Stupid Hoomun with a camera.

16 hours ago, battrastard said:

Not sure if the pics I posted with both DDS and MDD Marisa gave enough of a view of them holding their brooms, but, I think MDD Marisa can "kind of" hold them to some degree. The below post has DDS Marisa with her "default" hands. I tried to "hide" the fact that most DDS Kiddos have the closed hands as a default. (now she has open hands.) Funny, because DDS Caster/Skadi came with "gripping" hands... (go figure) 

 

Nice to see both Marisa versions together. I can't be sure if mine came with the default hands, they could have been changed by one of her previous owners. I think the MDD has way better eyes than the DDS so I might look into replacing them.

A DD II body arrived today for Sirius to replace her elastic strung body. She can now stand on her own so I got them all together for a new group photo.

your doll family is so so cute!! and it's especially nice to see love and attention going to the older girls like sayaka, sirius, and marisa too <33 they so deserve it!

@Stupid_Hoomun Ayy! Congratulations to you both! I'm sure Sirius enjoys being able to pose on her own at last. And what a sweet family she has. Love this photo. Your girls all look like they were ready for one.

17 hours ago, cluffy said:

your doll family is so so cute!! and it's especially nice to see love and attention going to the older girls like sayaka, sirius, and marisa too <33 they so deserve it!

Thank you. I only got my first Dollfie 7 months ago. I've been concentrating on acquiring some of the older girls that I missed out on. It makes me happy when I can give an older girl a home.

15 hours ago, PolitelyNefarious said:

@Stupid_Hoomun Ayy! Congratulations to you both! I'm sure Sirius enjoys being able to pose on her own at last. And what a sweet family she has. Love this photo. Your girls all look like they were ready for one.

Thanks. I'm sure Sirius is pleased with her upgrade and I don't have to worry about her falling off her stand now. Was fun doing the photo and trying to get them all to fit on the shelf I posed them on.

\o/ yay! New body! 

I bet she is beaming happy to be able to stand and move better, good stuff. ^-^ 

Skadi ❤️

Wow your family is catching up with mine. It is good having a large family as they are now on rotation. Kirika has been instrumental in my switching jobs (again) and Asuna has been addicted to sitting on the sofa and watching anime (until she took a savage accidental blow to the head... thankfully vinyl dolls are seemingly indestructible).

We almost acquired a new member of the family today but I took too long on Mandarake and the grail outfit we'd been alerted to became sold.

They had an old Idolmaster Haruka. She was in pretty bad condition but was also super cheap.

Maybe we're both better off seeking out a Reimu for our respective Marisas.

On 12/24/2022 at 3:38 PM, Stupid_Hoomun said:

I plan to put photo's of my dolls here, rather than have separate threads for each of them.

I'm no pro with a camera and just use my smart phone, sometimes with terrible results.

To start with, Chito was my first BJD. She's got her own phone, and took some 'elfies' with it.

And with it been the holiday season. She has asked me to plug her festive CD, originally released in July.

More to follow sometime. My hosting site is not cooperating tonight.

 

"elfies" SO CUTE

Megumin

 

I love this thread. There's so much personality and excitement in your dolls and the pictures you take. I enjoyed going through this!

2 hours ago, Gwandak said:

I love this thread. There's so much personality and excitement in your dolls and the pictures you take. I enjoyed going through this!

Thank you. We are pleased that you enjoyed viewing the thread.

Time for an update. Since Megumin arrived I acquired 3 more SmD's. First to arrive was Athena, a planned purchase from the official Mirai store in Tokyo.

Then late one Sunday night, just before I went to bed I thought I'd check Buyee. There I found on Mercari a SmD Felicity in the discontinued Milk skin tone for ¥52,000. I tell you, I almost fell off my chair. She went straight into my cart and when checking out I applied a 20% discount coupon I had that only had a few hours left on it before it expired. That felt like a lottery win as the milk SmD's tend to go for a fair bit more.

