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Lejays17 · 02-14-2022, 05:56 PM

The shot is so cool with the lifguard travelling past at just the right moment.

I've been enjoying the anklyosaur week photos a lot - such a variety of pcitures you've managed with the animal.

I think my favourit is the Pinkys playing fetch. But the consequence of poking it made me laugh a lot.

davidd · (This post was last modified: 02-15-2022, 10:41 AM by davidd.)

(02-14-2022, 05:56 PM)Lejays17 Wrote: I've been enjoying the anklyosaur week photos a lot....

I'm happy to hear that. Ankylosaur Week is a fun little diversion the second week of February... on those years when I remember it!

14 February - A Doll A Day 2022:

14 February - Barbie & Ken Halloween Party Gift Set: Pirates

Picked this up cheap via eBay last week. I believe it is a 1998 release, so it's pushing a quarter century in age. My intent when making this purchase was to try the costumes on other dolls and figures. Now that the set has arrived, it is in such nice condition that I am hesitant to open it. I mean... somebody took remarkable care of it for twenty-four years!

But... these sets, mint-in-box, are quite common on eBay. The asking price is not always as reasonable as what I paid, but they are not ex-pensive or "valuable" either, and they are certainly not rare or even uncommon.

I saw a comment about this set somewhere online that I found amusing. Somebody pointed out that part of the charm of the set is that the figures are not actually meant to be pirates; rather, they are wearing pirate costumes for Halloween!

Speaking of Barbie, many of you guys probably did not see the Rocket Mortgage TV commercial featuring Barbie and her Dreamhouse that aired during the American Super Bowl football broadcast. I happened to catch it live, and I was totally cracking up! Apparently others agreed - the ad was ranked as the best commercial among the Super Bowl ads. Here are a couple of links; maybe one of them will work for non-US viewers:

https://www.yahoo.com/now/anna-kendrick-...09694.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukLeyxOA8uk

Alliecat · 02-15-2022, 01:50 PM

Oh right, there was some kind of football or something this weekend, wasn't there...
Funny commercial.
You know what I think about unboxing! LOL

Elfy · 02-15-2022, 04:00 PM

Barbie and Ken pirates. I love that!

davidd · (This post was last modified: 02-16-2022, 09:17 AM by davidd.)

(02-15-2022, 01:50 PM)Alliecat Wrote: You know what I think about unboxing!

Don't worry - they will escape from the brig soon!

(02-15-2022, 04:00 PM)Elfy Wrote: Barbie and Ken pirates. I love that!

Yeah, it's a fun set! I'm enjoying it for a little while all cute and boxed, but I'm looking forward to opening up the carton and playing with them!

15 February - A Doll A Day 2022:

Today we shall journey Behind the Scenes with The Star Patrol!

Here's a look at how to quickly put together a fairly convincing space ship interior. Well, I'm convinced. Your standards may be higher.

First, here are a couple of demo photos. All I did in "post-production" was adjust saturation and contrast and sharpness using basic software:

Here's how I assembled the set: a few random bits of cardboard and styrofoam (polystyrene) packing material salvaged from the trash and recycling bins and less than five minutes with spray paint. I use three colours of paint: flat black, flat grey primer, and flat rust primer.

Here's my fancy lighting setup - a desk lamp and a flashlight (electric torch). I turn off the main room lights, and dial back the ex-posure compensation on the camera by 1-1/3 f/stops. Otherwise, the camera is fully automatic. I move the desk lamp around, and sometimes hold it by hand, to continually change the lighting angles and create different shadows, while shooting a lot of images, most of which end up being discarded.

There ya go! Space ship interiors do not need to be fancy, especially for run-down smuggler and pirate space ships!

I have a few old canned food tins I still need to mist with paint, then I will add them to these scenes when I need to suggest a cargo hold or warehouse.

If I'm feeling ambitious, I will sometimes perform additional post-production image editing using inex-pensive or free iPad apps. The two apps I use most frequently are called PhotoToaster and Mextures. I did not use anything on the images seen here other than the basic image editing slider controls for contrast, highlights, saturation, and vignette (gotta keep those corners dark and spooky).

Elfy · (This post was last modified: 02-16-2022, 03:46 PM by Elfy.)

Are we going to get some real space pirates?

Alliecat · 02-16-2022, 05:25 PM

I love behind-the-scenes shots!! Thanks for sharing these. yay

It helps to have interesting shaped packing material. But you still have to know how to tweak it. This was cool.
My little desk lamp seems to be much too bright to do something like that with. It just lights everything up. What kind of bulb do you have in it?

davidd · 02-17-2022, 06:40 AM

(02-16-2022, 05:25 PM)Alliecat Wrote: My little desk lamp seems to be much too bright to do something like that with. It just lights everything up. What kind of bulb do you have in it?

This is an LED desk lamp. I believe it has several built-in mini LED lamps. It's only rated a 7 watts, so I don't know how that compares to "real" bulbs aka classic incandescent wattage. I would estimate around 40 watts.

I do not put the lamp as close to the scene as it appears in this photo. Usually it is anywhere between 2 feet and 4 feet away (60cm - 1.2 m) from the scene. Often I hold the lamp with one hand and a camera in the other, so I can move the light while I'm snapping pictures.

Another thing I do is put a diffuser over the lamp to cut the intensity and even out the lighting. By "diffuser" I mean something really fancy... like a Kleenex tissue or a plastic grocery bag.

16 February - A Doll A Day 2022:

16 February - Elvis Wuz Here!

Alliecat · 02-17-2022, 12:20 PM

They're so cute. They look like a lot of fun to travel with.
Before I had the digital SLR and was just using the little pocket Optio, I tried attenuating the flash with a kleenex but it didn't work too well, and the "white" kleenex somehow made a real colour cast in the photo.