Photography Studio Recommendation?

I've been messing about with the free TPD studio but want to upgrade. Can anyone recommend a studio or equipment? I don't need a professional level, but would like something beyond the very basic studio I am using. I'm searching through SLX but there is a huge range of prices and features, so I could really use some reviews to whittle down my list.

Hi Blake ... there are several studios out there, and it depends on your needs as to which one you buy. Me personally, I use the N30 Deluxe set. Do I need it? No. I actually used to just use some basic solid prims and maybe a couple of prims as light sources. But, people didn't take me serious as a photographer when they saw a "amateurish" studio.

As soon as I bought the N30 set, and put it into a custom room with nice textures to mimic a RL studio ... suddenly I was a professional. They would walk in and "Whoah ... great setup. You're really serious about your work. Your pics look great. This is impressive. " yada yada yada .... then I changed the backdrop to a solid color and started shooting. *exactly* what I would have done with a pose stand and a couple of prims. But this *looks* professional, so therefore I'm accepted as a professional.

But ... I do all my post work outside of SL. I capture high rez snaps to the hard drive, edit in Photoshop, crop to the proper aspect for profile pictures, Picks tabs, and square textures, and then import the file back into SL.

If you are wanting to do everything in-world, then yes, you need a studio set. The N30 has fire, bubbles, stars, sparklies, fans to move your hair (with appropriate scripts), multi-color lighting, lots of backgrounds and poses pre-loaded, and easy to add your own poses or backgrounds. It has several props built-in such as pose chairs, dance poles, couples and group poses, etc. It's a very compact set and 66 prims when rezzed. Plus, it's very simple to use.

So ... it all comes down to what you're wanting to do. If you want to take good pictures and do your post in Photoshop (or the program of your choice) you don't *have* to have a studio set. But, from experience, if you want to do it as a biz, your studio has to look the part.

If you want to try out the N30 or see my current setup, shoot me an IM in-world and I'll send you a LM. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll be glad to help you out in any way that I can.

There are so many 'fancy' setups and it's quite difficult to know which way to go.. I've gotten quite a few of them , some rather expensive..and to be completely honest.. I think that if you're proficent enough with whatever graphics program you're using... the best way to go IMHO is to put a nice background on a blank prim, take a pic and work with it on your computer..there's so much you can do with a simple photograph.

It really depends on your needs. My suggestion is to pick a few and try out their demos. This is what I did a while ago. I found some to be far beyond my needs and some excessively expensive.

I have a credit page on my blog here with links to the Photostudio I use and more:

http://www.sge-sl.com/elric_anatine/pose-and-photocredits/

Feel free to visit my Photo Planetoid and play as well. It's open to the public.

Cheers.

Lolita nailed it.

I create some really nice SL images (that's not my opinion, it's what others have told me.)

All I use is spur-of-the-moment stuff. A couple of lights created on the spot. A background prim created on the spot. A pose dragged out of inventory and used. Windlight settings tweaked in real time.

And then, like Lolita, I do a lot of the magic in Photoshop.

You don't need ANY of that "photographic equipment". The only thing I've seriously thought about getting would be a nice pose stand that I could use to organize poses better.

Except...you DO need that stuff to LOOK professional for clients. So if you want to charge for your SL photography, it's a reasonable thing to get. The N30 stuff seems to be the "industry standard".

Nobody gets to see me taking photos, so I use 2 prims for background, 2 floating prims for lights/gaze focussing, and a freebie posestand I can plonk any pose into. Simple to use, cheap, and really effective. But no, not impressive to watch I'm sorry.