#//I want to get better at photography and composition

[equinox-86]

My keychains arrived ♡

This was my first time ever getting merch of my own OC, and it feels so surreal to own it irl 😭💖

I immediately put her together with Carla <3

therewasntashinonefromthesameserieswiththesamesize

[colors-of-my-heart]

not a callout by any means, but I just wanted to leave a note so that everyone is aware- this is AI

Sara Shakeel

[sirfrogsworth]

I think this question is the most asked one I see from people starting their photography journey.

They upgrade from their smartphone and get a nicer camera and lens and then wonder why their photos don't look much different.

A fancy camera opens up more possibilities and gives you great control. Lenses are creative tools that allow myriad perspectives. But a paintbrush does not paint a picture for you.

The answer to the question is light and effort.

The better the light, the less effort required. The worse the light, the more effort required. But you always need both to get a good photo. And you need a lot of both to get a spectacular photo.

Imagine this photo taken in the same overcast light as the waterfall above.

That would be the world's most boring parking lot photo.

But because the light was so beautiful I was able to pull out my smartphone and get a great shot. No fancy camera required. But I knew my phone was limited so I took three photos for a panorama. And I captured everything in RAW format to make sure I didn't lose any dynamic range or color information. This required a lot of extra post processing to combine everything and edit the colors close to what my eyeballs saw.

The light made things much easier. I just had to point the camera in the direction of the sunset. But effort was still part of the equation.

The best light is at...

Sunrise.

Sunset.

Or at night (tripod required).

Or... bring your own light.

I had a sunset but my friend was in the dark so I employed my gigantic 7 foot umbrella.

Good photographers often plan their shots in advance. They will scout locations (Google Maps is your friend), take test shots to find the best composition, and then wait until the light is magical to get their shot. There are some landscapists who return to a spot continuously until conditions are perfect. I've heard of some who spend a year or more to get the photo they desire.

I knew I was going to be near the Arch. I used Google Maps to figure out a cool vantage point. I hauled my tripod a few blocks to that spot. And then my heart sank a little...

They turned the lights off.

The lights that illuminate the Arch confuse migrating geese in September. I still took the photo. And it's okay. But I didn't have the light I wanted. So I'll have to go back another time when geese aren't screwing everything up.

I'll have to put in that effort.

I understand you cannot always plan ahead. If photographers need to get a good shot spontaneously in bad light, they have to go above and beyond to elevate the photo.

They might have to find an interesting perspective.

Perhaps use an atypical lens.

Long exposure.

Or they can incorporate an interesting subject. A model. An old barn. Fungus.

Think about foreground, midground, and background. If you have a dull background, increase interest in the foreground or midground. Or both.

Again, the worse the light is, the more effort you have to put in to compensate. You might find yourself lying on the ground or dangling over a cliff.

Another option is to bring your own light. Overcast days can actually look quite compelling if you light a subject and then underexpose the background. This can bring out a lot of details in the clouds that would otherwise get lost in a natural light exposure.

(not my photo, source unknown)

Sometimes the prettiest days make the most boring photos. Sunlight at high noon is very hard to work with photographically. Especially if you have people in the photo. Hard shadows tend to not be flattering.

Black and white can sometimes make harsh sunlight look cool.

Or you can add a fold-up diffuser to help soften things.

All of this is to say... you cannot take a fancy camera to a waterfall on an overcast day and expect it to do all of the work. You are just going to end up with a flat looking snapshot. You have to put thought into your photos. You need a bag of tricks you can pull from at any moment. And you have to be willing to go the extra mile if you don't have the light you want.

For a waterfall at sunset, you can just put it dead center and call it a day.

(photographer unknown)

But if you have an overcast day with boring light, you're gonna need to effort your ass off.

This photographer put the camera near the ground, found a great composition, included cool foreground/midground elements, and used long exposure to make the water silky.

(Stephen Spragg)

There is also the option to combine maximum light with maximum effort.

This is by famed photographer, Joe McNally. He shot at night. There is a hidden flash off to the right of the worker. He used a wide lens to get a unique perspective. He used long exposure to get light trails from the cars below. Oh, and he is hanging off the side of a building.

Light and effort. Light and effort. Light and effort.

And, as always, the third secret ingredient is... education.

Education will help you leverage light and effort more so than any camera or lens. Don't just learn the open chords. Learn those ones where you have to stretch your pinky out super far while barring the low F.

Sorry, I used to play guitar and a metaphor slipped through.

Free photography education...

Tony & Chelsea 7 Hour Course Karl Taylor Free Introduction to Photography

[stormbearstudios]

Simple Steps For Taking Better Photos: Bokeh

This isn't a guide on which camera to get or philosophies (arguments) on film stocks. The best camera you have to learn on is the one you have in your hand and for most people, that is a smartphone. You are doing great!

I have divided the class up across several posts to make it more digestible and to allow for more photo examples.

Here are the chapters:

Bokeh

Point Of View

People

Composition

Landscapes

Wildlife

Still Lifes

Street Photography

Documentary

Filters (optical & digital)

Phone Apps

The Fine Art Of Black & White

New Rules

Let's begin with...

Bokeh is difficult to get on smartphone unless you are using something like portrait mode on an iPhone.

Most smartphone photos look like this...

I took this shot in Arches National Park. It would have been cool if the tree had been out of focus or the arch in the background. But alas.

To achieve the bokeh effect, essentially the object you want to focus on is the only thing that is in focus, the rest is out of focus. Here is an example...

The spines on top are in focus and the background is blurred. Bokeh adds an artistic element to the object of the photo.

Here is another stab at it. This is from the flower beds of John Muir's homestead in California. Geeting this in focus was tricky because the wind was blowing the flower all around and the depth of field was kinda chaotic.

All of that said, there are times when you want foreground and background to be in focus like this photo from Utah.

Now, get out there and give it a try!

Next lesson is Point Of View.

[leslie057]

rating things owned by nancy elizabeth wheeler

because she’s got a lot of little things. mostly they are very cute and strange little things.

starting off strong we have the prettiest tissue box in the world. 9/10, i think if i were sick it would make me feel better to have such a nice tissue box.

i’m fairly certain this is her diary beside it because her diary looks pink in the upside down version of her bedroom. so this is probably it? 11/10, i want to read it so bad. and very sweet pic with mom—7.5/10.

next up these pinstripe pants !! 10/10 i love them so much. oh and the index finger ring is there obviously, 8/10, such a consistent piece of her character.

a ribbon for being the bestest girl ever in the world. 10/10. also the card of cardinals: 6/10, probably just a christmas card or something rather than a symbol of her love for birds. but i still like it.

mr rabbit gets 11/10 for the name alone. and why does he look dead. i love him. he’s me.

descent from xanadu: QUITE LITERALLY 0/10. at first i was SO excited to cheer her on for reading a sex and drugs book at school but as it turns out? bizarre and gross. seems to go heavy on nonconsensual stuff. i snagged a free pdf and command f’d for whore and bitch. lots of results obviously (one use of c*ck crazy bitch…lovely). it seems men in this book say a lot of sexist stuff that the women pretend to hate but love which i can’t imagine is great for a teenage girl to consume. also just not sexy at all.

literally so bad, and this is not the worst of it.

sooo bad. the author was what 70 (??) writing that his female character got clinically DIAGNOSED with being a slut for every guy she comes in contact with. i know options for sexy literature were probably limited at this time but…please go check out something else. i wanna bonk her on the head with this book (paperback) and hug her. you don’t need to read this to be cool and sexually aware. moving on.

on the other side of that, the blondie calendar gives us a sense of the GOOD media she’s consuming!! a 10/10 no questions asked. we don't really get to see many of her hobbies or interests outside of investigation so this is a much appreciated detail.

of course like all good things in life the blondie calendar does get replaced. its replacement is what i will call Weird Antinaturalist Art Piece #1 seen in her room in s4. i give it a 4/10 because idk what’s going on really.

and here is a very crunchy screencap of Weird Antinaturalist Art Piece #2 from s4 which i will give a 5/10. note the boyfriend typical photography above it, for sure a 10/10.

there is also Weird Antinaturalist Art Piece #3 which gets an 8/10 because i like the composition and the piano player. where did she get this and why. interior decoration is her passion.

the sleeping bag and crochet pillow setup. 7/10. would take a cat nap here.

pluto!! 15/10, the best mickey mouse character i would say. i hope her cousin is taking good care of him.

bulletin board 10/10. i love how obvious it is that she has had this up for forever. probably a nice constant in her life.

and my favorite pic up there is this precious one. look at herrr. 5000/10.

her floral weekender bag. 6/10, i like it, but not as much as i like the speedwalk and the toss into the backseat. she was SO ready for her lab takedown road trip.

trapper keeper is a 9/10 because they probably put anything and everything on trapper keepers back in the day and yet still she chose this lovely understated hot air balloon. elegant.

tom cruise poster is 1000000/10 actually. she is so loyal to that man. actually though not a great pic of him all things considered so maybe i give it a 999999/10. (i love it so much because i know for a fact that jonathan byers works proactively to never acknowledge this poster, because he is more mature than that.) (he is not more mature than that, in fact he is a little pouty about mr cruise.)

