Opinions on skin tones

Pixie · Post by **Pixie** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:48 pm

I've been looking at the galleries on the DS Doll US website and the skin tones have been confusing me. Sometime the Yellow looks like flesh/pink colour and and sometime the Pink looks almost white. I know that it can be either the lighting, post processing colour correction or my monitor, so I thought I'd ask for any owner's opinions of the skin types and how they react under articial light.

I would be interested in an asian styled doll, though even picking a head is a challenge (currently looking at Kayla, Jiaxin, Jiayi, Snowy and Youyi). She would be exclusively an indoor doll and most likely under artficial low energy lightbulbs that give off a "warm" light rather than direct/indirect sunlight. The surroudings & furnishing mostly fall between "putty" and brown (neutral paint colours).

This is mostly really for how the doll looks in RL rather than how she photographs. And while not knowing much about any skin tone variations of the Asian continent I would prefer it to look more like a Japanese tone (and I realise that this still has a wide variation) if possible as this is really the only culture I am familiar with from that area of the world.

karpos · Post by **karpos** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 9:20 pm

I know personally the only skin tone on DSs that I really like is the darkest one, I think they call it brown. It really adds a realistic skin tone that looks like a South Asian skin tone like a Thai girl or Filipino.

Bazinga · Post by **Bazinga** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 9:46 pm

Welcome Pixie,
As I was considering a DS too I was thinking the same thing, what color suits me best. I wonder if maybe can mix two of the colors together to get the right tint a customer was looking for. Actually, I wouldnt mind a light pink/ brown mix skin tone if they'd do it. If this sounds right for you a quick msg to DS and they may be able to accommodate.

Post by **jiayi** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 10:13 pm

Hi Pixie,
I thought you might like to see the exact same doll under varying light types and conditions. This is "Sasha" my DS 168 standard, light pink, with a sKayla head. As you can see by the variety of skin tones on the same exact doll, the only way to really compare skin color choices is to see all the colors at the same time, in person. Perhaps DS could send you samples.

haremlover · Post by **haremlover** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:46 am

This was the idea behind http://dollforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=55627

Some Japanese can be quite pale in skin tone.

I would think you can rely on the Asian skin tone to be accurate as in China they should know about it.

I'm guessing that

is lPink but she's inescapably Asian. Pale equates with beauty . . .

http://dollforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=64254 is the best example of the Asian skin tone among Chinese people.

Best wishes

Harem

Post by **mi6c** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 6:05 am

It is hard to make any comment that will really come across as there are way too many variables involved, but Jiayi's post is pretty good I think.
From my impression so far - and just commenting on the light pink and yellow - it seems that the yellow looks better if outside in daylight and worse inside with artificial light and the light pink exactly the other way round.
As for the brown tone - I find it immensely hard to describe - but it sure looks very interesting in reality.
DS Doll Europe has a heap of reference pictures in the vendors section here that may be of help.

Kind regards.

dogfather · Post by **dogfather** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 6:33 pm

Pixie wrote:This is mostly really for how the doll looks in RL rather than how she photographs.

Skin tone could appears drastically different in real life compared to the dolls showing in professonally taken photos
In this case having seen the DS colour samples in real life, I can confirm that the colour samples shown in haremlover's photo are very accurate.
The appearance of their colours are identical to the ones I have, even when seeing them in real life under indoor's lighting

haremlover wrote:

In regards to the Asian skin tone, personally I find DS' yellow is a little too much 'yellowy' comparing to an Asian RG
a typical Asian girl's skin tone (who've spent a healthy length of time in her life being outdoor) usually appears a little more 'dull' in colour tone and a tiny bit more 'brownish' than 'yellowy' in comparison

haremlover · Post by **haremlover** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 6:54 pm

dogfather wrote:I can confirm that the colour samples shown in haremlover's photo are very accurate.
The appearance of their colours are identical to the ones I have, even when seeing them in real life under indoor's lighting

In doing these I was very particular in aiming for proper white balance and choosing middle of the day perfect sunshine in the south of France to ensure the best possible accuracy, and am glad that this has been confirmed.

Seeing Chloé next to a pink person and suntanned people was very interesting -

: normal_DSCF5221colourcorrected.jpg (82.47 KiB) Viewed 2781 times

although bear in mind that the sand was possibly a little yellower than this.

Photos I've seen of the new brown colour seem to present themselves as very dark.

Chloé presents herself well in sunshine but in cloudy weather or shade is a shade too blue or grey. Photos I've seen of the Asian colour come out well and I have two heads acquired in error in the Asian yellow shade: they are very close to the lPink in intensity.

Photographically I think it's better to err on the lighter side.

Remember also that DS applies orange or red shading subtly on the body bringing a tone darker. In view of that, the asian colour is going to look quite close to some of the lighter tanned colours on the beach and you can always ask Steven or John to apply extra attention to shading.

Best wishes

Harem

Post by **DS Doll Europe** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 7:38 pm

Hi Pixie,

for the Brown skin tone, you might want to have a look at http://dollforum.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 30#p790330. It shows a DS168 under various lightning conditions. The Yellow skin tone also changes with the light, but the changes are less drastic. The least changes has LPink.

Greetings,
Sandro

Andyburt123 · Post by **Andyburt123** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 8:58 pm

Awesome Dolls, I like the lightest skin tone. Always been attracted to pale skin girls.

Pixie · Post by **Pixie** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 10:52 pm

Thanks for the replies. Does anyone know if those samples are available to buy? When you're paying so much for a doll, a little extra cost to get some colour samples could be worth it.

Mishka1965 · Post by **Mishka1965** » Thu Sep 17, 2015 12:07 am

I will say lighting makes the biggest difference in how the skin looks. With the fluorescent lights the pink skin looks very light but in the warmer lights from Incandescent this skin looks much more yellow. Although I like dark and tan skin I feel that light skin is probably the best choice for me because I don't like tan all the time. It is also possible to use tannins to darken the skin as others have shown before. So for me the safe bet is to stick with DS light pink

dogfather · Post by **dogfather** » Fri Sep 18, 2015 9:31 am

Pixie wrote:Thanks for the replies. Does anyone know if those samples are available to buy? When you're paying so much for a doll, a little extra cost to get some colour samples could be worth it.

email Steven at DS and he can arrange it for you
that's how I've got mine before I've placed my order (actually I've only just received update from him that my doll is completed and ready to ship

)