Creepy Doll

Sometimes I have to improvise. Like when I’m home alone and want to practice outdoor lighting ideas on someone. Key the creepy doll, yes, sometimes my daughter’s old American Girl doll plays the role of inanimate object for these light sessions.
The goal today was to tame harsh midday sunlight and be able to introduce flash just for fun. Well ye old montra of outdoor photography in which the subject is to look flattering is to shoot them in the shade. This is quick dirty and dare I say lazy. Yes well the problem with shooting in full on shade is that it lowers the light so much that the background gets blown out. The other problem is that the shade in my opinion is too dark it’s too much.
I decided not to bar the sun from my photographs but to shape it and soften it with a white umbrella over the doll. I’m building a scrim that will do the same thing but on a larger scale.
I tried the shaded setup with a mix of gold/white reflector bounce and some softened flash for different looks.