27 January 2009

Haruhi goes to school ....

Suzumiya Haruhi goes to my campus.

...literally. Influenced by Adun's outdoor photoshoot, i decided to grab Alter's Haruhi, go to my campus, and do a figure photo session there, so yeah just as the title implies: Haruhi goes to (my) school... literally. Anyway, even this post is about outdoor photo session, I'll still add my review here.


Photo session done around campus' pond.

My campus was open at that day (16 January) when i did this photo session. The campus was open for administration but no lecture at all, so just as i expected there were only small number of people back then. I can freely grab my Haruhi around the campus and photograph it without any disturbance (people watching with weird thinking).


Haruhi's face, it's kinda rare to see this expression.

So this is Suzumiya Haruhi, my favorite character, and it's manufactured by Alter, my favorite manufacturer. Just as expected of Alter, the quality of this figure is excellent. The only thing that bothers me is her skin color, it's just too pale. Eventhough it's Alter's characteristic, i just can't bring myself to like it that much.


Back at home for indoor shot again...

Ooops... What's this white bg doing in this figure outdoor photo session? Well, i missed some details and photos while I'm doing the outdoor session, so i took this photo after i was back at my house. It's pretty hard to take outdoor photos, depending on the location.

Here a list of difficulties i met when i did this photo session :
1. Lighting! Sunlight could be harsh, shadow could get your object dark. So a wireless flash could help you with this. I used wireless flash from the left side (our left).
2. No EOS utility, so no direct camera to PC transfer, that means no more direct photo editing. Sometime when you take a photo and it turned out dark (underexposed), don't delete it yet! Left it untouched! When you arrived at home, grab that photos and open your Photoshop / Digital Photo Professional / whatever photo editor software you have, and edit your photos using level / curve / brightness contrast / color balance / whatever tools you want.
3. Must decide the right picture style and white balance, if you're using JPG. If you're using RAW, this won't be any problem because you can change it using DPP / camera's software.
4. Angle and position, sometime because you can't move freely you can't take certain angle. It's kinda annoying and it happened to me.


Dynamic pose = more fun experimenting with angles.

Back to campus again, Alter's made this Haruhi seems so active. I never knew / seen any illustration of Haruhi posing like this. It's kinda challenging to photograph a dynamic posed figure like this. You can experiment with some angles and find which angle is the best. I too tried 3 different angles only for her face. I'd say it's pretty hard to get a nice close view of her face.


This figure is one of my favorite!

A clearer side view of Haruhi. I took at least 30 minutes just for arranging and experimenting with lighting. As expected of Alter, details, paint, shading, and sculpt are all great. You could even compare it with Max Factory's Haruhi. I think this is one of the 4 best Haruhi figures in the world.


Haruhi's school uniform.

Getting her uniform photographed isn't as easy as it looks. Because there were some flower pot back there, it was hard to adjust flash position and camera angle. Moreover, Haruhi's pose itself isn't very friendly for lighting. So i came up with this unnatural light photo.


Another shot of Haruhi's uniform from different angle.

Because of that failure, i decided to take one more photo of her uniform back at home. Details and sculpt on the uniform are great as always. Wrinkles, folds, and shadings are excellent. The ribbon's also nice, with a wind blow effect. And even the north high symbol on the chest. Too bad Haruhi's body isn't very dynamite unlike Mikuru, so yeah i won't bother speaking too much about her breast size.


Avoid getting a photo of normal angle, try getting something new.

There's always something new if you did a photograph of a figure from extreme angle. Because the people never see a figure from extreme angle. Try to take a photo from angle that people never seen it before. Anyway, it's Haruhi's uniform from the back view. As always, you could also see Alter's great sculpt and paint from there.


Haruhi's left hand complete with painted fingernails.

Haruhi's left hand, with such a nice details. And also painted fingernails. It's painted pale pink, kinda natural but still visible. Even MaxFact's Haruhi doesn't have any painted fingernails, no wait.... it doesn't even have any nail sculpted!


Her right hand, you won't see it from the front.

Haruhi's right hand. This hand won't be visible if you see this figure from the front. I don't know why they put Haruhi's hand like this. Anyway, I never see a sculpt of palm line on a figure. Well even in anime you won't see any palm line, except Doraemon i think...


Haruhi's dan chou armband as usual.

