About Photographic Accuracy

About The Stem:

You may see a long stem attached to the back of an eye in some photographs. The stem is a result of the production process, and it's not permanent. It will be removed before your eyes are shipped to you. 

 

About Colors:

Variations in color do happen, and should be expected.  Sometimes even within a single pair of eyes, each eye can vary in color. And the more colors an eye has inside of it, the greater chance for random variations. This is not a sign of poor quality; rather, it shows that each eye is individually handmade. So instead of looking at this as a defect, see it as something that makes your eyes more unique and lifelike -- because no two eyes of real people are exactly the same, either!

 

About Photographic Accuracy:

I try my best to photograph eye colors accurately. I go to great lengths and pains to capture colors as accurately as is technically allowable. However, it's impossible to accurately represent a color over a computer screen. Therefore, my product photos are only a close approximation of the actual color that you'll receive. 

I've photographed eyes over two generations of Canon DSLRs. Interestingly enough, I've found that both of these Canon cameras (despite one having a significantly improved sensor) have similar weaknesses for certain specific colors:

• Purples with blues in them, such as Violet: In blue-purples, my Canon DSLR usually exaggerates the blue. When selecting a blue-purple, plan on it being a tiny bit less blue in real life.
• Browns with warm/orange undertones: my camera really brings out the orange in these brown eyes. So plan on any warm browns being a tiny bit less orange in real life. Rootbeer, for example, looks a touch more natural and subdued in real life.
• Neons: pretty much every camera, not just Canon, has a bit of trouble with super florescent colors.

Please note, I'm only talking about a 5% - 10% maximum difference in color here. A Violet eye, for example, is not radically less blue than what's shown in the product photos... it's only a teeny tiny bit less blue. So don't worry that you're going to get a totally different color. You won't.

 

Do you Photoshop product photos?

No. In my workflow, photos never touch Photoshop.

I DO digitally adjust the exposure up or down (make photos lighter or darker) in Lightroom 5.

 

How to buy the right color for your doll:

Please remember that when I photograph eyes, I'm doing so under photography lights, and I'm doing so outside of a doll's head. Realistically, in everyday situations, your eyes will not be this well lit. 

Just remember this rule: The more light that is bouncing around the optical lens of the eye, the brighter and more saturated a color appears.

If you see a color on my website, and think "I really like this color, but it's about ten percent too bright and vibrant" ... then that's the eye you want to buy. Because when you put that eye into your doll's head, your doll's eyelid is blocking some of the light from entering the lens of the eye, which will make the eye naturally appear a tiny bit darker and less vibrant.

Open your package during the day!

Sometimes people get home from work, see their package form DollBakery has arrived (yay!), and open it to find... oh no! this eye is the wrong color! Then they go to sleep, and when they look at that color again in the morning, it's suddenly right. What happened?

Indoors at night, even when a room seems "well lit," it's still many, many times darker than a room with natural daylight in it. Bright blue eyes can appear navy, deep green eyes can appear almost black! 

So if your eyes seem to be the wrong color at first, don't panic -- look at them in multiple types of light before you decide that they're "wrong."

In the end...

I've never had anyone complain that a color they bought was radically or unacceptably different from what I show on the website. I'm probably making this all sound overly complicated, but it's really not... in the end, you should just select whatever color you love the most... I am confident that it will be one of the most beautiful pairs of eyes you've ever put in your doll!