What makes a good photostory to you?

Pictures that actually tell a story, not just a mass of inconsistent, dim, yellow blurs with paragraphs of text to explain what you're supposed to be looking at. Thats why they're PHOTO stories.

Dolls that look at/touch/turn to the person or object they're talking about instead of just being thrown down to stare at the ceiling.

Dolls that look well groomed. If MY hair was a raging rats nest, that would be the only thing I could think about. I don't think I could hold a conversation with anyone about anything until it was better.

Pictures without text or speech bubbles plastered on.

If you DO have text posted on the image, then do it without using 18 different fonts and colors and sizes per page.

Text that tells you who's speaking such as "Name:" not color coded words. Its distracting and I can never remember who's who just by a color.

Proper English! You don't have to be fluent but saying things like "The cheese gazed goodly upon delicious eating people" is just distracting when you're really trying to say "They thought the cheese looked delicious" I stop caring about the story and just laugh at the translating instead.

Lots of noises like groans all written out. Particularly when spelled creatively. Like "FUUUUU~~" and "Kekekeke" Who ACTUALLY sits there and says 'Keke'? Laughs don't sound like that no matter where you're from.

An excess of punctuation. One exlamation or question mark is enough to get the point across.

Stories without a lot of human inclusion unless thats the WHOLE point.

And lastly, stories that don't take 4 paragraphs of explaining, or links to 10 past stories to understand what's going on.

 

I definitely agree with most of the above - such as text on the images is often too distracting/covering, and color-coded text isn't enough to keep things straight.
What impresses me in a photostory is a realistic finesse in posing the dolls (including eye-movements), images that capture an emotion, a plot that actually goes somewhere interesting, and a sense of humor that doesn't overpower the characters.

 

I don't mind text on images, I find it works well in humor oriented photostories because it mimics classic news comic strips.

I don't spend much time in the photostory area because usually the story isn't any good AND the photos aren't good either >.< It either needs to be some nice looking pictures or a nice compensating story or I'm not interested.

I'm also not at all interested in anything pertaining to any kind of doll romance unless its an absolute comedy. Otherwise its just weird. But that might be just me.

 

I agree with BunnyChan on most everything.

I like stories that actually TELL a story. I like humour for sure! Romance is good too, but it needs to actually be about the romance, not just dolls all over each other. Good posing is especially important, it should look as natural as possible. No weird angles, legs bent backwards, joints popping out, etc. Text should be limited to dialogue, not explanation. A couple of sentences setting up the story is okay, but the pictures should tell the story more than the words. Keep the dolls in character. For example, its weird for a doll to be shy, then do something extreme. Unless the doll is bipolar or the story is about him/her changing. Also, I don't like a lot of photoshopping. The focus should be on the dolls, not special effects. Its fine to add some stuff, like smoke or fire if you need it, but it should ultimately be a story of pictures about your doll.

 

I am a sucker for stories of unrequited love and love triangles!

Echoing Bun-Chan on about almost everything.

edit: I believe that awesome photostories can be done without a single bit of text because the doll's pose and eye position usually gives the emotions away. Some of my all time favorite stories had not one bit of dialog involved.

 

I learned a lot from Fully Articulated and Joey's photos, and I try to do it as she does it, because she does a great job of setting the scene, and the mood of the photo.

I also need to forget that the doll's mouths aren't going to be open at anytime.

Another thing I like is when the text is in the picture. I'm not crazy about the fact that the text is underneath. Sometime's it's above. Sometimes, the pics and text are so close together, I can't tell what's going on.

Every doll involved cannot be within the same shot. It just looks tacky most of the time

No flash (a given)

Please pay attention to your backgrounds. Something might be going on there, or something might be there that you don't intend to have there. Of course, this doesn't count if you deliberately want it there. If your stinky laundry pile makes an appearance, it darn well better have a part in your story!

I also like things written out in a script format. Like, I'd rather have it say "Dolly X: (laughs)..." rather than "Dolly X: lol"

I also have to know what's going on. It kind of goes with what I said about all dolls in the shot; don't put three dolls facing each other in awkward poses. I do not know who your dolls are, so I won't have any idea which doll is saying what.

And also, please, no crazy-colored text - especially bright colors that I can't read. It just give a very juvenile appearance. I get that you want to show who's saying what, and I can respect that. But you could have used a deep plumb as opposed to nearly invisible yellow.

 

this has been posted before!
http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?352784