Another difficulties i found when i photographed Haruhi outdoor. It's pretty hard to photograph Haruhi's armband clearly, especially if you want to make both kanjis visible (dan chou). In this photo i can only show dan kanji, the chou kanji is covered with her upper arm. The safety pin is visible from here, it's a very small detail looks kinda ugly if zoomed this near, but looks nice if you see it from normal distance (min 30cm).


Another view of Haruhi's armband.

Haruhi's armband from an upper view. No kanji visible, but it does look nice from up here. Talk about Haruhi's armband, I've seen a local store around my place selling this dan chou armband. Too bad it's kinda overpriced. My friend said it's better to make it yourself rather than spending some money just for this armband.


Haruhi's school bag, which i never seen in the anime.

This is Haruhi's school bag. Hey i think this is the first time i noticed that she has a school bag like this. I never really realized the existence of this bag in anime! XD . It's really greatly sculpted! Details like the belt, folds, zippers, and paint material are nicely done. I think Alter should add a small Kyon keychain on the bag XD .


Haruhi's butt isn't very... appealing from here.

Haruhi's butt... err, i mean... skirt. It's nice to see Haruhi's school uniform skirt, kinda sexy because it's pretty short. With a little lifting you can already see her pantie. Anyway, the wind effect on the skirt is nicely done, complete with wrinkles, shading, and stuffs.


Big H on Haruhi every figures' base is a must.

Haruhi's outdoor shoe. Well it's pretty normal so i can't really say things about it. The base is made from a pretty normal plastic. It's white and there's a sculpt of big H on it. All of my Haruhi figures except figma and nendo have that big H sculpted or painted on the base.


Haruhi's right leg...

Haruhi's right leg. It's pretty much normal for the shoe and sock. Her skin is just too pale and it can be seen from her thighs. Anyway judging from her body proportion, i think she has an ideal size of high school girl. Her breast isn't too big, her hip is at the right size, her arms and her legs are also at the right length and size.


Mandatory pantie shot, her pantie always white, i kinda expected pink or other feminine color.

And we're up for another mandatory pantie shot! Wow, she definitely has a nice butt, and it can be seen from down here. You won't get a nice pantie shot unless you drop her. It's pretty hard to get a low angle in the campus, so i decided to bring her back home for this private shot XD .


POI: her pose!

I think you could guess today's POI. I decided the POI of this figure is her pose. Well, i only had 2 special things from this figure i could came up. The first is her pose, and next is it's manufactured by Alter. So yeah, the POI is her pose! It's not the first time I've seen Haruhi so active like this, but this is a very nice original pose. It also pose a pretty difficult and challenging photo session.


Well that's it for now... I only have Airi photos backlogged for post, but i still haven't done photo sessions Haruhi beach, Nyx, Hayate, and Tomoyo yet. Moreover tomorrow's the start of new semester, damn! But yeah... new semester doesn't mean the fun ends here, it's just another start of my daily campus routine. So... just look forward for next post!

8 comments:

  1. A very lovely and detailed shoot. I think it's mentioned multiple times but her pose beats all other Haruhi poses out there.

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  2. The outdoor shots look awesome. I really need to do a few outdoor shots myself ... never tried ona figure before.

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  3. When figurine builders decide on the pose, I wonder if they consider that the buyers made take the figures for photoshoots? Hm, possibly not?

    Anyway, yeah, this is a perfect pose for Haruhi. It's great how even the nails are painted, etc. Looks like quality stuff =).

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  4. @Optic
    Yeah, it's one of a kind.

    @acesan
    Try it! It's totally different with normal indoor photoshoot, especially about DOF.

    @M12
    Haha, yeah i guess not. Most manufacturer made their figure based on official illustrations.

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  5. ooh i think I know that spot :D

    I dont really like her pose tho, maybe just too afraid that she'll lean.. especially when Australia is having 44 degrees 3 days in a row like now... had bad experience with alter figurine leaning already :(

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  6. @ron~
    Yeah, it's your previous campus of course you'll know it.

    Is it really hot that an air conditioned room can't reduce the heat?

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  7. Nice job on the shoot!!!!!
    I should start taking figures outside...for a shoot...but then I think of people looking at me all weird and have that WTF look...
    Looking forward to your next post!!!!!!

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  8. @Rin
    Yeah, my friends and my lecturers were looking at me with that WTF look at that time XD . Outdoor shot sure is fun, you should try it, and before that build up your courage to do it.

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