Fujibayashi Kyou
Disclaimer: Before you start making comments on my pictures, do know that this is just my personal opinion with photography and I am just like any amateur photographer learning how to make photos look better without using photoshop alteration
Sunlight is a very imporant factor when taking daylight photography and sometimes, it can make some very natural effects on your photographs. Being sick today, I decided to take my figurines for some clean up and take some photos with my Canon Powershot S5. The weather was good and the rays of light penetrating the window cast a good effect when I was taking my photographs. As you can see above, that is Fujibayashi Kyou from CLANNAD (byKotobukiya) in my room. The background is casted out and the focus was on her.
With varying angles where the sunlight is from, you can create some nice soft or hard effects with sunlight. My room is pretty dark with curtains drawn and with sunlight as the only source of light, this is what i took of Kyou with the sunlight behind her.
A varying angle with some rays of light in front of her.
As most of you guys know, Powershot S5 IS is not a DSLR and is a pretty old prosumer camera as of today’s standards, taking day shots is still ok. Do you guys like sunlight when taking pictures ? (lets not talk about the heat :P )
Nayuki from Kanon
I love taking macro shots and in super macro mode, i took a picture of Nayuki with the sunlight behind me. The water droplets on her is because of the dust that gathered on her and dry cleaning was not possible so I have to use some water. Natural light is one of the most mysterious miracles that a photographer can make use of and take interesting photos and pairing it with macro mode, that was a photo I took above. Any macro taking fans here? :)
Currently, I am hoping to save up for a normal DSLR (haha..50D is too much for me, maybe a 450D will do ). So what would you guys recommend for a amateur DSLR wannabe ? Budget is prolly around 1.5k though :(
A closeup of Nayuki
A dusty Ayu. I gave her the water treatment too :P
uguu~
Presenting my all time favorite figurine – Tsukimiya Ayu from Kanon. Uguu~
A happy Ayu with taiyaki
A far shot of Ayu zoomed in slightly.
A sneaky hedgehog sneaking up behind Ayu and Nayuki..what is he up to ?
That pretty sums up my morning with my figurines., yup…cleaning up was the priority, took a nap just now due to the medicine I took.
The man who started The Banzai! Effect and Anime Banzai! (discontinued), took an avid interest in blogging and also photography. Integrating his interests with the likes of Japanese pop culture, he starts out his path on the blogging world 
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figma Nakano Azusa / 2,266 yen / Max Factory
Misaka Mikoto / 4,695 yen / Good Smile Company
Vivio / 6,630 yen / Alter
It is said that as one improves in photography, one is able to discern what is a good photograph better.
My old pictures were pretty shit as well, and the S5 while not particularly new, is modern enough to take very good pictures.
I must point out that you have severe technical problems in most of your photos, such as blown highlights, underexposure, focus issues (more like depth of field issues), colour balance inconsistencies, harsh shadows etc.
If you think these photos are good, maybe you should use your camera more often, read up on photography and practise more before contemplating upgrading. Getting an SLR doesn’t magically get you better pictures.
Finally, your attitude of photoshop being evil and cheating is just wrong. Even in the film days we had post-processing on the film, so what is wrong with PS or lightroom as a digital PP device?
@tj
indeed, there are severe technical faults in my photos, which is why i am picking up more by bringing out my camera often and no, i am not contemplating on upgrading a DSLR, just an option available to me.
and uhh..photoshop isn’t evil or cheating. how did u get that impression ?
ps: thanks for the comment, must learn more of the technical sides, especially the depth of field u mentioned.
Yeah! What’s wrong with Photoshop >_>
This tutorial for a light box thing really helped me with taking macro photos ^__^
How To: DIY $10 Macro Photo Studio
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html
Nice pictures, I much prefer sunlight to take pictures of over anything else. Synthetic light just gives off weird glows and makes figures look discolored. Often though, the sunlight doesn’t want to cooperate with me when taking pictures so I have to opt for crappy lights.
Your first paragraph implied that you didn’t like using photoshop, as though using it is cheating. Anyway, for people who think natural light is better, yeah it might be, but not in the middle of noon time! Getting external lights, like a flash for instance, is almost always better.
Also I wanted to say that the DIY $10 Macro Photo Studio (http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html) work REALLY well if you use it out side. It evens out the light and gives you a much more professional look. I really love it (mostly because you can just use stuff that’s laying around to make it)