Last one to arrived was Chitose Shirasawa in tea skin tone. Found her on YJA. Always wanted this girl but she rarely gets released these days. So pleased to have got her and I'm rather smitten, she's hella cute. Somewhere along the line she's had her eyes changed from the default blue to the purple ones.

Finally, not a new arrival. A pic of my oldest girl, DD Sirius who got an upgrade from her DD-1 body to a DD-2.

Sirius is due a full photo session in the near future, I just ordered her a pair of Katana's to dual wield so we are waiting for those to arrive.

 

 

Your girls are beautiful 

 

I see that your Chitose has a mobile device. Phone’s and dolls can result in empty wallet issues. (Especially after midnight if they want one snack)

3 minutes ago, Rajke said:

Your girls are beautiful 

 

I see that your Chitose has a mobile device. Phone’s and dolls can result in empty wallet issues. (Especially after midnight if they want one snack)

Thanks. Quite a few of them have mobiles, Its a scaled down copy of my Samsung phone that I make on my 3D printer. I've sold quite a few of them through my etsy store which helps to fund their shopping habits a little. I sometimes wish I had put a piece of fruit on the design because then I could maybe sell them for 10x the price 😄

Some long overdue pics of my DD Sayaka

I can't wait to see the Sirius photo shoot!  I love her!  

 

Billy

I'm trying to improve my set up for taking photo's. I took some shelves out of an old bookcase I had to make a kind of studio. I got some cheap LED lights and found some back drops the perfect size to hang down the back. I've been taking quick snaps of new arrivals while I play around with the lights to learn what the best settings are and where it is best to put them. I'm still using my phone camera but the lights make a huge difference. Here's some of the pics I've taken.

Reimu

The stitching on her little hair decorations have broke so she can't wear them. I've not put her hair ribbon in. Its full of steel plate and just slides out.

Vampi, my anime transcendence in cinnamon.

I changed her standard grey wig for the black from the tea version.

SmD's Twilight and Mirai

 

Grisella, my grey girl.

Well done on finding both Touhou girls (although I think there's others in the series). I also have the Touhou accessories set. I think it's quite rare and it's also been ravaged by the Japanese climate. At some point we'll fully unbox it all.

I'm really envious of your grey girl.

My MDD Reimu's hairpieces were probably one of the most difficult things to fit. Her hairbow is awkward too, although I did find some photos and realised I hadn't fitted it properly.

For photo backgrounds try searching for 背景布 on Buyee (thanks to @Tierparkzone for the suggestion). There are a lot on there but I couldn't find one I liked. AliExpress might also be a good option.

If you have a big flatscreen TV they make surprisingly good backgrounds. I used it in our Leek Saber video and here's Uzuki in her classroom:

We also have a popup photo booth with overhead lighting. It came with a few backgrounds. Unfortunately it's not quite regular DD sized. It's really good for taking professional looking product photos for eBay and other sites though.

Our dream is to have a real green screen. They're on Amazon but they're quite pricey.

I'm pleased to have got Reimu but we couldn't get her shoes on, they simply refuse to fit. I made a few attempts before I gave up, this gave the shoe's time to deposit the black gunk over her socks and through to her feet. Why are volks shoes so crappy? I've seen 2 other DD/DDS girls from the Touhou line up. I was watching a Yomu Konpaku on Mandarake but she sold, and I think the other is Sakuya Izayoi. The accessories set came up on Mandarake yesterday, I did ponder buying it but decided not to.

I'm really pleased I got a grey vampire, I really didn't rate my chances of getting her, aside from SmD anime Prowess she is the only other grey SmD that I like. I'm hoping I can get a grey prowess at some point but I won't get my hopes up.