KITTY FIGURINE. 10/10. i thought it was just in s4 but i found it on her other nightstand in s1. very very adorable. i imagine it is now one of the first things she sees in the morning (well that and her blue telephone: 8/10) which is bizarre and cute. the mixtape drawer gets a 10/10 for reasons that i don’t think i need to get into.

white fingerless gloves! 10/10. so chic for monster hunting.

black fingerless gloves from s4. hmmm 3/10, they're cool i guess but they don’t feel very nancy and the white ones are so much better. especially because you may get the splatter effect of monster blood on them in a battle scenario, which would be badass.

piggybank (with her name on the side). 2/10 unfortunately i don’t like him. he looks at me like i took out his whole pig village and i just need some quarters. also did she paint this herself? in that case, 3/10 for customization lol.

pastel underwear drawer: 10/10. her committment to the hollistic aesthetic and color palette of her room is impressive here. it was a good idea to use this drawer as a deterrence against her little brother and a money hiding place but clearly he has no manners and is a THIEF.

STRIPED SOCKS. 10/10. i realize it's hard to see because she's moving so fast (slow down he is not going anywhere) but they are indeed stripey even though i would have guessed solid white. and wow what good sleeping socks. stripes are just cozier. hope she got lots of sleep in those.

[dorkus-mcdingus]

Fun facts about my TWST prefect, Rosalie

No real story here. I just wanted to share some facts about the girl you'll see in some stories I write. Also, I am a HUGE OC yapper so if you're ever curious, feel free to ask in the ask box! :D

1.) She's had her pink hair since she was 15 but she often used box dye much to Vil's horror. She also cuts her pixie cut herself too but originally (and much to Vil and Crewel's horror) she used kitchen scissors to get it and later school scissors. Thankfully Vil and Crewel HEAVILY drilled in the importance of proper hair care and they gave her a razor and barber sheers.

2.) Her original design looked a lot different and she was originally supposed to have more of a timid personality. I ended up going with a more boyish design so she wouldn't get detected considering that NRC is an all-boys school (No shame to anyone who has a more girly design for their OCs or Prefects. It's just a personal preference of mine and I just get super stubborn about canon details and what would work for her)

This was her prototype design (Like a lot of characters, I used a Picrew for the design). Some things remained the same like her pink hair, olive eyes, her round glasses, and her beauty mark near the corner of her eye but she is definitely a far cry from her original design. No lie, she looked really cute with it but she's definitely the OC that went through A LOT of changes both in looks and in personality. I do think Canon!Ro would definitely want to befriend her but Proto!Ro would be terrified of her.

3.) Both in English and in Japanese, her voice HC has always been Doll from Black Butler. Matter of fact, I always imagined Rosalie with a very heavy Cockney accent that would slip out whenever she would get angry, or whenever she's around her brothers, sister, or her old caretaker. Whenever she's talking with friends or speaking a little quicker than normal, you can hear her drop her common RP accent she had to learn and you can hear the little traces of her actual accent slip through.

4.) She's a composite character so there isn't really a certain Disney character that she was based on. I will say though, Haruhi Fujioka, OG Mickey Mouse (the shorts where he's a chaos gremlin), Mary Poppins, and Thomas O'Malley were big inspirations for her personality.

5.) Minus Grim, Ace was actually the first person to figure out her gender followed by Deuce and Malleus. Ace and Deuce were completely by accident (during the Heartslabyul sleepover in book 1, Ace walked in on her changing and Deuce followed suit after hearing them screaming) while with Malleus, she was the one who slipped out her real voice and he heard her in Ramshackle's garden in Book 2 (curse the fact that fae have better hearing!).

6). Rosalie has been dancing ballet since she was a little kid but quit taking classes when she was 15 do to schooling reasons. The style she does is a bit more on par with Russian style due to her teacher being from there. She still has a bunch of spare pairs of pointe shoes and she always makes sure to practice as well as do her stretches to keep her body well-conditioned.

7.) Originally, Rosalie never had much of an interest in photography but playing around with the ghost camera fueled her interest in it. Of course, Rook was always happy to give her tips to help with getting the right angle and waiting for the proper moment. Now she acts as the school newspaper's photographer. Her favorite subjects to photograph are her dorm, abandoned ruins whenever Malleus takes her on night walks, and Grim when he's in a food coma.

8.) Her brothers are based off of Scat Cat and his band from The Aristocats. The five of them are also in a jazz band as well and Ro herself learned to play the trumpet from the ringleader of the gang, Sergei (unfortunately, I don't have artwork of any of them! 😭). Their names are as follows, Sergei, Jamie, Alfie, Jialun, and Misha.

9.) Aside from the first years and Diasomnia, Rosalie also has a pretty strong bond with Vil, Rook, and Azul. Vil often gave her tips to care for her hair, skin, and health especially since he found out that she's a ballet dancer. Rook bonded with her through trying to hone her skills in photography. As for Azul (despite the very odd friendship they have and the fact that he repoed her dorm in book 3) he would sometimes see Rosalie studying in the lounge while she's having tea but due to merfolk's love of music, they would recommend each other music since they're both fans of jazz and they both listen to a wide variety of music.

10.) Some of Rosalie's favorite dishes (especially her favorite, bulalo) are from The Philippines. While she herself isn't Filipino, the woman who looked after her since she was a child is half-Filipino and before the O'Malleys adopted her, she gave her a notebook containing all of her recipes so she could make them herself.

11.) Her original surname before being adopted by her first family was "Bess" (her bio mother's surname). She unfortunately went through five more last names before the O'Malleys became her forever home.

12.) Speaking of her mother, her bio mother was twisted from Edgar Balthazar. Only, thing is that I did make her a lot more arrogant and greedy compared to him especially when her ex-boyfriend (twisted from Madame Adelaide) gave his daughter all of his inheritance when it comes time for him to pass away.

13.) I actually NEVER intended for her and Malleus to be a couple and I originally just had them be close friends. Still, whether it was through events or the canon story, I really loved the dynamic Malleus and the MC had. What's also funny is that her sister met the same fate when I began shipping her with a certain con-man fox. Although alternate partners I thought of for Ro were Sebek and Ace.

14.) If you were to ask her about her gender identity, she has a very "eh" opinion of gender as a whole and feels like anyone should present themselves in a way that feels comfortable, but she's always viewed herself as a cisgender girl. Although, due to her rather boyish looks, she does sometimes get mistaken for a guy but she just shrugs it off.

15.) As for her attraction, she's on the AroAce spectrum. More on the grey sides for both but unsure of the proper microlabel. Malleus was the first (and in the future only) person she's ever felt any romantic affection towards.

16.) Out of all of the teachers, she trusts Professor Trein the most while Crowley, the least (especially after the events of Book 4 and all the times he made her do his dirty work while trying to survive in the musty, dusty, dilapidated dorm that HE placed her in!)

17. Although if there is one thing she's glad the headmage did for her even if it was to save his ass from a scandal of accidentally summoning a girl into an all-boys school, it was to prepare ALL the stops so make sure she's never found out by the entire school as well as give her special "care packages" every month. Thank goodness Trein's a single father and knows about what it's like dealing with teenage girls...

18. Rosalie is a MASSIVE fan of thrifting and antiquing. Back when she was still in Second Star (the first foster home she stayed in), clothes from charity shops were all that she could afford but she likes mixing and matching different styles and patterns to make something her own. I would say the decades she dresses the most often are the 60s (mostly taking a bit of inspiration from the Teddy Boy subculture), 70s, 80s, and early to mid 90s as well as copying some of the makeup styles from those eras. Matter of fact, one the thing she wants to do with Vil is take him thrift shopping in the rich neighborhoods since you can get some amazing authentic pieces there.

