Hellooo! First DD on the way! 💖

Hi everyone! I’ve a DD Y'shtola on the way! She’s currently taking a ride in an airplane to me and fingers crossed that it’s not a terrible experience for her, lol. 

This is admittedly not my first introduction post, I made one a few years ago when her pre-order first came up and I was looking for learn more about BJDs in general (and that I did!) but unfortunately I couldn’t obtain the funds at the time to order her. So good ol’ Mandarake served me well this time and I managed to get her for an -okay- price. 

I can’t put into words how excited I am for her to arrive, I’ve longed for a DD ever since I first saw DC/CJ posting about DD’s on his blog way back when I was into heavy figure collecting, blogging and photography. Hoping to move onto doll photography and curious to see how different is it. If anyone has any great resources on doll photography, I’d be hugely greatful for some links! 
 

Photography aside, I’m just incredibly grateful to finally have a DD that’ll soon be with me very shortly. I cannot emphasise the amount of time I’ve spend looking at photos of her since her announcement then release, haha. Obsessed? Yes, yes I am. 

I’m looking forward to hopefully make friends in the doll community and fear for the next doll I become obsessed with, since from what I can gather, there is always a next doll. Hope to give Y’shtola the best home I can give her (at least she’ll have a lot of figure and PureNeemo friend? lol). Although I’ve taken to calling her “Stoli” as a nickname and I need to come up with a name that’s better than a vodka brand, hahaha. 
 

Much love,

Zai

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your first DD!

6 hours ago, Zai said:

Hoping to move onto doll photography and curious to see how different is it. If anyone has any great resources on doll photography, I’d be hugely greatful for some links! 

When starting out with doll photography (I came from mostly landscape, bird and plane photography), @Orchid's guide here was very helpful to me:

Unless you already found that one, it's definitely worth a read.

 

35 minutes ago, Tierparkzone said:

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your first DD!

When starting out with doll photography (I came from mostly landscape, bird and plane photography), @Orchid's guide here was very helpful to me:

Unless you already found that one, it's definitely worth a read.

 

Hi, and thanks for the welcome! She’s due to arrive early next week so it will be a looooong weekend of waiting for me, lol. 
 

Ahhh, thank you so much! That’s a very informative article, especially since it speaks of those who come from figure photography to BJD photography. I found the photography help forum almost straight after I posted this and facepalmed for missing it earlier, but now I’m glad I asked because I might have missed this one. Your help is very much appreciated! 
 

Btw, your girls are absolutely GORGEOUS! 😍

Wishing 'Shtola swift and specially safe travels 🙏 She's gorgeous! (and probably my favourite Scion companion in FFXIV).

52 minutes ago, Rheynna said:

Wishing 'Shtola swift and specially safe travels 🙏 She's gorgeous! (and probably my favourite Scion companion in FFXIV).

Thank yooou! I think her plane has now landed safely. Time for the poor thing to endure Australian customs. 😰

She’s a stunner indeed! I feel a tad silly getting her when I don’t really play her game but been reading up on her lore in preparation for her to arrive. There is a LOT of it! 😆

Oh, sorry for the assumption😅 but please don't feel silly for not having played the game, she is a stunning piece of art that can be appreciated wether you're familiar with the source content or not ❤️

Welcome. Y'shtola's a really interesting DD and I guess my nearest to her is Frieren who also has an ear-less head.

I'm trying to take more doll photos as I recently acquired the Sony ZV-E10. It's an amazing camera but I still know next to nothing about how to use it 😂.

Welcome and congrats on the first DD. Be careful though, they do tend to multiply pretty quick 😂

On 2/9/2024 at 7:42 AM, Rheynna said:

Oh, sorry for the assumption😅 but please don't feel silly for not having played the game, she is a stunning piece of art that can be appreciated wether you're familiar with the source content or not ❤️

Oh, no worries at all! ♥️

I’ve played enough to very, very vaguely remember Y’shtola as a white mage? Unfortunately my terrible internet couldn’t keep up with the dungeons needed to progress in the story without crashing out so I didn’t get too far. 😅

On 2/10/2024 at 4:43 AM, Xiongmao said:

Welcome. Y'shtola's a really interesting DD and I guess my nearest to her is Frieren who also has an ear-less head.

