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Quick Pic – Street Fighter Akuma and Ryu, Take 3 and Done!

I promise – this is the last shot of Akuma and Ryu! I mentioned yesterday that I wanted Ryu’s head framed by the fireball, so I made that minor adjustment plus repositioned his left hand so the palm would catch some of the reflection off of the fireball too. And while I liked how in the second shot it looked like Akuma was appearing out of the darkness, I wanted to see what it would be like with some lighting on his sides, so you can make out his entire silhouette. For this I used the LED book lights, as the flexible necks let me position the lights exactly where I wanted them.

I noticed too that the straps from Ryu’s headband had fallen out in the previous pics, so this gave me an opportunity to add it back in.  And finally, tilting the camera allowed me to fill a rectangular image instead of having some unnecessary blank spots in a square. The added benefit – drama! At this point, I don’t think there’s anything other changes to make (hence my promise) – but if you have suggestions, let me know.

Although this was not intended, you’ve have now sort of been through my process of composing shots – snap pics, see how they look, and make incremental adjustments… and repeat. But instead of this being in one sitting, because of time limits the past few nights, it’s gone over a few days instead. If you want to see the progression, here’s the first shot of Akuma vs. Ryu and here’s take two of Akuma vs. Ryu. Thanks for looking!

Quick Pic – Street Fighter Akuma and Ryu, Take 2

After I posted the quick pic of Akuma and Ryu yesterday, I realized that although I liked the shot, I was stuck in the two dimensional mindset of two Street Fighters on the video game screen. I hadn’t yet dismantled the setup from the day before, so I rotated the scene a little and lowered the vantage point of my camera.

I raised Ryu’s hands up so there’d be a few more spots for the purple light to shine. In hindsight I should have shifted Ryu to his right a little so that the left side of his head would have gotten some light.

threeA Toys Action Portable Fighting JC on Sale 9/5 (Today!)

I know the 3A site says September 6, but that’s because that’s Hong Kong time. For those of us who are timezone challenged, the Fighting JCs in 1/12 go on sale starting at 9PM EST today.

I have waited a long time for the Fighting JC to make it to the Action Portable scale, so I am all in! Don’t miss out!

Quick Pic – Street Fighter Akuma and Ryu

When I was taking pictures for my laser pointer tutorials, my Akuma from the Square Enix Play Arts Kai Street Fighter line was indisposed. I had actually ripped one of his arms out of its shoulder socket, as the hinge that allows the forward / back motion was fused and ripped when I tried to free the joint. The customer service folks at Big Bad Toy Store were great, and sent me a replacement figure.

Set up for this shot was pretty simple. I shot in the dark with a 100 ISO setting on the camera, so the shutter would stay open for quite a bit of time. I had my LED book lights set to the sides, but pointed away from the figures so only a minimal amount of light would shine on them. Then I used my blue / purple laser pointer and mad made sure to move it all over the fireball accessory while the shutter was open – that way the pic would get a lot of bright light on the fireball itself, as well as throw off diffused purple highlights on Akuma and Ryu.

Kickstart the Transforming Collections Toy Reference Book by BattleGrip.com’s Philip Reed

Faster than I could get a post up about it, in the past couple of days the Transforming Collections Toy Reference Book project on Kickstarter has exceeded its initial funding goal and will come to fruition. But Transformers fans, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t jump on this bandwagon to produce a book featuring those third party add-ons and accessories that make your Transformers kick ass.

Now that the project has the green light, any additional support will go towards the project’s stretch goals. We’re already closing in on the first stretch goal – at $1,500, the book will increase in size from 7″x7″ to 7.5″x7.5″. Bigger is better!

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