Thanks for the suggestions on places to look for backgrounds. I will have to get some photo's of the modified bookcase, I haven't yet figured out how best to use it with the lights, I was taking some photo's over the weekend and my phone was throwing it's toys out over the lighting, even with the lights turned right down, the phone was feeling the need to ignore what I could see with my own eyes and increase the lighting to the point the photo's looked like I was standing a few meters in front of a nuclear blast. I think it's trying to tell me that I should learn how to use the DSLR camera I inherited. I have used my flat screen TV as a back ground with some success, the best results I got was it for the background to the christmas CD cover. The photo of Uzuki in the classroom has come out really well.

Sorry if you already know some or all of this.
 

On 10/15/2023 at 4:09 PM, Stupid_Hoomun said:

I got some cheap LED lights and found some back drops the perfect size to hang down the back. I've been taking quick snaps of new arrivals while I play around with the lights to learn what the best settings are and where it is best to put them.

One issue that comes from having them close to the backdrop and lit with a small light source, is much sharper shadows behind the doll. A larger, diffuse light source, like light from a window through curtains, can solve that if you aren't looking for sharp shadows.  Moving them farther from the backdrop is another way. Shadows can be dramatic, or they can be distracting. 
 

12 hours ago, Stupid_Hoomun said:

I was taking some photo's over the weekend and my phone was throwing it's toys out over the lighting, even with the lights turned right down, the phone was feeling the need to ignore what I could see with my own eyes and increase the lighting to the point the photo's looked like I was standing a few meters in front of a nuclear blast.

This may help a bit: https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/cameras-vs-human-eye.htm

In a nutshell, your eyes can see about 24 f-stops of light range, but a high-end digital camera might only see 11.

This page has a good diagram at the top that shows eye vs. camera: https://www.photographytalk.com/photography-articles/275-photography-tip-range-of-light#:~:text=The camera sees things VERY,is 6 to 8 stops.

As you adjust exposure, you slide the camera's range from one end of that scale to another, but it will still never see outside of the 9 stops of light range of light that the example camera can see. The camera will only capture a subset of what you see with your eyes.

If you really want to learn to use a DSLR, try a basic photography class at a community college. Sometimes they will have intro classes that aren't aimed at aspiring pro photographers; less light physic and more focus on fun. Keep in mind though that DSLRs are phasing out in favor of mirrorless, so lens investments might be better made in a move to the new platform. Stick with what you have to learn the basics though, and you can learn from books and YouTube if you don't want a class.

 

One big issue I find with indoor doll photography is that the small size of the doll makes lighting harder with studio lights. The physical laws are unchanged, but the techniques take some adjustment because the lights are sized for human and not doll. I'm thinking a snoot might help make a spotlight more doll sized when recreating human-centric portrait lighting setups, but I have not tried that. 

Most of the photos I post here are just taken on my phone.

I have an ancient Canon EOS 550D that I bought years ago to take to Tokyo with me. It was the first generation of Canons to take videos too. They're not amazing but all of my girls' YouTube videos are filmed with it. I mostly use the EF-S 17-55mm zoom. It can take photos when I'm quite close to the girls which is really important if I'm not using a tripod.

Usually for stills I set a fixed aperature of around f16-22 and put the 2 second timer on. I usually overexpose shots but Gimp is really good at adjusting exposure after the photos are taken.

Oh and a tripod is a must.

The SmallRig LED light I recently bought on Amazon is really good. It's about the size of a smartphone and is really bright. Unfortunately they ripped me off a bit saying it had police/fire mode and a flickering candle mode... does it ever!!!

As for Volks shoes... yeah they wear out really quickly (especially the school shoes) and sizing is all over the place. The black school type shoes they were selling earlier in the year are really good. They're quite similar to what MDD Reimu and Marisa wear.

21 hours ago, BeyondTime said:

Sorry if you already know some or all of this.

Thank you for posting all of that information. None of it is anything I am remotely familiar with. I have the studio thing opposite a window and always get better results in the day. The lights I got are dimmable and can be adjusted between 3200K-5600K. They also came with some colour filters that slide in, I was thinking maybe 3D print some white ones to see if that would soften them some more. I'm going to take a look at the links you posted and hopefully improve my knowledge.