19. Ro can actually see somewhat okay without her glasses but it's not as good compared to when she has them on. I'd say her vision is around 20/40

20. Grim is definitely the person she cares about the most (as much as she lovingly refers to him as a stinky cat and playfully pokes fun at him) but as much as Grim often gets her into trouble, she really developed a huge soft spot for him and same could be said with him. It was to the point where even the thought of being without him or him being taken away again is enough to keep her awake at night.

[thebramblewood]

Apologies if you've answered this before, but I was looking through your asks and couldn't find anything.

Do you have any advice on how you take such good screenshots of your game? You have such a knack for lighting, having variety of shots, and making them immersive.

This is so sweet. Thank you! 🥰

If I'm being honest, it's 90% vibes and gut feelings for me. I don’t have any formal background in filmmaking or photography, and everything I know is by sheer osmosis. There’s a lot of fancy terminology to describe why certain image compositions look better than others. I admire and respect anyone who purposefully keeps that in mind. But I am definitely not that person. I think I’ve watched enough film and TV, though, to subconsciously be doing the "right thing" - or at least what looks right to me.

That being said, I think the best way to improve is practice. If you spend enough time doing something you'll obviously get better at it, even if you don't realize it at first. So the most important thing is to give yourself the patience to grow and the freedom to experiment! At any rate, here are some things I've learned that will maybe be helpful to others.

Camera Tricks: We all know the camera in TS4 can be a little wonky at times. I use Buckley's camera mod. It hasn't been updated in eons but still works as far as I can tell. It gives you more freedom with movement, and I've found it especially helpful for getting shots that are lower to the ground.

Now that I've realized how sneakily useful first person camera can be, I also take advantage of that all the time. There's the trick of making your Sim look in a specific direction. (This works with poses and gameplay actions, by the way! For example, I used it to turn Caleb's head toward Lilith while he was trimming the bonsai tree.) There's the Dutch angle trick explained in this video. This is great for moments of disorientation and unease. I also just straight-up used first person camera to convey Helena's confusion upon waking after being turned.

Also, saved camera positions are your best friends. You can save up to five positions using CTRL+5-9. Then you just click the corresponding number to return to that position. I've used these for so many reasons. By taking two shots in the same position and Photoshopping them together, I've been able to edit Sims in (like Vlad below), fix accessory clashes (the book was in the hat category, so Lilith couldn't actually wear it at the same time as the towel on her head), and to pose Sims in open doorways (Helena had to walk through the door to open it for the Vatores, so I shot both halves separately).

Zoom: I love smashing that zoom button, whether it's zooming way in or way out. Zoomed out shots are perfect for establishing setting or as interstitial shots during a long conversation when you don't want to always focus on Sims' faces. They're also great for the draaama. Extreme close-ups are great for emphasizing emotion or a tiny but significant detail. Playing around with the extremes of zoom is one of the best ways to achieve shot variety!

Focus: I don't think Reshade is a necessity for good visual storytelling, but it does make certain things easier. I rely a lot on depth of field shaders to pull focus in shots. I like using cinematic depth of field especially in conversations to blur some characters while emphasizing others. I feel like this helps ground conversations because it reminds us there are multiple participants instead of always zeroing in on the speaker alone. Another way to play with focus is to allow the angle to mirror the emotions of the conversation. It's an older shot, but I always liked how Caleb seems to cower beneath Lilith's bat form here even though she's technically smaller. And in the recent conversation between Lilith and Helena, I kept the camera to Lilith's back to emphasize her vulnerability and discomfort and put the focus on Helena's reaction to it.

Framing/Angles: I do this by pure instinct, honestly, and have gotten better at getting it right on the first shot over time. I used to take half a dozen shots of the same pose from different angles and choose the best one. Nowadays, I'm quicker to commit and often take only one shot. I've learned that if something immediately tickles my brain, it's usually the way to go. I usually angle shots so that the characters aren't looking directly at camera, as it seems more natural that way. On the other hand, sometimes the direct to camera look can actually work in more confrontational or unsettling moments.

Environment: If I can help it, I don't do my own builds. In some ways, this is a disadvantage because I have to set up the scene within a space that wasn't specifically catered to it. On the other hand, it makes for fun little surprises, like the ability to peek in through a skylight or frame two characters within perfectly placed archways. I like using objects and structures to create interest when I can. I often don't discover things like this until I'm pulling the camera around and randomly happen upon them. I definitely recommend navigating all around to see what you've got to work with before committing to any specific angle. You might find one you didn't even think of!

Lighting: I do what I can with the game's lighting. I avoid placing ceiling lamps or at least turn the brightness down much lower, and I don't usually turn all the lights on in a room at once. I tend to change the color to one of the warmer golden hues to avoid a stark white that washes everything out. I always like when I can get some sources of light into frame because it adds a lot to the ambience. But I've also been using Relight on all of my posts lately. It's an addiction, and it truly makes all the difference. I'll use it to give light sources a stronger glow so they stand out more and also to create shadows on Sims' faces. It's also very good for flashlights and computer screen glow!

After having self-indulgently written all this, I'm not sure how much is usable advice versus rambling musings. I find it hard to give storytelling "tips" because so much of it feels innate and personal and hard to put into generalized terms. I also don't want to imply that every one of my shots is perfect or that there aren't a million other ways to go about achieving good results. But thank you to anyone who's made it this far, and I hope you found it worthwhile. 💕

[thefrogman]

Recently I took a panorama of the Pittsburgh skyline at night that got a positive response. That was done on the spur of the moment with an iPhone. I want to do that again and more, but this time with a dedicated camera setup. It's been years since I've had one, so I'm basically starting over again. I'm mostly interested in getting day and night cityscapes, and maybe the carryings-on at this year's Anthrocon. Would you have any particular knowledge to pass on as I set off on this journey?

Since you didn't specify a budget I'm going to assume it is in the $10K range.

And you're probably thinking I'm going to suggest a Leica. Every dentist and his brother (who is also a dentist) gets a Leica. But I just can't take a camera brand seriously when they charge you an extra $2200 for the privilege of not being able to shoot in color.

Sure, you can hit a single button in Lightroom to get B&W and save some money, but then you won't be able to brag about how limiting yourself to only shades of gray has opened up new artistic pathways in your brain while a clueless person responds in mumbles during their root canal.

What you really want for your landscapes is a Hassie.

They were the first camera on the moon! How could you *not* want a Hasselblad? That is some camera gorgeousness right there. And it's so reasonably priced*!

*compared to their previous $40,000 camera systems.

And if you are doing landscapes with the Hassie you'll need a nice wide angle lens to go with it. This one is actually quite affordable*!

*compared to their previous $8000 lenses.

Can we all agree that is a work of art? They even use their H logo as the knurling.

That is just so... extra. And I love it.

Out of the entire alphabet I've heard Hs give you the best grip.

Man, I almost wish I was a dentist just so I could buy a fancy camera.

Sorry... I was just having a little fun.

I never get to recommend the super cool expensive cameras. Because, ya know, the economy and the fact that only dentists have Hasselblad money.

You probably think I'm being silly but there actually is an entire community of dentist photographers keeping the high end camera market alive.

Okay, let's get started...

Landscape Buying Guide

Opening Thoughts

For landscapes I would highly suggest a full frame camera and a high quality wide angle lens.

Full frame has several advantages but it is not necessary. You can go with a smaller sensor like APS-C and get great images. Personally I would not go any smaller, but there have been some great landscapes taken on micro 4/3 and even smartphones. Technique, knowledge, experience, and composition will usually win the day over a camera, but having a nice camera makes things a lot easier.

At this point, with full frame options being very affordable now, the main reason to get a smaller sensor is if you want a smaller system that is easier to carry for extended periods and easier to pack when traveling. Or if you aren't sure you want to take on photography as a hobby, you can get an old APS-C DSLR for under $200 to learn with and test out.

So if you need a very cheap OR very compact system, APS-C and Micro 4/3 might be worth considering, but a bigger sensor will cause less frustration most of the time.

Froggie Note: The expensive Micro 4/3 and APS-C systems are the compact ones. The cheap systems are about as bulky as full frame.

The biggest advantages to full frame are low light shooting, lens selection, and field of view. Full frame cameras have many, many more lenses to choose from. And since the sensor is bigger, it is much easier to get a wider field of view that is often needed for landscapes. And the high ISO noise performance tends to be better on full frame.

