has a floppy hip so probably couldn't pull off either of these now unfortunately.

Unfortunately, while both of my dolls can stand upright given that the stars align and they're in just the right standing position, this limits posing options and is pretty precarious if I'm moving around, taking photographs, and making little adjustments to hair and wardrobe.

I do really like that first photo with her posing against the light. Very cool!

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:52 pm

Hi Random Shock, actually that is an unedited pic, just adjusted a bit for contrast etc. The stand is hidden behind one of Magda's legs by getting the angle just right.

RandomShock · Post by **RandomShock** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 3:18 pm

Arthur1960 wrote:Hi Random Shock, actually that is an unedited pic, just adjusted a bit for contrast etc. The stand is hidden behind one of Magda's legs by getting the angle just right.

Ahhhh, I see it now. Quite well hidden as I can only see it because I was now looking for it. I had actually misread your first post as "a little trickery that does involve PS...", so I was assuming you were doing a bit of spot healing. Sneaky! I may just drop by Lowes today and pick up some things. Already have the base pipe, so I just need to get the base, some fittings, and a smaller cross pipe.

Mr Franz · Post by **Mr Franz** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 4:57 pm

I have a few simple tricks I use from time to time.

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RandomShock · Post by **RandomShock** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 5:27 pm

Mr Franz wrote:I have a few simple tricks I use from time to time.

It looks like your setup is similar to what Arthur is using as well. I had toyed with an idea like that before, so maybe it's time to try it out.

Starting with a base board...

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Attach a flange...

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Add in some steel pipe...

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Top it off with a tee fitting and cross with a shorter pipe...

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Or, to make the cross bar height adjustable, using an alternate to the tee fitting with two shorter bars instead...

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Since all the pipe fittings can be easily removed, more weight could always be added by slipping a sandbag over the main pipe and resting it at the base.

Mr Franz · Post by **Mr Franz** » Wed Jan 13, 2021 6:22 pm

RandomShock wrote:
Mr Franz wrote:I have a few simple tricks I use from time to time.
It looks like your setup is similar to what Arthur is using as well. I had toyed with an idea like that before, so maybe it's time to try it out.

Made mine from a leftover mannequin stand base and a broom handle.

viewtopic.php?f=6&p=1812442#p1812442

Zippy81 · Post by **Zippy81** » Thu Jan 14, 2021 9:42 am

AH!

thanks Random + Franz! Will lookon Amazon to see what I can get!

RandomShock · Post by **RandomShock** » Fri Jan 22, 2021 11:39 am

Updating this thread to give an outline of the doll stand I built and listing all the parts in case others are interested. My main assisted standing mechanism will still be fishing lines (then aircraft cable and harnesses in the future), but the doll stand should work well as a quicker method in cases where I can hide it or easily erase it in post.

One note before the pictures...the base is too small, but I couldn't get an appropriate base when I went to Lowe's, so I just got a 12 inch base temporarily. I've ordered a larger base and am waiting for it to arrive. Also...sorry about the yellow background...was doing a photo shoot with it.

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I used structural pipe fittings I found at Lowe's (went with all black so they wouldn't reflect light much) that slip over the 3/4" pipe and locked down with an allen wrench. The nice thing about using these is that everything but the base is adjustable, including the main pipe (one shown here is 4 feet, but I also have a 3 foot pipe if I need something shorter).

I wanted two places to support the doll, so I used these interesting combination socket fittings that fit over the main pipe and then have a socket to fit a cross bar and another socket to hold a pipe running at a 90 degree angle to the main pipe. Here I'm using 12 inch bars as the cross bars and 6 inch bars for 90 degree sockets. As I've said, this is all adjustable with an allen wrench, so I can use the lower bar as a 'seat' for the doll by swinging that assembly around so the 6 inch bar is sticking out.

The main bar is attached to the base with a flange fastened by some wood screws, with some additional structural support going to a second swivel base. The 12 inch base looks pretty small here and isn't stable enough, but I didn't want to wait to put it together. There were also some 24 inch bases, but those felt too large. An 18 inch diameter seems just right, so I'll be replacing the base soon. I'm also waiting for some pool noodles to be delivered to slip over the pipe and use as padding instead of resting the doll directly against the pipe. Unfortunately, I probably only need a single pool noodle for all my padding needs, but I could only order a box of 5, so I'll have to figure out what to do with the extra 4.

Pipes:
12 inch pipes
6 inch pipes
48 inch pipe (not the black one)

Fittings:
Flange
Swivel Base
Swivel Socket
Combation Socket

Base:
18 inch base

Padding:
Pool Noodles!

Cheers!