Photos, a few questions on them

I've tried one of the free studios with the advanced units and then did a bunch using some freebie poses and free/library backgrounds/textures.

I'm wondering if there is a point to actually getting the paid stuff anytime soon. When I can do well with just free poses and stuff?

And are there links to help with getting the crop dimensions right for sl?

Normally I just crop so they look good to me, but maybe I should start paying attention to the actual image sizes.

I do save them all to my hard drive then edit before I upload them, unless it's a quick snapshot to show someone.

My rather small but growing album is here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Koriana.Magic/SecondLifePictures/

Any recommendations or hints on taking better picks would be nice

Hi Koriana!

Yes there's a lot of free stuff to get. I pick up as much as I can and combine it with poses and things I buy. It depend upon the look you want. If you want a special look and don't find photospheres exiting enough. I am a huge fan of taking pictures out in "real" SL, on location if you know what I mean. (english isn't my first language)

I took a look on your pictures and IMO cropping is the most important single thing you can do to improve your picture. I think you have a good eye for that! I learn and get inspiration from flickr.com. There's a lot of fabulous SL photographers there. I don't count myself among the best but I try to fix up my photos with the free postprosessing tools provided by picnic and others.


This is an example of a pic I took on location in SL. I couldn't get this look in a photosphere. I play the pose when I'm flying, so I hoover in the air and rotate the camera under. What you see around isn't a background but a part of the stunning sims of the Wastelands. I could have done a LOT more with this... soften it, put on layers, but I still learn. And I kind of like to keep the pictures a bit "raw", not photoshop them so they are miles away from what we actually see in SL.

I would say that you look for places where SL pictures is listed, like flickr. Find your style and look for inspiration.

And have you played with advanced settings for sky and water? You choose "world" where you can set daylight settings, but there's so much more you can do...change the position of the sun and moon, customize clouds, it is amazing. (I just discovered it and is still impressed, LOL)

Hi Koriana, great photos!



There are some great free poses out there, as you have found, and as long as you can find the ones you want there is really no reason to spend a load of money. The biggest downside to using the free poses is that they will be easily recognisable to a lot of people. As you develop as a photographer you will probably find you want a more individual look.

You might even decide to make your own poses. QAvimator is free and easy to use if you are just after still poses. You can test your efforts on the beta grid so you don't waste upload fees.



There's a sticky in the texture forum that covers sizes, dimensions, file formats etc.

/109/e6/150360/1.html

Other tips ...

You have a good technique of creating negative spaces around your subject (wing tips stretching to the edge of the pic etc.). You could improve this further by making sure you don't cut the feet off and making sure you get the very tips of the wings in.

Also, you could experiment with different lighting ... have a play with the advanced settings in the windlight menu.

And the best advice I ever heard on photography is to throw most of your pics away! Seriously, take LOADS and just keep the few that you are most proud of.

have fun!

This is very much how I work, too. I look at my photos as more of a visual diary of my travels. I greatly prefer to just capture my avatar where she is, instead of on her basic N30

For example:

This was shot on location, using natural lighting and an pose I picked up ages ago in Nakama. One that did not "lock" her head, so I was able to get her to turn with my mouse and line up.


This one has a touch of Mystitool-based face lighting, uses the animation from the instrument, and a spot along "The Island" in Ichelus. As the ukulele was a freebie, and the mystui and outfit were things I wanted or had otherwise, cost was minimal.

I looked at your album! It is soooooooooo cool! I love SL pictures. I don't have photoshop and really appreciate what people are able to do. Takes some talent. I had a friend do a pic for me. I love it! I wanna take cool pictures when I SL grow up! LOL