I'm trying to take more doll photos as I recently acquired the Sony ZV-E10. It's an amazing camera but I still know next to nothing about how to use it 😂.

Thanks! I’ve probably already mentioned it but I love these semi realistic sculpts. Would absolutely not say no to a DD 2B, hehe. DD Frieren is GORGEOUS, I’m glad that you have managed to give her a home! I’m afraid of falling headfirst into this hobby because there are so many lovely ladies I want, haha. My bank account is crying in anticipation. 😂

Good luck with your new camera! Mine is pretty old but still does the job, lol, although I used to do figure photography over doll photography so I’ve got so much to learn as well! I’m sure you’re gonna pick it up quickly and be great at it, I promise it’s not as daunting as it seems. x

On 2/12/2024 at 1:25 PM, ZaPpA_721 said:

Welcome and congrats on the first DD. Be careful though, they do tend to multiply pretty quick 😂

Thank you! Naturally, I swore this would be my only DD but I already know that I’m just kidding myself. 😂

IMG_6696 by Kendall Kim, on Flickr

i hope the image is working properly, but here is a quick photo of her from my iPhone before I properly put her full set together before I bust out the SLR! Nnnnn… I love her so much! She’s even prettier than I thought she’d be~ 

Just waiting on a few wigs, a new bust then some clothes to arrive. Absolutely not complaining about her full set though, she looks stunning in it! 

Welcome to the hobby with your first DD! Y'shtola is a good choice even if you're not an avid ffxiv follower in my opinion.

Do you want to share your plans with her? What kind of clothes you want to go for and so on?

On 2/26/2024 at 7:50 AM, Milk said:

Welcome to the hobby with your first DD! Y'shtola is a good choice even if you're not an avid ffxiv follower in my opinion.

Do you want to share your plans with her? What kind of clothes you want to go for and so on?

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Sure, ehe, I’d talk about her all day! Although I’m still just kinda winging it at the moment and have no set character plans for her… just playing around with a few basic ideas and seeing how she comes together naturally. I’d like to stick with monochromatic colour schemes for her so a lot of white, blacks and grey outfits with maybe a few pops of blues in some that will match her default eyes since I love the way they look.

Wig wise, I’ve switched her short hair for long straight white/silver styles although after playing around with black and dark brown wigs and seeing how great they look on her then I’m thinking of getting her some more cat ears to match those colours too. I’m not great at wig styling yet so thinking of tracking down some of those magnetic elf ears so she can wear her hair up without it looking odd.

Hello and welcome to the community too!! Ahhh, Stoli is absolutely gorgeous and I'm so excited to see more photos you take of her!! 💖

4 hours ago, ButterBiscuits said:

Hello and welcome to the community too!! Ahhh, Stoli is absolutely gorgeous and I'm so excited to see more photos you take of her!! 💖

Thanks! 💖

I need to stop being lazy and dig out my DSLR but currently don’t have any software on my PC to process the photos so iPhone photos will have to do for now, ehe.
 

She’s got a bunch of new wigs to show off so I might grab some of her modelling them some later today! Still need to get some clothes for the poor girl though, lol, she’s still in her default full set (as lovely as it is!). 

She looks so pretty please keep us posted on her! What kind of wigs have you ordered?

3 hours ago, Zai said:

Thanks! 💖

I need to stop being lazy and dig out my DSLR but currently don’t have any software on my PC to process the photos so iPhone photos will have to do for now, ehe.
 

She’s got a bunch of new wigs to show off so I might grab some of her modelling them some later today! Still need to get some clothes for the poor girl though, lol, she’s still in her default full set (as lovely as it is!). 

You're very welcome!

I completely understand the camera situation. I don't have a super nice camera per say, but it's probably better then my phone haha. I just stick to my phone and hope it decides to be nice to me because the end product looks nothing like it does before you take a photo.

Honestly if I had to be lazy about anything it would be about clothes. I have a enough clothes to make a couple outfits for my girls, but I've been really lazy to bother changing them out of their default sets. It also doesn't help that I've some how ended up with many shirts and no bottoms. I'll get it together one day though! 😅

I look forward to seeing what kind of outfits you get her and to see her in her new wigs!! 

