Photoshoot’s behind the scenes

Since there are now winners for the Photoshoot contest and we’ve all decided that we’d just redo the old ones or make new ones instead, posting these pictures are now ok with my comrades.

I decided to do something Miku-related since she seems to be the subject, which everyone can relate to the most. I was also meaning to use the Gaogao saber and the Toko Amano, but we didn’t have much time to do the latter and the former was too hard to balance.

Focused on making photos that can be done indoors because of the rain outside.

We tried out different angles to see if there might be an interesting way of seeing the subject aside from the ones we’ve thought of.

Even the way you frame and position the subject can greatly influence how the viewer will translate the visual information he is given. It can make or break the photo XD

I like these two shots from the experimental shots we did.

We tried to shoot outside while the rain has subsided to a mild drizzle. Tried shooting at the clear ground park near my place. There are two parks right beside each other near us, one has loads of trees while the other mostly has grass.

Taking pics in a muddy ground while doing it as fast as possible, at the same time not wasting was a difficult task indeed.

We even brought a bunch of figures with us, so we were also kind of on guard in case of theft or even carelessly leaving them behind.

It doesn’t help that Miku was misbehaving and kept running around while Luka gave chase. We took the shot in on a slope you see, and due to the rain the slope wasn’t especially dry and it would sometimes slip.

Kagami seems tired from climbing up trees, it just dawned on me that we were all doing different Miku themed shots using different Miku products (figma, nendo, kagamiku) but we didn’t get to use the World is Mine Miku though.

And this is the other park I was talking about. If you do decide to shoot at parks or public places, even if its only for figures, you’d need to have permits to shoot them. Does the same system apply in your area as well?

Went to the roof deck of our place to shoot some more pics. Didn’t use these two pics since they kind of felt off to me. The picture which I submitted for the photo contest can be found here.

Went back to the room to try out other indoor shots since it was now too dark to shoot anything decent without a light source.

I totally dig this picture with the backlight taken by my friends, if only we had some pink, blue and green lights to act as stage lights it would’ve looked ten times better. Maybe even fog =D

I’ll totally try out the DIY lightbox one of these days for pictures like these.

By the end of the day the entire room was an absolute mess with all the figures lying all over the room.

I’ll be buying the Fate/Stay Night figmas from Kei as soon as I get my paycheck at the end of February. I still have a Hatsune Nendoroid HMO preorder to pay for and a camera/lens which I am hoping to get by the end of February or mid-March. If anyone has a great business idea I’m willing to listen because I’d like to buy some stuff to the point of being tempted to subject myself to a cup noodle diet.

We took some spoof pictures along the way such as this little picture.

Celebrated a job well done with some Mario Kart 64. Its surprising how some games can still make people smile despite said game being released 15 years ago. I guess that’s testament to how good some games are that they can stand the test of time.

Oh yeah, and the winners of the GSC photoshoot contests are…

3rd place. Poor miku being bugged by a bug. THe saturation and the bokeh effect here is splendid and beautiful to look at.

2nd place. This one has got to be one of the best K-On dioramas i’ve seen, complete with light bokeh. The girls even have their own custom made shirts as well.

Grand prize winner. simple yet beautiful usually wins these competitions from GSC. Cute blush mark add-on here =D Will soon post the favorite picks of the judges along with the prizes when it comes out.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in this exercise is never use the stand if you want your entry to get in. If you will use it, find a way to cleverly hide it, like the first place winner. Second is that make your own lightbox or diorama, relying on outdoor photography can backfire at times.

I’d definitely join the next photo contest since it was fun after all and I really should rearrange my Flickr folders. I hope I’m also able to do upload and blog wonfes pics which I’ve gathered all over the net this week, the amount of pictures there are NUMEROUS

9 replies
  1. bd77
    bd77 says:

    I also do some figure shots outdoors (provided that there’s no rain for the past few days) at a park nearby my area. Normally taken when there’s no one around when I’m alone doing the shoot.

    Folks here are generally have no clue on what I’m doing when shooting my figures outdoors.
    (for them, something that looks like a toy is toy for kids and winces upon know the price of the figure)

    p.s. I’m very Yuuka-like when kids (or anyone in general) trying to get a hold of my things…

    Reply
  2. Fabienne
    Fabienne says:

    I love the pics you’ve made with your friends: Tooko with the books, luka hunts Miku, The world is mine Kagami…, really great stuff 🙂 thx for sharing =D

    There were a lot of lovely and great pictures in this year, I should have participated just for the channce of getting the photobook ;D
    Well the pix I voted for didn’t make it under the top 3 as to be expected XD
    the 3rd place pic is very good, cute and funny

    Reply
  3. Miette-chan
    Miette-chan says:

    I rarely do photo shoots outside, troublesome not to be in total control as when I use my usual set up inside. Although given the right time the sun is magical when it comes to lightning. That’s odd though, public locations are public for a reason, a need for a permit almost feels like an invasion of freedom to me.

    I agree with the tidbit about the stands, I never really liked them in my pictures I think they detract too much from the image. That is not to say I don’t use them either, they are there in my pictures doing their jobs. All I do is be a bit clever with the position of the stands and the angle of my pictures. Perfect example is my BRS x Reimu picture I took a while back.

    One last thing, did you submit that Word is Minw Kagmiku picture? I love it, I would so have voted for that one.

    Reply
    • Duqs
      Duqs says:

      Well, some of the public places here need permits because some people do weird stuff which might push future visitors away (lol but really, hardly anyone visits the parks anyway).

      Nope we didn’t submit the Kagamiku world is mine because of a rule in the contest that states that we should “please refrain from damaging the image of the original work or the character”. Well at least we kinda saw that we can freely do loads of stuff when it comes to this type of contests from GSC

      Reply
    • Duqs
      Duqs says:

      I actually wanted to make paper sculptures of food at first, but time got the best of me. I think there was one entry with the sorbet paper there among the final 200

      Reply

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