Notice anything unusual about today's photo? Look long and hard. I'll give you a hint: notice that the pure white background is less white than usual and more black. Don't adjust your screen--it's fine. The big news here is that a few days ago a new feature quietly appeared on the site, which is a photo gallery system that lets you upload photos for toys and parts beyond the usual "reference photos". Here's how it works; we still require a pure white background for the "reference photos" (which are the photos of the toys in their various forms), and all other photos simply live in the "gallery" where they can be viewed on the part's details page along with everything else. Now, before you go racing off to grab your camera phone, black lights, and glitter paint, be aware that the gallery photos are still subject to photo guidelines--they're just
different guidelines. You'll be hearing more about that fairly soon, but in brief, the main difference between gallery photos and reference photos is that we don't require a white background for the gallery photos, and we're less fussy about camera placement. Gallery photos must otherwise still be well lit, sharply-focused, have good color balance, not feature your Uncle Harold, etc. But otherwise, there's plenty of room to get creative. Want to shoot a toy outside? Have at it. Want to show what Classics Starscream looks like next to Classics Skywarp? Go right ahead. Want to post a shot of the shower you took with Fortress Maximus? Go for--well, better not. Use your judgment, here, folks, but have fun!
