Love, Pinkcheeks: October 2013

Melancholy In The Rain

Who loves playing in the rain?

Mayoi here obviously does! I went out one sad weekend to a rainy day photoshoot and yeah, quite sad because it's been raining so hard lately (update: not anymore 'coz the sun is up and shining as mighty as ever!)

So enjoy the pictures I did for Mayoi and one surprise guest appearance. LOL!

Some people feel the rain, others just get wet.

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain.

This was the rock that I used to balance Mayoi in some angle.

A wild psyduck appeared!

You're a water creature, Psyduck! You don't need an umbrella to shelter yourself from the rain haha!

For this set, I used a different treatment that applies to the sad, feeling when it rains. The muted colors turned out great for me! Do you like it? Let me know! Email me at ilovepinkcheeks at gmail dot com :D

QUICK TIP!

If you're wondering how I balanced Mayoi without her stand, I used a cheap alternative: a cotton bud! It works well on her, I just placed the tip underneath her skirt and balanced her on the surface, while taking photos with angles where the cotton bud can't be seen. Pretty neat, huh?

1:45 AM
3 Comments

Let There Be Light! Light Photography Tutorial for Toys

danboard

I had fun playing with light last night and I thought of making a simple tutorial using the other set of photos. I just went crazy twirling lights all over Mari, Taiga, Danboard and Mayoi! Anyway, I'm using a DSLR so this tutorial is for that camera only. I will not be teaching you on how to do those shapes because it's entirely up to your imagination! However, if you're using a point and shoot camera, or a camera phone you must be familiar with some terms I'll be using here.

Here's my set up last night, I was slumped on the floor and I was surrounded with lights all over. HAHAHA. My computer desk at my room was too narrow so I choose to set it up on the floor instead, but I had to keep my dog and cat outside or else they'll just sit anytime while I'm doing my shots.

See what I mean? XD

To get started, I used two sets of christmas lights, two lampshades (the head was wrapped in a thin cloth which acts as a diffuser) and a sheet of black felt paper (for the background) coz the darker, the better. I just positioned my camera across where the figures are. I used a 50mm 1.8 lens, which I currently have at that time, you may use a standard kit lens (18-55mm), doesn't matter because we'll just use a small aperture for light painting.

1. Prepare your camera for a long exposure shot by setting it to 5 seconds, f/8.0 and ISO 100. This is the part where you have to experiment. I played with 5 seconds and f/8 as a trial and error at first until I get the thickness of the light streaks that I want. Yeah, actually it matters! If you're familiar at how a camera's aperture works which is, the bigger the apperture, the larger amount of light it will get in.

Look here, in this shot, the aperture is f/5

Notice the lines behind Mayoi, this one is f/8, see the difference?

You'll get thicker lines on an f/5 aperture, which I used mostly on the later part of the photos.

2. Next, position the figures according to your desired composition. Make sure that it is secured enough so that it won't get knocked down while you're playing with light which is on Step 3.

3. Get the lights! Now for the previous photo, I freely swayed the christmas lights around Mayoi to get that pretty light streaks. Pretty cool, huh? :3 You may actually use a pen light, small led light, even a laser light as long as it's not too bright or else it will be just the light you're gonna capture.

For this shot, I carefully used the tip of the christmas light to draw a light force thingie on Domo-kun and Taiga's swords. It's like an epic light battle LOL!

Danbo got a little thunderbolt on his hands. I bet Thor wouldn't mind.

Kirino: Ohh, look I'm playing with light!

Taiga's wooden katana suddenly showed a burst of light!

TIP: You need to do the light painting thing within 5 seconds (or whatever exposure you timed it in) before the shutter opens, or else you'll get a mess of light around the picture.

You may use your imagination while playing with light! If I wasn't on the floor and had a bigger area, I could've written my name using those christmas lights! But hey, there'a always a next time! ;) I hope you enjoyed my simple tutorial!

4:22 AM
9 Comments

Revoltech: Makinami Mari - Beast Mode

beast mode

INVERT MODE. SECRET CODE: THE BEAST!

Alrighhtt, just being a fangirl there XD. I just finished watching Evangelion 2.0 again and it inspired me to do a quick photoshoot of Mari in Beast mode. I did a quick research in comparing Mari's Revoltech and Figma's line and I'd say I'm happy I got Revoltech. The evil grin of her Beast Mode face is more epic than the Figma, which was screaming basically. If only Revoltech made an Eva cockpit just like what the Figma has, it would make me so happy. LOL.

I was also playing with light photography! I knew the atmosphere should be bloody, dark and but due to lack of red material to use as a softbox for my lamp, I used my pink bedroom lamp instead. For the light painting, I used christmas lights and swayed it around her while my camera was taking a long exposure shot.

My settings for the light painting shots are 10secs. F/16 ISO100. Trial and error, mostly. Swaying lights around the figure can be tricky, as I don't want to get a messy light party like those inside a disco. LOL.

Like this one. HAHAHAHA! What the hell was I thinking?

With this shot I used two sets of christmas lights which I alternately swayed in motion within the 10 seconds time frame of my camera. I 'm glad the swirly effect came in great but knowing that scene in Eva 2.0, there's not yellow streaks present there. So just think of this shot as a fan service. LOL.

I used to love light painting when I was still active in doing portrait photography, but I'm happy I'm still able to pull it off on toy photography this time. ^_^

Before I forget, let me just share this one shot that took me about an hour just to figure out if the pose was just right compared to Mari's picture on the left. Close enough, right? XD

And another thing, my first picture of Mari was among the finalists at Tokyo Otaku Mode's Halloween Contest 2013. I was actually surprised that it was included until my friends just tagged me on Facebook about it. Would you be so kind to help me win by clicking SUKI at the top right? Just follow the image below to direct you to my picture at TOM. Thanks a lot!