However, you can use full frame lenses on APS-C camera bodies within the same ecosystem. They just get a little... zoomier. Roughly 1.5x zoomier. A 35mm acts like a 50mm, for example. So if you want to spend a little less now you can get an APS-C camera with a full frame lens and then upgrade to full frame later on without having to buy a new lens. Full frame lenses work on APS-C bodies but not the other way around.

Most landscapists have a really solid 16-35mm lens and that covers almost all of their needs. So I would suggest something comparable. Please don't get suckered into some crazy 18-300mm superzoom. Just get the focal range you need for the photos you want to achieve.

A purpose-built lens always outperforms one that was made to do everything.

As far as where to get used gear, I highly recommend using KEH or MPB when buying used camera bodies. They check every device and offer between 3 and 6 months warranty to make sure the device won't crap out on you. Lenses are typically a lot more robust and a safer thing to buy on eBay or Facebook Marketplace if you can find a better deal. But the security of having a warranty and a return apparatus if something goes wrong might be worth the extra price when using these two sites.

I am going to recommend Canon, Nikon, and Sony systems. I feel they have the most complete ecosystems with gear that spans all budget ranges. I'm not saying there aren't good cameras from other brands, but you have to remember every camera has an ecosystem surrounding it. There are accessories and upgrade paths and niche lenses that may not be available with other brands. I think Fuji has some tempting options and if you like the look of vintage film photography, their emulation options are quite stunning. Their cameras are also quite attractive and have very satisfying knobs. But I still can't recommend them unless you have a specific reason for wanting their gear.

Just remember that for every Canon DSLR I recommend there is a comparable Nikon option available as well. There are more lenses for a Canon full frame DSLR body than any other brand with Nikon coming in a close second.

So if you choose not to go mirrorless yet, the Canon and Nikon DSLR camera ecosystems are immense and have tons of gear and accessories available to go with them. And since used gear holds up really well, those ecosystems will survive for decades.

Should you buy a mirrorless camera or a DSLR?

Mirrorless cameras are the latest camera technology for interchangeable lens camera systems. At this point they are superior in every aspect and they continue to improve year by year. Because of that, used DSLRs have plummeted in price. This allows people greater access to a starter ILC (interchangeable lens camera) without a significant investment. You can get professional quality images on either format, but mirrorless has a shallower learning curve and much better automatic modes.

The in-body image stabilization (IBIS) stabilizes *every* lens and the eye tracking autofocus make "focus and re-compose" extinct. These are huge selling points for a lot of people. With IBIS you can take photos with up to 2-4 second shutter speeds without a tripod. And never missing focus on a human or animal or bird is pretty cool too.

DSLR camera bodies are no longer being designed by most of the major manufacturers. Thankfully Canon and Nikon developed plenty of bodies and lenses, so you will always have options and upgrade paths. But you will not be able to upgrade to systems with the latest advanced features.

The best DSLRs available are probably the Nikon D850 and the Canon 5D Mark IV. That is as good as it will ever get. The technology ends there. So if you want to enter an active camera ecosystem then you will have to get a mirrorless camera.

DSLR Camera Systems

Full Frame DSLR Camera Bodies

Canon

If you buy a used DSLR, there are some very affordable full frame options. In fact, the classic much-praised budget full frame Canon 6D can be had for under $300 right now.

This is an old camera. It has no fancy features. It only has 20 megapixels. It just does what it says on the tin. But it has a big sensor and a *ton* of really cool lenses available for it.

If you are specifically looking to create really high resolution panos, you could also look at the 50 megapixel 5DS R for around $1000.

There is a community of landscape pano-maniacs that love to create "gigapans" that have endless amounts of detail where you can zoom in and find new details in every photo. I was only able to create a 120 megapixel photo, but you can still find things like people starting a campfire and a dude fishing and a truck on a far off bridge. So even though this seems expensive for a DSLR, you are looking at another thousand bucks to find anything with more megapixels than this bad boy, so it is quite a good deal relatively speaking.

Nikon

Probably the best DSLRs ever made were the Nikon D800 series and you can get the Nikon D800 for $464.

This is a newer camera than the 6D with more megapixels (36) and a better sensor. It also has a more modern autofocus system and about 3 more stops of dynamic range which can come in handy for landscapes. This is an incredible camera for this price.

APS-C DSLR Camera Bodies

If you aren't sure you want to commit to this hobby, you can look into a Canon APS-C sensor body like the Canon Rebels and Canon 60D through 90D models and get good results.

And there are many Nikon DX APS-C bodies that would be great starter cameras as well. If you get a Nikon, you'd have an upgrade path to the D800 if you get hooked by the photography bug. I would miss a few very special Canon lenses like the 100mm f/2.8L macro and the 400mm f/5.6 telephoto but I'm sure I could figure out some reasonable Nikon alternatives that would do roughly the same thing.

Canon APS-C

There is a Canon 60D for $139 right now that would be perfectly adequate for landscape work on a tripod.

That was my first camera and I took some very nice photos with it. Only 18 megapixels but it has a very convenient flippy screen which was really helpful for a disabled photographer trying to get low angles.

This was in 2014 and I didn't know what I was doing but that is a pretty stellar-looking sunset for a (now) $140 camera.

Nikon APS-C

And the Nikon D3400 would be a great option as well at around $184.

You get some extra megapixels (24) and it is a bit newer than the Canon. I get the sense that used Nikon DSLRs give you more value for your money right now but I don't have a large enough sample size to confirm that.

Full Frame DSLR Lenses

Froggie Note: I am recommending full frame lenses even if you choose an APS-C DSLR body so you have an upgrade path. But also very few purpose-built APS-C lenses had superior glass. Just remember, crop sensor APS-C cameras add ~1.5x to your focal length. So a 16-35mm will have the equivalent field of view of a 24-50mm lens. Still quite acceptable for landscapes, but you may benefit from doing panoramas more often. And if you upgrade to full frame down the road, you'll already have the ideal lens.

Canon DSLR Lenses

If you get the 6D or another Canon you could pair it with the beloved-by-landscapists Canon 16-35mm f/4L.

Honestly, it is blowing my mind you can get that combo for under $600. Me from 12 years ago is super jealous right now.

If you are worried you might need something to work in lower light and still want a zoom, the f/2.8L starts at around $434.

This might be the most famous landscape lens of all time. Kinda boggles the mind how many gorgeous vistas this thing has captured the light of.

If you can live without the zoom, you could get a much sharper prime lens that can also be used in even lower light. A used Sigma 24mm f/1.4 Art lens is $439 would be a fantastic option.

24mm is still a very good focal length for landscapes and the sharpness of this lens lends well to panoramic stitches. Seriously, these art lens are so freaking sharp. Although 35mm is typically preferred for most street photography, I think this would do great for that purpose as well. It couldn't do close up portraits, but 3/4 and full body portraits would look great. I also love this focal length for doggos. It enlarges their heads a bit which enhances adorable-ness.

Though I probably wouldn't recommend the 24mm on APS-C for landscapes as it would put you near a 40mm full frame equivalent field of view.

Nikon DSLR Lenses

And on the Nikon side of things you could get the Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 for $399.

This is a great lens too. Very comparable to the Canon L glass. And paired with that D800 you would have a better shooting experience than with the 6D if it fits within your budget.

It's a little harder to find, but you can also get that same Sigma 24mm f/1.4 Art lens for Nikon at around $528 used on Amazon and in the $400 range on KEH and MPB when it is available.

The older and softer Nikkor 28mm f/1.8 is a little more affordable and easier to find.

What if you are not a dentist but are willing to save up for something a little nicer?

Enter the world of...

Mirrorless Camera Systems

Sony currently has my favorite ecosystem of mirrorless cameras and lenses and they are consistently ahead of the other brands as far as technology and features. In fact, many other manufacturers use Sony sensors. They literally supply their competition with their own tech. They are also pretty good about updating firmware—even with older models. So I feel like Sony has a lot of future-proofing advantages over other brands. Sony has a great selection of 3rd party lenses like Sigma, Tamron, Viltrox, Laowa, Samyang, etc. These lenses often have nearly the same optical quality as Sony's G Master lenses at a fraction of the price.

Full Frame Mirrorless

Currently, I think the best value full frame mirrorless camera for landscapes would be the Sony a7R III.

