The Embrace of Power

I don't have much free time this week as I am working extra shifts due to staff being away but I was browsing and listening to music as I tend to do most nights before bed when I remembered a song I had heard not so long ago from the live action movie, 'Aladdin'.

As I was listening to the lyrics, I realised this song was the perfect song to encapsulate Mahalia, a woman forced into a role she didn't want but somehow grew into that role to become more powerful than she began it with.

I decided to do a photo manipulation of her showing her two sides and the transitioning between them. I used only textures to achieve this effect. I will link to the texture creator at the end of this post if anyone was curious.

Mahalia's Character Theme Song:

Speechless by Naomi Scott

**Made using textures from Sirius-sdz at deviantART.

"Why do you show surprise? You made me after all with your deceit and coldness, with your words that cut and the hatred you bring. Who did you think I would become if not another version of you, a better version of you. It's strange isn't it? You built me to be your doom and now you want to destroy me? Your apprentice has outgrown you old man. And I will seek my vengeance."

All Hallows Eve

Here, tomorrow is the 31st October. As I will be working all day, I decided to post this shoot a little bit early in honour of All Hallows Eve. I decided on my Yukionna. I feel she is the perfect embodiment for this day. I like to think that she isn't simply a spirit that preys on the living but that she met an untimely and tragic end in the snow and this is why her presence is felt and seen strongest during winter.

Music: Yuki no hitohira

Stock Credits:
Snow Mountain by faestock:
Snow Landscape by Colourize-Stock
Snow by Moosplauze
Fog Brushes by simfonic

Here Cometh The Dragon Queen

Another manipulation I did a few weeks ago when I did that magazine cover. I got inspired by the doll and ended up doing a second manipulation.

MUSIC: Dragon Land by BrunuhVille

Stock Credits:
Model ~ Photo by me
Rock Mountain ~ Humble Beez
Temple ~ BrokenWings3dStock
Fiery Sky & Dragons ~ Elevit-Stock
Vines ~ Black-B-o-x
Crystal Ball ~ LuckyStock
Veil Brushes ~ farmerstochter
Crows & Raven Brushes ~ dollieflesh-stock
Columns ~ ArtReferenceSource

Blog Tag: Colours

I have the next two days off work but then I'll be doing full time hours for the next two months straight so I thought why not kick it off with another of Irene's blog tags.

This one is Blog Tag #7 - Colours.

Some theme music: Colourblind by Mishelle Bradford Jones

1. Post one photo of your doll in 3 different colours. (Desaturate, Saturate and Colorize).

I'll start with the original photo... titled "Wistfully Yours" ...

Tips & Tricks: Decal Eyes Light Adjustment

Today I wanted to share with you the results of an experiment I had been working on. I was getting a little tired of wasting good photos with good lighting and posing only to upload them to my photo editor and find that the Azone girls had strange looking eyes because of the way the light hit them. This lead to my little experiment. Keep in mind that there are probably other ways to do this but I've simply outlined here how I fix those pesky eyes. And always remember, experiment and adjust because the same number of steps don't always work for every single photo.

I will be using an older version of Photoshop. If you have the newest version, I am sure the tools are there somewhere, I just can't tell you where to find them as I don't have the latest version. Most photo editing programs should have similar tools for you to use.

BJD Meme : How far has your doll photography come?

Compare one of your very first photo and a current one.

I came across this meme over at deviantART and you know me and memes. These are my two photos, one from 2010 (very first batch of doll photos I ever took) featuring my very first bjd, DF Lyre and the other is from 2015 featuring my modded FL Shushu.

I'm not really sure how far my doll photography has come. I guess I have learned to take better posing photos and angles of my dolls. There's more "life" to them but then again, it depends on my mood. If I'm feeling inspired, I tend to take better photos than when I am forcing it.

How about you? How far has your doll photography come?

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OT: The blog has been a bit quiet as I have been sucked back into the world of photo manipulation again. My latest works: The New World, Moon Princess, Elsewhere. I am working on a new photo manipulation project featuring Clara, my Sepia Alice Pullip but the concept is in draft stage at the moment so it might be a while yet.

A Restless Soul

I've been enjoying getting back into my photo manipulation work lately and decided to use these on MyDolling Heeah.

She is the embodiment of the Yukionna, however in my world, she is called Shirayuki. She was betrayed by the man she loved. Her heart turned to ice and not long after, her body was found buried under snow. She had frozen to death. But her spirit continues to be restless and whenever it snows, people have reported seeing her haunting the place of her death.

"She loved a man. He betrayed her. And then she was nothing but mist and foam and a scent on the air. But those who are restless are never truly gone."

She was a hard one to find a theme song for but I finally settled on Reminiscence of the Red Lotus.

Snow Brushes by jinxd-paradox

The Photobook

Every year, the hubby usually makes up a photobook comprising of all the photos I have taken of my doll collection over the year and he presents it to me at Christmas. However, this year, he has something special planned so I decided to try my hand at doing up the photobook myself this year.

You'll need to click on it to see the larger version. It was certainly a bit of a learning experience (with a side of frustration thrown in to spice things up). Once I got the hang of it though, it went a lot quicker than I anticipated. And to my surprise, I actually enjoyed putting it together.

I haven't really mentioned on the blog but over the past few months during my absence from the online community, I took up a new hobby (not that I have enough already!). I started getting into scrapbooking and discovered 'Project Life' by Becky Higgins. I was really enchanted by the whole concept and decided to use some of her free digital journaling cards and papers to include in this years' photobook.

We don't stop playing because we grow old;
we grow old because we stop playing. ~George Bernard Shaw

Black and White

Last night, I discovered how to set the black and white option on my camera. To date, I have mostly been shooting in colour and manually converting to black and white using photo editing software. I actually don't mind doing either method but it all really depends on whether I might want the colour version later on because you can suck the colour out of a colour photo but you can't put it back into a black and white photo.

So I decided to do some comparisons. I use an old Canon EOS 1000D which I believe is their beginner range. This little baby has been with me for a long time. It was my very first digital SLR after I converted over from my manual SLR back in the day. It still works just fine despite having dropped it once. I do have to upgrade at some stage (maybe when I stop buying dolls and use that money instead to buy a new camera).

Note: I use Photoshop CS for my editing work. 

My model is Ghost, Luts KDF Ghost Maska.

This first photo is directly from my camera and has not been edited other than to apply my watermark. As it stands, I think this original photo looks quite good. It is a little flat and needs a tiny bit of spritzing.