Changing your mind because of owner pictures?

I always look for owner pictures, as company pictures will have perfect settings and lighting and possibly some photoshopping, I especially look for the quick snapshots taken in bad light, I figure if the doll still appeals to me in the worst settings and lighting, she must be great.

 

Oh sure - take 5th Motif's Venitu. Initially I wasn't a fan of the sculpt, but after seeing several photos from a local who ownes (more than) one I was sold. I never really noticed the finer details of the potential of the sculpt until I saw it blank and with other face ups. I think all companies should have photos of the blank heads, because sometimes the default face up just gets in the way.

 

it has happened to me quite often, so much so that unless a doll is a limited edition, i almost never buy one now until i get a chance to look at the owner pics and see if i really do like it. i almost never get a doll with a default faceup, or leave the faceup on for long if i do, so it helps to see what the doll looks like blank or with other faces, and at other angles to see if it is going to work for me.

 

This happened to me with the DreamingDoll Airi. The company photos were great but seeing some owner pictures made me a bit uncertain about her facial sculpt because of her defined jaw. In the end I decided she might make a better boy than a girl, haha. (For me anyway, she still makes a pretty girl!)

 

This has happened to me a lot with the iplehouse dolls.
Mostly it is to do with their chunky bodies and weird joints. Lately, it has had to do with the face up of the boys. I have been surprised how some new sculpts have looked in owners' pictures, they are beautiful but I do feel Iplehouse is losing its way a bit. It could be that I am suffering from saturation as well. I love a lot of Iplehouse heads though I do like their older sculpts more, with features which are probably considered less handsome and more striking.

 

This has happened to me a few times (not liking the doll in company photos but loving it in owner photos), the only example I can think right now is VOLKS Luna. I never liked her in the company pictures and always wondered what it was that people saw in her, until I saw Koyuki's Luna and she went straight onto my wishlist.
I can't really think of any dolls that I liked in company pictures but didn't like anymore once I saw owner photos, I'll edit this if I can think of one though.

 

I've had this happen with many fairyland dolls. I decided I wanted almost every female Minifee and after looking at all of them hugely narrowed it down to two more on top of my Chloe and Celine.

 

I also always check for owner pictures whenever a sculpt catches my eye! It's important to see what normal people make of the doll because a lot of company photos don't even show the doll right... like it looks different in their lighting, or they take shots that sort of don't show that the doll has a crooked nose... or other things that come out as problematic once you own the doll.
A lot of them seem to not even show the doll in full and blank!

There's both, companies that have HIDEOUS photos and/or styles and faceups for their promotional pictures, where as a buyer you have no idea of the true potential of the doll, OR they have gorgeous pictures but somehow most owner photos don't even come close...
Well, in between both sides, it's usually easier to make up my mind whether the sculpt is for me or not.

 

All the time. I learned early on with my first doll that company photos were sometimes a little more glamour angles than reality, so when I can I check owner photos of a doll I'm considering to see it from more angles.

 

The next doll I'm getting, Nocturne, I really liked the store pics, but not enough to justify buying it. But when I saw owner pics, I realized that it was a doll I just had to have.

 

Yeah I always look at owner pictures before I buy the sculpt. Most of the time the company pictures don't do the sculpt enough justice.
Doing this has changed my mind about a lot of dolls that I was planning to get, thus saving me a lot of money.

 

omg totally xD When I got my first doll I only saw two photos of it. it was a newly-released sculpt. No owner pics anywhere (plus, I didn't know where to look for them). Needless to say, I sold it soon afterwards.

Nowadays i 'flickr' everything several times. I can hardly imagine buying a doll/head without seeing the owner pics (unless the company pics are detailed and also without faceup & from all three angles

 

Well.. I just really love D.O.D Ducan.
It was love at first sight.
But after seeing owner pics I find it very difficult to make a choice.
The company pics are so beautiful.. I still don't know what to do.

 

I learned my lesson about trusting sales photos of dolls before seeing owner pics. You can tell more about a doll from seeing it in someone's home. I would never buy a doll now without looking at multiple owner pics first. It's a much more realistic view.

But the problem with comparing owner pics to sales pics, is that it can be the most beautiful sculpt, but then someone gets it home and does their own thing with the doll, which might change it's appearance drastically. I try to look beyond the things an owner has done with their doll and look at how it poses and sits and how the sculpt and body look without benefit of photoshop and studio lighting.

 

DC Alberta looks so lovely in the company pictures, but then I saw some owner-taken shots of that weird thing her nose does, and she went from my initial grail to no longer even on the list. Owner pictures did make me love DC Adas even more, though... and Supia's company pictures are so unflattering but owner pictures make me almost want to add them to my wishlist.
I can't even decide if I like a doll or not without looking at owner pictures - there's too much chance of the company using gratuitous Photoshop, one or two flattering angles, or just plain witchery to make a weird-looking resin hunk look like a million dollars.

 

Bobobie has some unflattering company pictures. I didn't know who would ever want to buy a Weylin from his photos! But the first time I saw one in person, I wondered who that noble creature was! I had to get one.


My Puck. (Bobobie Weylin)

Also, my very first BJD, Volks SD13 Link, was not too impressive in his website photos, but he was the perfect BJD for me. I'm glad I trusted my judgment in buying him!

Linda S.
galatia9

 

Owner pictures can be both a blessing and a curse because it can be really hard to replicate the specific look of a doll, especially if a custom faceup is involved. Also, when photographed, dolls can look very different then they do in person. I find this is true even with my own photos of my own dolls!

But I find owner photos to be invaluable in the decision to actually buy a doll, though. I turn to them not just for confirmation that I really love a face sculpt or body type, but also for wig ideas and eye color/size/type ideas. I find YouTube reviews to be helpful, too. It's really great to see a 3-D image of a doll before buying it.

I also try to find owner photos of outfits I want to buy. Production photos can often give a false sense of color and how the material will hang when it's actually on a doll.

 

Owner Pictures are what made me fall so hard for Luts' Abadon, specifically the Dreaming head.

 

Almost, one of my girls is not a very common sculpt and all of the owner photos looked unappealing .. nothing like the company photos but when i got her home she was beautiful

 

I get this all the time, but in more of a "the owner photos turn me off" way, most notably with Luts' Ttori. He looks so good in the stock photos, but the owner photos look like a completely different doll.