This is very nearly a top-of-the-line landscape camera for a little over $1200.

That might sound like a lot, but I want to be clear...

This isn't just decent. This isn't "good enough." This is a spectacular professional grade full frame camera.

10 years ago you could spend $6500 for a *worse* camera. 5 years ago you could spend $3000 for a *worse* camera.

It can do every genre of photography except for maybe fast paced sports/action. It has an amazing 42 megapixels—which are not necessary but they do make editing and printing a lot less of a headache. The file sizes can get a little big, but storage is a lot cheaper than it used to be.

Oh, and it can be used for professional quality 4K video work too.

The a7R III comes with all of the modern bells and whistles including in-body stabilization (IBIS) so you can handhold at very slow shutter speeds. It has one of the best autofocus systems—complete with eye tracking. But not just human eyes! Dog eyes. Cat eyes. Bird eyes. If it has an eye, the Sony can probably lock focus on it. And it has an admirable 10 fps burst shooting mode.

APS-C Mirrorless

If you want to enter the Sony ecosystem but can't afford full frame quite yet, you could do the a6400 for about $600.

You still get the eye-tracking and the in-body stabilization, but you will lose some image quality at higher ISOs due to the smaller sensor size. However, you can get the same full frame E-mount lenses for it and upgrade to a bigger sensor later on and not have to buy new lenses.

Mirrorless Landscape Lenses

I think a good value landscape lens would be the very impressive Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8.

This is a newer lens so there aren't many deals on used options yet. But this is still a great price for the quality and versatility you get. You will never regret spending a little more on glass.

The 20mm range can fit an entire cityscape in the frame without needing to do a panorama. But if you zoom to 40mm and mount the camera vertically, you could stitch together several photos to get well over the 100 megapixel range.

Also, the 40mm focal range is long enough to do street photography and even head & shoulder portraits. The wide f/2.8 aperture combined with the high-ISO friendly full frame sensor and in-body stabilization means you can shoot in very low light without a tripod. You can also get some great pictures of stars if you travel to someplace with minimal light pollution.

The cheapest landscape zoom lens I could find was the Sony 16-35mm f/4 at $384.

It's one of Sony's older lenses and may not take advantage of all of the a7R III's pixels, but it would be a good option to get you started in this system and upgrade the lens later on.

Mirrorless Prime Lenses

Zoom lenses are great but you have to spend more to get tolerable quality. Kit zooms can be softer than even the tiny plastic lenses on your phone. So a great way to stretch your budget is to get multiple fixed focal length "prime" lenses. Primes can be built inexpensively while still having good low light performance and decent sharpness.

For instance, you could start with something like the Tamron 20mm f/2.8 for $175. And if you want to do more than landscapes you could add the Sony 50mm f/1.8 for $170 later on. Cheap primes will outperform any of those mediocre kit zoom lenses in that same price range. You lose some versatility and have to deal with the pain of changing lenses or zooming with your feet, but sometimes a tight budget demands a little pain.

There is also a higher quality 3rd party wide angle prime lens that is very popular right now. The Viltrox 16mm f/1.8 is only $549 and the reviews say it has similar quality to lenses 3 times its price.

If you have to choose between a better camera body or a better lens, a good lens will help your photos more than a fancy camera body.

Froggie Note: These are examples. You should always do your own research before making a major technological purchase. This post could be a year old by the time you see it and there could be new stuff that is better. But all of the principles I tried to convey should hopefully guide you to a good decision. Also, feel free to message me if you want to ask about specific gear you are considering purchasing.

More Resources

This is my Encyclopedia of Lens Terms which is a helpful primer in understanding all of the wonderful and different lens options available on ILCs.

This is my buying guide for low budget used DSLRs. Similar to this post but less geared toward landscapes.

And this guide for getting decent landscape photos with any camera.

This is a free tutorial that teaches you everything you need to get started with an ILC system.

And this free tutorial by Karl Taylor is quite good as well.

[brickcentral]

🤩 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: SKABRAM.builds Hello everyone! It's time to direct the spotlight toward our community members, and today we will get to know better SKABRAM.builds!

"Hi everyone, I’m Bram and I live in the Netherlands.

I rediscovered LEGO when my oldest son got his first set about 2,5 years ago. Soon I found out about digital building LEGO and got hooked building MOC’s of one of my favorite things: birds. I created some of my favorite birds to display in our house and published the building instructions for others to build. That was all I did until LEGO announced the Icons Kingfisher set. It got me thinking about sharing my own bird builds too.

This idea got kickstarted when I got tagged in a photo where someone used my instructions for a bird build. Apparently there was a little search for brick built birds in nature photos. I got in touch and was encouraged to participate. Since I already have some years experience with wildlife photography this seemed fun. I emptied my camera bag, filled it with my bird models and went to a local park. And here we are…

I see my photography as the final touch of my MOC. I spend a good amount of time designing and building the model, getting it out in it’s natural habitat feels like a logic last step. I try to get as close to the real bird and it’s environment as possible and aim to create realistic photos. My approach is the same as in my wildlife photography: I want to show the bird and some of its surroundings. These surroundings are important since they tell a lot about a bird and it’s behavior and habitat. Since I’m shooting a LEGO model this is a lot easier than with real birds, so I got plenty of time to focus on composition. I often try to get on eye level with my subject and to find interesting colors or lines that complement the composition. Most of my images are composed using the rule of thirds.

I prepare my photos not extensively. I think about the posing and what I might need for it (string, stand or extra LEGO parts) and throw everything in my bag when I go outside.

I don’t take a model of a coastal bird to the forest, but besides that it’s just looking for the right opportunity. Working with natural light and shooting without a tripod makes everything very flexible.

My 50-400mm lens is very versatile, so I can shoot real birds and LEGO ones during the same walk. The higher aperture (4.5-6.3) of this lens is no deal breaker since I often shoot with higher aperture to include more of the surroundings.

The hardest part might be getting the model posed right. It’s not always easy to find the right branch to clip the feet on (not all branches are in system…) and wind should not be underestimated when shooting around water (yes, I had to fish). Sometimes someone is holding a loose branch with a bird model up so I can get the right image. To compensate for the inevitable movement here I increase my shutter speed (which is already high because I shoot handheld).

Combining my love for wildlife photography and LEGO has been a bliss thus far. Working with static models and a lighter lens has it’s advantages! The gear i use is a Sony A6700 Tamron 28-75mm 2.8 Tamron 50-400mm 4.5-6.3 Tamron 150-500mm 5.0-6.7 (used for wildlife only) I do have a simple Rollei tripod, but only use it inside."

Thank you for accepting our invitation and let the community knows you better!

If you want some insights on the exclusive picture and for a better view of the others, head to our blog at https://brickentral.net/.

- @theaphol, Community Outreach Manager

[pansylair]

hi sorry if im being a bother but like. how do you be creative? or just have creative ideas in general? your art is always so unique and interesting and so different but I always feel like im never creative or have no ideas. idk if it has to do with me just not being able to focus easily but if you have any rescources or tips or anything really that helps with being creative, if it isnt too much of a bother, could u share them? ty sm

so this has been sitting in my inbox for months, i’ve been wanting to answer this when i had time!

here’s some stuff that helps me:

- an inspiration board by your workspace of other’s work and things you find out and about that interest you and doodles of your own

- writing down simple poetry or prose that you can later attach ideas to

- planning out concepts and compositions more akin to how one would assemble a collage ie. layering very visually different subjects and text

- exploring other mediums! sometimes ideas come better in 3d than 2d for me, this also applies to the work of others you view, i adore some good textiles or photography or films, and leading off that, follow lots of artists!

- let your interests motivate you! wildlife and paleobiology and queer love and my fav video games always make me want to create

- lastly be kind to yourself!

social media especially dictates creatives should always be pumping out perfect, innovative work but sometimes you just need a quiet week. sometimes you gotta make “meh” work and not post it or have a messy, illegible sketchbook. thats how art truly goes.

i can struggle with focus too, i can catch myself pacing for an hour straight or sitting down for two hours and getting 20 minutes of work done and other adhd brain shenanigans but i try my best to be kind to myself and try to create an environment to accommodate that.

treat yourself with respect too, art is a process and journey and we deserve to enjoy that act of creation and vulnerability and expression 💛

[teatime-tangents-and-toys]

Tips for making good doll/toy photos with minimal budget- A huge post

When I started my outside blog Teatime Tangents and Toys (dot blogspot dot com), I was kind of just there as a reviewer, but I have always been a creative deeply invested in visual media so the eventual demand came to make pretty photos of my dolls and other toy subjects, for to explore their aesthetics and stories and give my blog some attractive pictures to highlight posts with and make you wanna read 'em. It's become the primary focus of my blog passion now, with photo ideas being a huge driver toward what I want to discuss. As such, I've spent a lot of time developing my skill in photographing and designing images of dolls from a home setup without a spacious studio or the budget or talent for stop-motion quality sets. I thought I'd discuss what I've gotten from this experience. My body-model custom Maudie (say hi on her post; she's kind of a staple) will demonstrate for a few photos.

