DAE get intimidated posting doll photos on social media/forums?

So, I recently decided that I wanted to be more active and participate in doll communities/forums as opposed to just lurking so I made an instagram account to share photos of my dolls and see other people's photos. I was pretty blown away by how large the amount of photos were available of various dolls, and was super impressed by how well everyone took photos (not a hair out of place, beautiful outfits, curated backgrounds, great lighting and editing, etc), but I quickly got pretty intimidated about posting my own. I don't have anything that would make for great backgrounds and their outfits are mostly handmade out of socks or old clothing and pillowcases. I worry that if I posted a photo of my dolls people will comment about how bad or lame they are.

I was wondering if anyone else felt like this before? If so, how did you overcome it? Also, does anyone have recommendations for editing apps that are easy to use? I feel like if I added some extra ✨pizzazz✨ to the photos it would help distract a bit from the stuff I'm insecure about and would feel more comfortable posting lol.

I'm not a big fan of Instagram, also Twitter, for posting pics. 

A lot of it has to do with all the Trolls that just want to stir up S#it, just because they can, these days.

Find a good photo hosting site, like photobucket, or Flickr (my fave, I'm rattbastard there, 11 plus years) if only to post pics of your Kiddos here. 

Post here, and ask for critiques, or just post them anyways, we all love pics of the cuties! 

Practice means you have to start from somewhere, so why not start here?

39 minutes ago, battrastard said:

Find a good photo hosting site, like photobucket, or Flickr (my fave, I'm rattbastard there, 11 plus years) if only to post pics of your Kiddos here.

Oh! I didn't know Flickr is still active! I kept seeing people saying they all migrated to instagram, so I made an account there. Flickr was my favorite site to browse doll pics before and the vibe seemed much more casual than insta.

Thank you for replying! I think I'll try making an account on Flickr and try posting there instead. 🤗

Also, do you know where to post photos on this forum specifically for critique and advice? Maybe under general discussions?

Flickr absolutely still has free-user options, you'll just be limited to how many photos you can have stored on there

just as @battrastard ...been on there for way too long (decade+?? what even is time!) and it's very useful with generating lil codes to different sizes of image you wanna post on various sites
 

Don't worry about your photos not looking perfect (hell, i obsess over mine constantly) We all gotta start somewhere ^__^ I'm actually excited to see what cute outfits you've created from pillowcases

2 hours ago, Roserolls said:

Also, do you know where to post photos on this forum specifically for critique and advice? Maybe under general discussions?

General discussions would work fine. Further down the list is the "Workshop" posts, you could even ask in the Photography thread for hints or comments/constructive criticisms. 

Thank you for the info! I'll try posting there later ☺️

I turned the 'show how many likes off', because I was comparing myself to too many other people. I'm not a professional nor do I have optimal conditions for photos, but I love what I do and I'm proud of it. The love of taking photos of your dolls and experimenting with different poses and photo ideas trumps comparing yourself. Don't be intimidated; we all started out brand new, too. Keep practicing, and the love you have for your dolls will shine through your photography. ♥

6 hours ago, Roserolls said:

Flickr is still active

flickr is still around, but its probably no lie that its insta and twitter where the actual party is at. Dont know how much the failed effort of trying to make it a instagram competitor by yahoo a few years back added to that situation.

But as a free user you still get the 1000 photos and whatnot link-ability if I recall correct, which is how they were before trying what they did.

As for the actual topic at hand, as ratt already mentioned you wont learn unless you try. getting down to brass tax as they say, depending on how much money you want to throw at this side of the hobby, you dont necessarily need much to get at least started (simple courtain backdrop, desklamps for lights, etc -- though success rates will vary), and build up from there.

but well, in terms of personal experiences ... dont be too surprised if at some point intimidation turns into a "why bother" feeling. but thats just me being cynical me. 

6 hours ago, Roserolls said:

where to post photos on this forum specifically for critique and advice?

There is the actual critiques section buried way down on the forum, which includes photography advice, although oddly enough there is the dedicated section for photography as its own thing too as ratt mentioned.

 

I do like Instagram. Mostly for the photo challenges. To see what others do with themes or styles. And to try it out myself. The best thing is that the way of photographing is different if you try to achieve a certain goal. Creating photo’s that you otherwise never make. (And scrolling through all the beautiful photo’s)