The trap in judging a doll from the official picture?

Many companys do over glamour the shots of their dolls, and DOA is ana amzing tool for finding owner photos of that doll. Volks does a graet job of as gaiaswill said "Undersell and over deliver" Resin Soul also has very simple photography for their dolls (But probably for other reasons that Volks) and my Lian I loved, but wasn't "OMG THIS IS THE DOLL OF MY DREAMS" when I bought her, I wanted a partner for my Long and she fit the bill. When she arrived though it was "Wow you are alot prettier than the photos" I do concern myself when looking for a doll if it will be the same (or even similar to) the web site photos.

 

I have never been "tricked" either - perhaps it's because my expectations are realistic. I KNOW the doll does not come with his own perfect lighting and photoshopped sparkles. I can look at the doll's picture, then imagine it integrated into my collection (or not).

Though it must be said, I've been personally thrilled with everybody I've ever bought from Iplehouse & Soom's sites, and their sales photos are stunning. It's just that their dolls are always even more stunning in person.

Then take the time. Just do it. There are no shortcuts to wisdom.

But there is DOA, which is crammed full of doll photos, thousands of dolls with thousands of owners who do different things to them. There is a fabulous Search feature. There is a whole subforum devoted to just picture-requests of certain dolls. What there isn't is somebody to make your decisions for you.

Of course-- if you're a gambler, just go ahead & buy from your initial reaction to the sales photos. Then see how many times you turn out pleased by the results. This approach works perfectly fine for some people. It depends on your nature.

 

As a beginner, I did make mistakes and bought dolls with features that I did not notice in the original company photos and they were new thus no owner's pic.

For standard dolls or dolls that have been released, yes it is important to look and look and look, it does take time but that is PART of the fun, I think. Not only will you find out more about the dolls (in many posts, owners will comment about their dolls especially in arrival threads) or you can always PM the owner to get their feedback on the body etc it will also help you save money.

For new dolls, I only buy from companies which I know so the risk of gambling is less

 

There was only one other Kizdoll Saiy on DoA when I bought mine. Now there are about five for potential owners to look at, but it wasn't always that way! My girlfriend and I took the plunge and bought him anyway. Turns out he is perfect for me! I'm completely smitten with him. I'm not sure I knew he had an open mouth either, but it made me like him even more when I saw it!

It would be nice if all companies included a picture of the sculpt without a faceup, but I'm sure that will never happen. I really appreciate the ones that do show the bare head.

 

That's what I'm worried about too ):
So I tend to go around viewing others if they have gotten the doll I'm sure there will be some photos without ps
Especially auction website like YJ.

but I guess the most important part of owning them is the "feeling".Not only judging by the sculpt but feelings I have for the doll
It doesn't matter that much even if there's a slight difference from the website .

 

At first, when I first started looking at dolls and looking for the one for me, I couldn't see past the make up and feel the official pictures have. To be honest, I still can't. I'd be really, really thankful if I could find pictures of every single head without any makeup, that way I can easily imagine what can be done to it... So always when I find a new sculpt I really like, I open up flickr or dA and do a search to see what happens when the doll has a face-up different from the official. Or, if it so happens the company has a picture of the blank head, I look at it.

I feel this technique works for me, at least so far it has... then again, it's a bit hard to say since I still don't own a doll of my own, so yeah...

 

Usually there's a photo of just the head sculpt somewhere on the doll's information page. I tend to look at that, particularly if I know the official faceup is a style I dislike.

So few people on DOA own the sculpt I ordered. ^^; So there are only two photos in the Database. Fortunately enough, those two photos were enough to convince me that I did indeed like the shape of the face.

 

I've made it somewhat of a rule that I have to absolutely love a sculpt when it's blank before I can buy it, so I look for pictures of the doll unpainted. And I do search around a lot for owner images of the doll - yes, it can be time consuming, but you're investing a big chunk of money in this, so I think it's only reasonable. And it's actually a very enjoyable process, because you get to see what so many other people have done with the sculpt. I've been surprised by the versatility of some sculpts.

 

I recently ordered a Luts KDF Darae and finding owner pictures of her were pretty scarce due to the fact that she was released in June~ But I went ahead and took the dive & ordered her! And now that owner pictures are showing up, I don't feel any regrets... yet. XD

But I also ordered my Calla, even though I couldn't find any owner photos of her online and I'm in LOVE with her!

 

Haha yes, Volks is notorious for having awful default pictures of their dolls! I used to really dislike Volks Suiseiseki. The sculpt just wasn't very cute in the defaults. Last summer I saw Dejavudea's Suiseiseki in person, and well... Needless to say, I have my own Suiseiseki now, still with the default face-up which looks fine in anything but the original photos.

The only time so far that I have ever been completely comfortable with only seeing a company's default face-up and nothing else is with my latest doll purchase, Fairyland Chloe. One of my friends has I don't know how many Minifees, and they are very true to the site pictures. Any other time I have bought a doll, I have searched for every picture possible on the doll and then looked through the folder countless times.