All of this and most of my blog (save for edited digital compositions) is done on my Samsung phone camera. I do not have Photoshop. I'm not covering digital art stuff I've done in this post, but the program that's carried me this far, even when I really ought to have been doing things another more sensible way, is the free software Inkscape.

Level 1: Basic presentation; no staging.

If you purely want to show off a subject as a standalone piece to say it's cool and you like it, then it's entirely about focus and lighting. You want your subject to be legible and represent a true-to-life appearance so your audience sees what you see.

This is not your goal if you want to show off your subject.

This photo is taken in low light with deliberately low focus. If I tried to post this on Instagram saying "look at my doll she's so cute", she'd absolutely flop and would not do numbers. (Then again, I feel like I've been more widely validated on Tumblr in a week than I have on Insta in three years. My thanks to the lovely gremlins here.)

You can get surprisingly far with the phone camera even in suboptimal shooting conditions, however. Say a criminal was sitting by the lamp's light switch and was gonna throw me out the window if I didn't shoot with this exact setup...I could still get a better picture by making sure the focus was right and then tweaking the color temperature and brightness in the photo editor.

Still not perfect, of course. I could have tried even more for focus, and you can still tell this is a low-light photo.

Don't listen to the impulse to just use the flash for everything. That is Satan whispering in your ear.

Yes, it's bright and clear, but there's something uncanny, just a little, in my eye. The super stark shadow thrown behind Maudie makes the lighting feel as artificial as it is, and the flash doesn't actually brighten the scenery that much. Flash should be used for effect, not for neutral presentation.

Generally, the frustrating truth is that natural daylight really is ideal illumination for photography, but you can't tell it to stay around or reschedule it, so you have to be mindful of the seasons and light timing of your area, as well as extenuating weather that messes it up. Getting a good neutral full-room light should be sufficient for cases where natural daylight isn't available.

I get by with this artificial room-light setup pretty often, and it can be edited fairly well to match daytime photos if I want.

Sometimes I forget to turn off the warm bedside lamp, though, which subtly and disagreeably messes with the shadows and tint a bit.

My desk is neutral enough to serve as a non-distracting background. If you're on the next level of neutral display, you may have a sheet of paper unrolled from wall to floor to serve as a featureless white backdrop to put your subject on, which can be shot and boosted to make for a white void of isolation, but I don't have that right now and I'm okay without it.

Level 2: Pretty portraits

If you don't want to stage a scene but want a good picture, there are two big things to bring in--lighting design and backgrounds.

The very simplest background for a portrait, for me, is just black. While pure white is common in basic presentation, black is a dramatic, appealing option for a more artsy picture, and comes in handy if you work with spooky subjects like I do.

If you want an easy black background, what you're gonna want to do is buy a black craft board or deconstruct a cardboard box or something and paint it--just any reasonably rigid panel you can easily pick up and put down and lean against anything without it crumpling or slumping to the floor. If you paint your board, it does not have to be the blackest black, and go ahead and flip Anish Kapoor off, because you can easily darken the shadows and black out the backdrop in post with your phone editor. (The blacker the backdrop with the base shot, though, the less the rest of the image will be boosted in contrast when editing it darker. If the background isn't dark enough, you'll be boosting the shadows and contrast of the whole picture and changing the image significantly by the time the backdrop is a black void in the phone editor.) You can also color over spots with black digitally to tidy up the effect.

I also sometimes use a black velvet costume cape as the backdrop, but it attracts fur in my cat household like crazy and the logistics of hanging it are often obstructive and frustrating.

Here, however, I exploited the fur attraction by using pieces pilled on the cape to create the bubbles of this "underwater" shot as an in-camera effect!

Black cloth is easier to lay under the standing subject's feet than to hang vertically behind them, but this is useful to let the whole figure be photographed against black--otherwise, the surface they're standing on may not be part of the void. Two black boards at a right angle, a board behind and a cloth below, or a board behind and an already-black surface below can create a full black void background. If your subject has a lot of black coloring and you don't want their silhouette to be too absorbed into the background, you can light them just a little bit to catch the edges of their hair and clothes or sculpt or whatnot and make them more separate from the black void behind them.

If you want to have the subject as just a head on black background, most dolls are small enough to fit into a black sock that can cover their body and isolate their head, which will black out into pure shadow along with the background in post. Otherwise, wrapping with other black fabric is an option.

And I can't say enough for colored/patterned fabrics and printed craft papers to make a portrait more lively.

Every month, I'm liable to get another batch of printed paper sheets that suddenly are relevant to one of my subjects, though many return in circulation as useful designs. The really big sheets of printed/patterned paper, or matte-texture wrapping papers, are also treasures for staging larger pictures with. Most wrapping papers are glossed, which can be tricky to photograph.

Draped fabric and visible folds can be your background if that's your desired effect.

Next is lighting. I use small light sources (a mini desk lamp, a color-changing remote-control night light, a headlamp with multiple brightnesses and a red setting, and a blacklight flashlight) to affect the coloring and light angle of a photo. This can make pictures look lush, dramatic, warm, cold, sinister, or eerie depending on your coloring and how you light something.

Color can also be drawn out of regular light sources by using a colored sheet as a filter over the bulb. If I want two colored lights interplaying, I use the nightlight on one color and can add in the desk lamp with construction paper over the LED for another color.

The best way to color a light source would be colored cellophane sheets that wouldn't dim the light, so I'll need to look into that.

Black-and-white photography is sexy as hell when you've done something cool with your lighting, so always test a black-and-white edit or shoot of a setup if you've done lighting stuff!

As a human, your available hands should be limited to two maximum, so wrangling your lights can be difficult alongside your camera. Having lights rigged on poseable arms or stands or a tripod for your camera can help make sure everything is working as you want. I'm still working on that.

You can also use candles for lighting, though they typically don't illuminate as starkly or dramatically as you might hope, and they have an obvious fire risk. Still, in some circumstances, even paired with colored light...

(The cauldron is the candle).

Blacklight is always fun when you have a subject that pops under it, but the phone camera hates it and good damn luck making your pictures look like what you're actually seeing. If you find success, though, it's great.

The last thing is phone filters. Download the free ones available to create a palette you can scroll through in the edit. Any picture could perhaps be transformed and elevated by a specific filter effect.

Level 3--Scene Staging

So you want to show an actual scene with story or sense of place. Well, this can be done! My first tip is generally to favor indoor environments to set photo concepts in, just because those are easier to stage, outdoors has a lot of scenery that obviously belies the scale of the toy, and you might unjustly look like a creep carrying your dolls around and taking photos where people can see you. I also like working with the indoors because you can exploit a living space to create your "set" and reduce your work. Look for details and textures in the building you live in, and architectural features that could be reinterpreted for doll-scale scenery. For example, this bathroom set for Sadie to summon Bloody Mary in consisted of furniture crafted myself and poster-board walls, but the floor is the actual floor of my bathroom.

If you have room corners in your house you can use for room corners in tiny scale, use them.

Walls can be changed with printed paper temporarily hung up for photos' sake, or else you can make foam-board walls to set the parameters of your photoshoot room and paint or paper them how you like. Remember, you're only shooting for the camera frame. It doesn't have to be real. This was my horror barbershop setup on the inside, with a red windmill blade outside the window.

And this was the outside of the cardboard wall.

Only one blade of the mill was made, and the window was frosted cling wrap with stretched yarn forming the panes.

Furniture can be sourced through dollhouse avenues. Most fashion dolls and Living Dead Dolls fall in the 1/6 scale, and big doll brands typically have bespoke furniture you can source for very easy set dressing matched to them. Small dolls are typically 1/12 scale, and some dolls are irregular scales and hard to set for. Use these two common scales as search terms when looking for options if you've gotten something that seems compatible. There are other established dollhouse scales which are smaller. These scales have range and the proportions and style of the doll can affect how some furniture works. LDD and Monster High are very different shapes and MH furniture doesn't easily cross over to LDD.

