SL Photos? (not sure where to post this)

Ok...I didn't see a forum that directly relates to my question so I'll throw it here.

I do a lot of SL photography and I create a lot of unique images from the snapshots in photoshop. I love it.... and I have some of my RL work on deviantart.com. A friend suggested I put some of my SL stuff on there to sell as prints, which I think might be a really cool idea.

So...my question.... firstly... is this kosher? I edit my shots and do a lot of filtering on some of the images to create what I want.... so I'm thinking that the content is uniquely mine and it should be ok to sell my work....but are there legalities I need to worry about since the images were taken in SL?

Second.... (as much as I work with photoshop...I really have no idea about this lol) If I want to do this and allow for say, and 8x10 print....what is the best format for the images I take? Anotherwords... color bits and image size when taking snapshots. I usually do a 1280 x 1024 shot and crop it to what I want and it seems to have enough integrity as an 8x10 printable image. But.....those of you who have more detailed knowledge, I would greatly appreciate some pointers.

tanks *grin*

I can't answer the second, but will take a stab at the first - it depends on the content of the picture. If it is of yourself, or of some environment in SL... I think that should be okay. But for some people, pictures of their avatar is just as personal as a picture of his or herself, and I would be wary of putting pictures on the net of people that haven't given their permission.

Crazy, I know, but if your stuff has very clear, recognizable avatars in it, it would be good to ask first.

Well... that's an easy answer for me....I create avatars for my photo projects so every character subject that I would offer in print would be 'me' anyway. I wouldn't even consider selling an image of someone else ... IRL or SL...unless it was an agreed upon project where the person knew my intent was to create art for prints.

i have a question for you SL shutterbugs. How do you get a tight focus, close up enough say that your face can fill the whole frame. Even with Camera Constarints disabled I can't figure it out.

It takes some fooling with the camera to zoom in...I've noticed lately too that zoom seems to still be limited so I go as close as i can and just crop in photoshop. If you use a larger image size you'll get a sharper image once you crop. Every so often I get lucky and am able to zoom way in.....but yeah...the zoom is buggy.

To get in close, you need a combination of the zoom function (alt + arrows) plus the "other controls" in View menu which act like using a wide-angle to telephoto zoom lens (for Mac this is Command-8 zoom out, Command-9 reset normal, and Command-0 zoom in). Using both those you can certainly get your face to fill the screen, and I took some today in fact to compare different skins I just got.

The main difference between the normal zoom and the View menu zoom, is that with the normal one, as soon as you move your avatar the view automatically resets. With the View > Zoom controls, the setting stays where you put it until you reset it which can be very useful.

It takes a lot of fiddling with zoom and someones can be frustrating, but you dont always have to get your face zoomed to where your AVs nose is pressing against your monitor. Taking a snap and cropping it so that the face fills the space works well since your snaps save rather large. So zoom in as much as you can or are happy with and crop in an outside program works well

Took me bloody ages to figure that one out too....

For me, I use - CTRL & 0 - to zoom in really close, and CTRL & 8 to zoom back out again. It helps you avoid that 'fisheye' look......

You mean, like dis?

http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/pic.aspx?id=243258

Control + 0 is your friend.

Mari

Hi Milla. For the photoshop portion of your question, and the intellectual property part as well, you might have better luck over in the Texturing Tips section - that's where all the artistic types hang out. In fact, if you didn't notice it already you might find this thread there interesting:

/109/ab/235138/1.html

it has only a tangential bearing on your actual question, tho.

I will try the Ctrl + 0 trick. I don't have Photoshop or the like, all I have is Irfanview. I'll mess around with it. Thanks for your helpful, self moderated replies.

Irfan view will read photo shop filters, so you can create some fun looks for your SL pics

I do this on nearly every pic from SL on my Flickr site
Search fore me on Flickr and check out the results.

I'd recommend 'Porcelain' (for smooth looks, just up the 'exposure' a bit, otherwise too dark)
and a multi-use one is 'Virtual photographer', which has crap loads of filtered looks, ambiance and Radiant do wonders with SL pics, just sometimes adjust the saturation and brightness.

SL photos always seem to come out too damn dark -I see so many posted where its almost a black screen. Sad, sad, sad.

Do a Google search for Free photoshop filters and you will find them.

If you can't send me a message or e-mail me and I'll send them to you.
Failing that shout me in SL.

Archie Lukas
Master Photographer