Advice for shooting Urethane eyes (dollshe, specifically)

Hmmm, it could be the fit but that is a pretty dulled out blue. I was not sure which color of gray I wanted to use for my Genji so I bought a few pairs: RLM Grey, Metallic Grey and Aluminium. I ended up using the Aluminum because it was the brightest once they were in a doll.

I think they have good depth in both artificial and natural light as long as I can get a little catch light in them because there is enough contrast between the iris and the rim.

With the RLM Grey it's a lot more difficult since the color is not reflective and I do have them in a very sleepy doll. I usually bounce a light into them with a sheet of foil taped to cardboard.


At this point, I think I have urethane eyes in all twenty of my dolls, but I wouldn't say that Dollshe is my favorite brand to photograph. My favorites to photograph are Mystic Limited Series, with Gumdrops and DropRops tied for second. Dollshe does have a lot of subtle neutral colors that are all very similar though, so they work well for the dolls I have that are more "ordinary" people who shouldn't stand out in a crowd.

 

What St. James said.

I love Dollshe's Sea Blue and Field Blue colors, but the camera doesn't. This is the best photograph I've been able to get of Sea Blue, and I think the reason the color shows up at all is because the School B head has such wide eyes. The maximum amount of light is hitting the eyes, enough sclera is visible to pop up the contrast and bounce a little more light, and the result is decently "moist" looking, at least to my eye. Of course, I wish I had fiddled a little more with the eye positioning, so Aoi didn't look quite so deer-in-the-headlights, but hey. The spacey, messy-haired look suits his character, and there's always next time.

 

I have Dollshe Field Blue eyes in my Cerisedoll Eugenie and I have really only managed to take good photos, in terms of the color of the eyes, once.

Lovelorn by Lazul, on Flickr

During this photoshoot she was faced directly at the sun and was surrounded with bright white fabrics. I also had white reflectors around her to get even more light on her face. Even with all of that the color was still rather dull until I spruced them up in photoshop.
In short, these eyes are extremely difficult to photograph I think. They need a LOT of light.

 

You know, something just occurred to me tonight, when I was trying and failing to get my School A's Dollshe Field Grey eyes to focus on the same point . . .

. . . except for the super-reflective Aluminum and Light Blue colors, all the Dollshe eyes I've seen have the same "inward," dull look as (in my experience, anyway) recent Zouks do. I know this isn't a useful insight at all, but I feel a little relieved to have finally put words to what's been bugging me.

Back to Mystics and EDs for me. Darn it, I really like Dollshe's color range! I just want more glow and life in my dolls' eyes.

 

Funny, back when I had a DoD Camine, I too found the the Dollshe eyes fit really well and finally looked green instead of murky dark something.

 

Awesome~
Does anyone happen to know if DollZone (1/4, specifically) eyes are similarly as shallow, or shallow enough to work? I'd like to get the bright green DollShe eyes for my Hal-2 to mimic the company photos

notes to myself to bean them into my brain: a noticeably visible sclera to allow for color contrast, and aluminum foil sheet or mirror to bounce light into the eyes