Some furniture can easily be crafted or faked at home by assembling parts together. Tables are really simple so long as you have a reasonably sturdy panel and something to stand it on. Oven-bake clay slabs and wooden dowel legs also work well for tables. At my jankiest, I even put a ribbon spool on some Tinker Toys and glued some fabric to shape on top of it for a circular table I needed! With any set dressing, the more details you can include, the better the image will scan. Think about what's around you in real environments and use fabrics and doll accessories and whatever human-scale objects you can repurpose and reframe to make a scene more elaborate and believable. In the bathroom photo above, I used doll accessory pieces to show bathroom amenities selling the location better. In the barbershop, I used a Create-a-Monster doll as a macabre coat rack, included a door to the shop, and a sink and a broken mirror. The living room before that was dressed with multiple dollhouse pieces. Arrange and add and test photos and compositions to see what looks best.

If you do shoot outside, look for walls and natural features that are good for staging a setting with. It's harder to create outdoor "sets", but you can find small scenes in nature and buildings, and with creativity, you can do great things. If you have the opportunity to go "on location" during travel, embrace it!

You can also fully cheat the scenery and put your toy in front of a photo on a screen, but the size of the screen vastly limits the proportions of doll to background.

(If I could go to space just to photograph a Martian troll doll, there really wouldn't be any stopping me.)

I'm not the person to give technical advice on composition and framing (how to arrange the subject in the frame of the camera and make the tableau work inside the rectangle). Do look up the rule of thirds for basic official guidance, but I've really kind of eyeballed things myself this whole time based on instinctual "that looks good" or "that's not right".

Level 4: Insanity

Don't have an underwater? Make an underwater out of a tub in your basement, tie that doll sucker down with fishing line, and use colored dye powder to cloud the tank and hide the edges!

Make a whole tea table setting for your dolls! Five unique times!

Wait for snow and stage an icy pond by digging a hole and covering it with glass!

Build your dolls snowmen!

Edit your dolls into scenery digitally!

Paint whole fanart pieces and use them as physical props in your photoshoot!

Reflect your ghost characters off glass and stage the reflection in the scene (Pepper's Ghost effect; look it up!)

Turn your photos into dollhouse props and then turn the dollhouse into photo scenery!

Sculpt props themed on a character and photograph just those rather than the toy they're crafted for!

Remove vampires from reflections!

Write in-universe fictional documents staged as photographic visual recreations, like old newspapers!

(These are all things I've done, have published or will publish, and have run out of space to show in this post--it's there on Teatime Tangents and Toys. Good lord.)

Side discipline: Toy posing

This could come in at any level I've discussed, but some toys are easier to display than others. Fashion dolls are top-heavy and skinny-legged (and could have wobbly knees like poor Maudie), making it difficult to stand them unassisted, and staging could require some clever props to lean them on or some reworking so they'll be stable enough to shoot with. Some dolls stand easily but pose less and require their own workarounds to display well. Watch out for hair; it is so easy to miss some distracting stray strands in photos until after you've packed up the shoot, and scrutinize all of your shots to make sure there aren't unwanted elements spoiling the take before it's too late. Take multiple shots with minor variations if you're unsure about some setups just so you have options you can sift through in the edit, or even easy ways to test filters and experiment with extra pictures.

Conclusion

You don't need much budget to create prettier photos that still don't reward you much on Insta honestly get people on Tumblr feral-shrieking their excitement (thank you sincerely to everyone who has so far; it is the most enriching thing.) If you know how to light and focus and jazz up a space a little, you'll go a long way. Then again, developing skill will draw you into the photos becoming a genuine budget-ensnaring creative pursuit roping you into projects you never dreamed of--BUT you will be making great things from them!

[jellys-toy-collection]

i've just been starting to get into photography, specifically photographing plush! do you have any tips on getting a good photo? specifically how to get unique ideas for pictures with your plush! there's only so many times i can take pics at the local park XP i absolutely adore all your pics with henry and rainbowkitty, the composition and lighting are so stellar everytime!! thank you so much!!

long response oops ❤

awh thank you!!! that's so cool ur getting into plushie photography, it's def a super fun hobby! ^__^ i think the most important thing is just to take LOTS of pics even if you don't intend to post them. figuring out what angles capture your plushies expressions and silhouette best is the easiest way to get good composition i think!

as for coming up with ideas, i tend to do 3 things:

1. henry and rainbowkitty are always with me, so anything I want/have to do they're gunna do too. like if i want to bake, they're gunna help bake, if i'm gardening they help me garden etc. i like doing photoshoots so they feel involved.

2. i think about seasonal stuff that would be fun for them to do. like fall: playing in the leaves, pumpkin spice coffee, dressing up for halloween. spring: easter egg hunting, planting flowers. things like that c: pics for any holiday are always really fun too and easy to get inspiration for cause all the events, decorations or traditions!

3. i am always out looking for plushie sized things. i don't really go out of my way to find specifics, a lot of the time i just see an object that would be perfect for a photoshoot i never would have thought of, like the picture of henry and rainbowkitty mailing letters to santa i only thought of when i saw the little mailbox! and in general props add a lot to a picture or allow you to be more creative, and express the actions the plushies are doing better. like henry and rainbowkitty picking berries with a little basket, or gardening with a little watering can not only makes them feel more involved and happy but also gets the point of the pic across better i think. someone can look at it and immediately know what is happening. which can be important depending on the style/vibe ur going for.

sorry for the long explanations, i figured more info is better than less lol but i hope something in there is helpful to you!! good luck with your photography, i bet ur pics will be awesome! c: ❤❤

[sirfrogsworth]

Frogworth! I have a question about how photography circles might view this, and I hesitate to ask reddit because it can be so... Well, you know.

But, in online painting/drawing circles, it's typically viewed as unprofessional to allow any shadow to show in a picture of a traditional piece of artwork, like a painting, ink drawing, sketch, etc. Is it the same in photography circles?

I ask because I think it's fun to play with allowing light and shade of the natural world to intrude on the drawn picture, especially when it Emphasizes the tone and emotion of the piece.

I'm definitely still gonna do it no matter what because I like how those techniques emphasize my work, but I AM curious how you lot view it!

I'll be honest, I am not entirely sure what you are referring to. So if you could maybe give more context or examples, that might be helpful.

But I am happy to talk about the importance of shadows in photography. And hopefully by telling you everything I know about shadows, I will answer your question by accident.

Shadows are vital to most photography. One case I think of when shadows are a problem is if you are using lighting from multiple angles. This can cause some unattractive shadows forming in many directions.

(The following examples are not my photos except for the last one.)

It's kind of a trade off. If you want sculpting light, you just have to accept the cluster of shadows.

And another example might be in a photo with a lot of dynamic range. If you have a bright sky and dark shadows, the camera may not be able to expose for both. So you have to choose which to prioritize.

Or you can do an HDR composite and combine multiple photos.

I would say for natural light genres, black and white photographers specialize in using shadows for their benefit. In many cases, they make the shadows their main subject.

Studio photographers will talk about using hard or soft light. Hard light (small light source) reveals texture, soft light (large light source) hides it. Neither is better or worse, it just depends on the context. But another way to think of this is by the shadows created.

Soft light produces graduated shadows that slowly fall off and hard light produces sharp shadows.

In a product photography context, this showcases two very different styles.

Hard light photographers use very bright lights on giant light stands in order to get a very small light source as far away from the product as possible. They might even angle the donut-shaped flash tube sideways to make the light a tiny bit smaller. The goal is to get the sharpest, crispest shadows possible.

You can do this with the sun at high noon or on the moon, but those aren't very convenient circumstances. Otherwise you need a studio with a 20 foot ceiling and a giraffe boom light stand. The farther away the light is, the smaller it is, the crisper the shadows.

The other style is graduated lighting—where shadows get more and more transparent over a given distance. This is done by shining a hard light into diffusion so you make the light source very big, but it is brighter in the center and darker around the edges, enhancing the shadow fall off.

If you are really clever, you can combine the two styles.

The chrome caps have graduated shadows but the containers produce sharp shadows. This is done through the magical lighting technique of... taking two photos and combining them in Photoshop.