4 hours ago, Xiongmao said:

Most of the photos I post here are just taken on my phone.

I have an ancient Canon EOS 550D that I bought years ago to take to Tokyo with me. It was the first generation of Canons to take videos too. They're not amazing but all of my girls' YouTube videos are filmed with it. I mostly use the EF-S 17-55mm zoom. It can take photos when I'm quite close to the girls which is really important if I'm not using a tripod.

Usually for stills I set a fixed aperature of around f16-22 and put the 2 second timer on. I usually overexpose shots but Gimp is really good at adjusting exposure after the photos are taken.

Oh and a tripod is a must.

The SmallRig LED light I recently bought on Amazon is really good. It's about the size of a smartphone and is really bright. Unfortunately they ripped me off a bit saying it had police/fire mode and a flickering candle mode... does it ever!!!

As for Volks shoes... yeah they wear out really quickly (especially the school shoes) and sizing is all over the place. The black school type shoes they were selling earlier in the year are really good. They're quite similar to what MDD Reimu and Marisa wear.

I have always been quite happy using my phone. My biggest problem is lighting. I inherited a Canon 760D with a bit of kit. It does have a tripod so I'm covered in that department. I have trouble holding the phone after prolonged use so a tripod will be a must if I use the 760D. There are a few lenses, my dad liked been outside so took a lot of scenery shots and occasionally people. Currently fitted to the front of the camera is a 28-135mm lens. I'm guessing that lens might be a bit big for what I need. There are others, 100-300mm, 28-80mm and one that just says 28mm.

Reading the instructions is probably a good place to start. I've never used anything like this before, each time I get it out of the bag I just stare at it wondering what it all does lol.

Thank you both for the tips and advice. I'm going to see if I can get to grips with it at the weekend.

1 hour ago, Stupid_Hoomun said:

The lights I got are dimmable and can be adjusted between 3200K-5600K.

I get much better results from flat panel lighting when I bounce the light off something white. You get much more diffuse light and it looks nicer overall. 
 

1 hour ago, Stupid_Hoomun said:

Thank you both for the tips and advice. I'm going to see if I can get to grips with it at the weekend.

I'll see if I can dig up some websites that have good info. 

Rocky Nook press does have some good books in their photography section. You might find this useful:

https://rockynook.com/shop/photography/learning-to-photograph-volume-1/#

https://rockynook.com/shop/photography/learning-to-photograph-volume-2/#

I have not read either of those, but I haven't been disappointed by any of their books. Looks like they are on sale too. 

1 hour ago, Stupid_Hoomun said:

Currently fitted to the front of the camera is a 28-135mm lens. I'm guessing that lens might be a bit big for what I need. There are others, 100-300mm, 28-80mm and one that just says 28mm.

 

The 28 - 135 mm lens & 28 - 80 mm are probably close to perfect. I usually use a 50 mm or a 105 mm. The 105 mm is a bit long, but it's a really good lens, and it's good for closeups of the doll. 85mm would be a better focal length, but the 85mm Nikon wasn't as good a lens as the 105mm Nikon. 
 

One thing with indoor doll photography is you're going to be on a tripod, and the doll doesn't move around, so shutter speed isn't as much of a creative choice you need to worry about. You can put the camera on a tripod, set it to Aperture Priority mode, and then just focus on depth of field as the big creative choice with the camera settings. The camera will get the exposure right as long as you do your spot metering off of something grey. 

If you know how to photo edit, definitely shoot in raw not jpeg. If you don't know how, and the camera lets you, shoot in both raw and jpeg. That way you can post your processed jpeg images online, but you still have raw files to play with as you learn how to post-process. The raw file is like an old film negative, and the jpeg is like a print. If you just do jpeg you're basically throwing away your negatives.