BJD Photography Tips and Tricks Part 1: Basics

Upcoming:

Part 2: Editing Photos

Part 3: Working with a Cell Phone Camera

My photography has improved over the years I've been in this hobby. Witness this monstrosity from early in my doll collecting career vs this more recent photo:

On the left is a photo of my first doll, Poe. On the right is Peregrine, who I acquired last year.

So what improved? How can you kick your photography up a notch? What if you only have a cell phone to work with?

Well, read below for help editing photos in general. A follow up post regarding tips and tricks for cell phone photography is upcoming.

iDyepoly Review

Having now dyed a doll with both iDye and RIT I can confidently say I prefer iDye for most BJD applications.

The colors are less accurate, but deeper and richer than you'd think. I was not able to make blue actually come out blue, which seems to be a common problem based on my internet research.

I've never tried to get blue from RIT, but I know it can be done.

RIT dye is easier to work with. It's less temperamental, takes more dunks to get a deep rich color so you can more easily control the shade you're going to end up with, and while warm you can kind of blend the color together before the piece dries and the color sets.

However, RIT dye rubs off pretty easily. I've gotten the majority of RIT off a resin piece with little more than a Magic Eraser sponge with some acetone.

Pink RIT powder dye on Recast Aileen Doll Ashes (Minion)

Taobao Agent Review: Taobao Ring

With Taobao Trends now asking for Western Union and having repeated issues with their shopping cart system, I decided to be brave and try a new company. I placed an order for about $122 worth of stuff. Unlike Taobao Trends, they do not calculate their commission, nor domestic shipping in the total.

Their process is pretty much the same.

You input the items you want in the cart, select any options, confirm your address, choose your shipping option, and then submit your order.

They will confirm if the items are in stock, allow you to make any substitutions if not, and then ask you to send the payment for the items plus domestic shipping.

Once everything arrives, you'll receive a second charge for overseas shipping to you.

Fairyland Tan Skin Review

 

Ease of ordering: 5/5, easy just paid with paypal.

Site: http://dollfairyland.com/index.php

Time to ship: Ordered in July, part of order shipped in November, other part shipped in January. (Will explain below.)

Communication: 5/5

Quality: 4/5

Firstly, they claimed they were having problems with white skin, so it would be an additional two weeks for my blank tan girl to ship. I had one pair of WS option hands in my order. I asked if they could ship everything else out first, and the white hands when they were ready. My order shipped in November sometime, and the white skin hands barely arrived last week. That's pretty ridiculous, but I appreciate them working with me. They didn't even charge me extra for shipping! (They send a pair of acrylic eyes with each doll now instead of glass, but to be honest I have no idea where the ones they sent me are or if I got any at all, so I cannot comment on the eyes.)

The tan color is absolutely gorgeous. It's got a reddish hue to it, without looking sunburned. It's very natural.

My biggest issue with the finishing on the dolls.

More Hybrids: Heads on Supia Body

Here are a few other hybrids I've been messing around with. Pay little attention to the color match, as some parts are NS and some WS. This is just to show proportion and fit.

First up, a WS Supia Eunice head on a feeple 60 body. Range of motion is pretty dismal, but the proportion isn't terrible.

La Legende de Temps on Other Bodies

Woo! First post of the new year!!

Since LLT is known to work on SDgr bodies, pretty much any doll I've shown on this blog before will work with the LLT heads. They're all very close in neck size. LLT resin is in between yellow and pink, and to my eye and the light in my house it matches my pinker resin dolls better than my yellow ones. Don't take my advice on color matching as gospel for that reason- the lighting in my house is complete crap, so I could be a bit off.

LLT Red Dove/ Fantasy Doll Body (ny)

I was too lazy to remove the neckpiece and restring this body, so this will have to do for now. The color match is fairly close, however the LLT resin is pinker and paler than the Fdoll body resin. Proportion looks like it would be fairly okay as well.