Sorry, can't violate physics.

In portrait light, playing with shadows is usually the best way to add dramatic effect. One of the most famous lighting setups is Rembrandt Lighting, modeled after the painter's oft-used technique. The goal is to get a triangle patch of light on the shadow side of the face.

But more advanced lighting setups will use shadows in all sorts of cool ways to add drama.

But one of my favorite tricks involving shadows is colored ambient fill light. Fill light is a technique where you raise or lower the intensity of the ambient light to make shadows lighter or darker. Typically this is done by shooting a light into the ceiling, making the entire room brighter. But you can also use soft boxes, reflectors, or gobos (a black, light absorbing material).

You still have the bright main light as the dominant source, but by raising the ambient intensity you can lighten any shadows.

To make this more fun, you can make the fill light a specific color. Either with an RGB source or a color gel. And then any shadow in your photo will tint that color.

I wish I could teach this technique to YouTubers because many of them just blast a colored light from off to the side and it can look pretty harsh.

Edge lighting should not encroach that far onto the face. And if it does, doing a fill light technique is going to look a lot smoother and more natural. Or just a giant softbox could work. (I don't mean to pick on Jessie, this was just the first example I could remember.)

You can even do a colored main light and a shadow fill and then the transition between the two will be a third color. In this case, magenta key, blue fill, and a purple transition.

And then finally there is the absence of shadows. This is what ring lights are *actually* intended for. They surround the face in all directions to eliminate as many shadow areas as possible. This is often seen as very flattering because it hides skin texture and pores, which is why it is popular for makeup tutorials.

Playing with shadows is a huge part of photography. A lot of beginner studio photographers will only think about adding light. When you start thinking about the shadows, that is when you graduate to the next level of light design.

Light reveals and shadows dramatize.

[attyrocious]

huge admirer of your art style and your skill, seriously, you are insanely talented. do you have any tips or suggestions for someone who is a beginner/wants to improve?

dfhgkl thank you so much! honestly feel like im quite detached technical-wise so i don't know what tip would be useful to starting artists vs beginners vs intermediate. so here's something that everyone can find useful instead: its important to surround yourself with things that inspire you. so like, artists you wanna osmosis artstyle from, art masters who share their processes, photography accounts you'd like to study compositions of, and peers that uplift each other etc. i used to collect ragnarok online art cards and pokemon TCGs to stare at when i was a kid and copy them. now i have pinterest boards for drawing inspirations and follow some Riot artists who posts their splash art painting timelapses. i don't have tiktok nor subscribe to reels, but i find most who use them only use the format for algo purposes and aesthetic vs showing their creative processes for educational puposes. long formats are better. for a more tangible art tip, idk. whenever you buy a sketchbook, go open it in a random page and doodle whatever. dont be afraid to get messy

[riftdancing]

99+ Notifications?!

99+ NOTIFICATIONS?! Tumblr what do you MEAN?? ALL I DID WAS SLEEP.

...And post my wrapped.

...And maybe a new screenshot of Siyoh.

We're not counting that last one.

Originally I had panned to try and respond individually to people, but the overwhelming amount of feedback and kind words on my wrapped has left me slack jawed and feeling many feels.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Thank you so much for your kind words and for appreciating my work.

There are a few key components to my work. Things I try very hard to keep in mind while composing a shot.

1.) Lighting: Especially in my after effects because it still has to match the original lighting of the screenshot. Which means things like rotating sun beams and making sure the reflection of light is bouncing off the right places. It probably helps that I did years of photography lessons with my Mother in real life before ever bringing this knowledge to the screenshot world.

2.) Pose anatomy & the illusion of motion in a still picture: Admittedly, its a hard thing to capture. I've been doing this sort of posing for years before FFXIV so I have lots of experience and first hand knowledge in knowing how bodies move and how muscles/joints connect. That being said, I still challenge myself every day to continue to progress in this area. Especially with occasionally pushing anatomy post where it goes realistically for the sake of exaggerated expression. Like how 2D animation will always show more expression than 3D, but I also feel like this is a difficult line to toe.

3.) Photo Angle and Scene Composition: Admittedly, I still struggle with this sometimes. In fact, if a screenshot doesn't get posted or chosen to be shown on tumblr or to other people, this is usually the culprit. I'm very picky about it. Sometimes I'll let a screenshot sit for hours and come back to it whilst trying to decide if I like the angle in which I captured the scene. I can think of at least five shots off the top of my head which didn't make it to the editing phase because of this. Loved the idea, hated the execution. Which is NOT to say I hate my work. I love my work. Even the stuff I don't post. But I believe its healthy to have your own sense of constructive criticism along side pride and love for your work. This is how we grow. I also might have deleted a few posts after growing frustrated with their final composition weeks after.

Here are a few examples of things which didn't quite make it to the cutting room floor or had their scene composition/posing revised into better shots. I still love them! I think some of them are great in their own ways, they just weren't particularly capturing what I was fully after.

So what does this bring me to?

Your comments. I am so overwhelmed.

All of your sweet comments touched on these three key points and I cannot express how warm and fuzzy that made me feel. It gave me such a HUGE sense of pride knowing I am able to accomplish what I set out to do. And I only ever want to continuously improve on that (and more)!

I'm going to set some new goals for myself in 2025. But all the kind tags was exactly the kind of motivational boost to keep me going in the new year and to continue to figure out new tools to enhance my skill set as I go.

Truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much.

[canmom]

rn attempts to use AI in anime have mostly been generating backgrounds in a short film by Wit, and the results were pretty awful. garbage in garbage out though. the question is whether the tech can be made useful - keeping interesting artistic decisions in the hands of humans and automating the tedious parts, and giving enough artistic control to achieve a coherent direction and clean up the jank.

for example, if someone figured out how to make a really good AI inbetweener, with consistent volumes and artist control over spacing, that would be huge. inbetweening is the part of 2D animation that nobody especially wants to do if they can help it; it's relatively mindless application of principle, artistic decisions are limited (I recall Felix Colgrave saying something very witty to this effect but I don't have it to hand). but it's also really important to do well - a huge part of KyoAni's magic recipe is valuing inbetweeners and treating it as a respectable permanent position instead of a training position. good inbetweening means good movement. but everywhere outside KyoAni, it mostly gets outsourced to the bottom of the chain, mainly internationally to South Korea and the Philippines. in some anime studios it's been explicitly treated as a training position and they charge for the use of a desk if you take too long to graduate to a key animator.

some studios like Science Saru have been using vector animation in Flash to enable automated inbetweening. the results have a very distinct look - they got a lot better at it over time but it can feel quite uncanny. Blender Grease Pencil, which is also vector software, also gives you automated inbetweening, though it's rather fiddly to set up since it requires the two drawings to have the same stroke count and order, so it's best used if you've sculpted the lines rather than redrawn them.

however, most animators prefer to work in raster rather than vector, which is harder to inbetween automatically.

AI video interpolation tools also exist, though they draw a lot of ire from animators who see those '60fps anime' videos which completely shit all over the timing and spacing and ruin the feeling and weight of the animation, lack any understanding of animating on 2s/3s/4s in the source, and often create ugly incomprehensible mushy inbetweens which only work at all because they're on screen so briefly.

a better approach would be to create inbetweens earlier in the pipeline when the drawings are clean and the AI doesn't have to try to replicate compositing and photography. in theory this is a well posed problem for training a neural network, you could give it lots of examples of key drawing input and inbetween output. probably you'd need some way to inform the AI about matching features of the drawing, the way that key animators will often put a number on each lock of hair to help the inbetweener keep track of which way it's going. you'd also need a way to communicate arcs and spacing. but that all sounds pretty solvable.

this would not be good news for job security at outsourcing studios, obviously - these aren't particularly good jobs with poor pay and extreme hours, but they do keep a bunch of people housed and fed, people who are essential to anime yet already treated as disposable footnotes by the industry. it also would be another nail in the coffin of inbetweening's traditional role as a school of animation drawing skills for future key animators. on the other hand, it would be incredible news for bedroom animators, allowing much larger and more ambitious independent traditional animation - as long as the cheap compute still exists. hard to say how things would fall in the long run. ultimately the only solution is to break copies-of-art as a commodity and find another way to divert a proportion of the social surplus to artistic expression.

i feel like this kind of tool will exist sooner or later. not looking forward to the discourse bomb when the first real AI-assisted anime drops lmao