7 hours ago, Zai said:

I need to stop being lazy and dig out my DSLR but currently don’t have any software on my PC to process the photos so iPhone photos will have to do for now, ehe.

Remember that you can always pull out the SD card and plug it into a reader to get the photos off your camera. There's also free editing software (e.g. Gimp for jpeg, Darktable for raw) if necessary.

It would be a shame to have your DSLR gather dust, just because your PC doesn't want to play nice with it.

22 hours ago, ButterBiscuits said:

You're very welcome!

I completely understand the camera situation. I don't have a super nice camera per say, but it's probably better then my phone haha. I just stick to my phone and hope it decides to be nice to me because the end product looks nothing like it does before you take a photo.

Honestly if I had to be lazy about anything it would be about clothes. I have a enough clothes to make a couple outfits for my girls, but I've been really lazy to bother changing them out of their default sets. It also doesn't help that I've some how ended up with many shirts and no bottoms. I'll get it together one day though! 😅

I look forward to seeing what kind of outfits you get her and to see her in her new wigs!! 

Glad I’m not alone! I haven’t much experience in phone photography (unless selfies count, haha) so just kinda winging it for now! My SLR is pretty old too and while I’ve had a fair bit of experience with figure/toy photography… a 1/3 doll is a completely different thing altogether so I’m a bit nervous about how I’m going to wrangle her into a semi-decent looking shot. 😅

Ooo, clothes! Need~ 😝
Stoli’s Y’shtola default full-set is pretty finicky, ehe, plus all black so even though it’s mostly white lined I’m terrified it’ll stain her! Finally ordered a couple of simple sets from Volks JP this morning though so she can pop something more casual on. And have some shoes/boots that don’t extend way up past her knees so she can actually have some articulation around her knees when she’s got shoes on, lol. 

And thanks, looking forward to seeing what you have your girls in, and what they look like! 

22 hours ago, Giragira said:

She looks so pretty please keep us posted on her! What kind of wigs have you ordered?

Thank you! I still can’t get over how gorgeous she is, ahh~! The wigs I have for her are 2 long straight silver ones in differing styles, a long black one and also a brown twintail one that the wig seller threw in the order for me. Didn’t think she’d look good in brown nor twintails but she’s adorable! I’ll upload some wig try ons for her shortly!

18 hours ago, Tierparkzone said:

Remember that you can always pull out the SD card and plug it into a reader to get the photos off your camera. There's also free editing software (e.g. Gimp for jpeg, Darktable for raw) if necessary.

It would be a shame to have your DSLR gather dust, just because your PC doesn't want to play nice with it.

Yeah, I really need to get off my bum and grab a subscription to Lightroom and Photoshop again! Especially since I shoot in RAW and haven’t even heard of Darktable before (I’ve been out of the photography scene for quite a few too many years now… 😅). I’d learn the free programs but I really am that lazy, ehehe… hopefully my card reader still works though! I wish I wasn’t so particular and fussy about the way I developed photos although having said that, here I am uploading iphone pics lmao

Thank you for the advice! 

17 minutes ago, Zai said:

but I really am that lazy

If you're really that lazy, why not shoot in jpeg (or jpeg+raw)? Unless you're dealing with very challenging lighting situations that's usually sufficient and a lot less editing work.

21 minutes ago, Tierparkzone said:

If you're really that lazy, why not shoot in jpeg (or jpeg+raw)? Unless you're dealing with very challenging lighting situations that's usually sufficient and a lot less editing work.

Because I’m that lazy and very particular (terrible combo, do not recommend haha).

On a more serious note since I tend to be flippant about everything 😅, I’m just waiting for my husband and I to get our budgets in proper order since we both need the Adobe suites for work anyway. Have been on a loooong leave due to the same annoying illness that had me have to put my camera away so I’m really looking forward to diving into some photography for fun again! Thanks again for your suggestions though! I love the creative control I can get with pure RAW files (in spite of said laziness, lol) despite my contradictory statements. 😁