SL Photographer's purpose?

So..what does a photographer in SL actually do? I've really been wondering... anyone can take Snapshots, from any angle...are SL photographers just especially good at it? Or do they edit their photos, whaT?

Photography is a hobby of mine in RL, and becoming one now in SL. Yes, there is an art to it inworld too. I'm blown away by some of the photos I've been seeing. The one I just saw of Ann Launay's (see "reduce your inventory" thread, last page this far) is a masterpiece in fact. It still takes a professional "eye" to be able to compose a shot properly, get the right lighting, pose, mood, etc.

Not as easy as it appears, as I'm finding out.

I just had the pleasure of sitting for a photographer who has opened a gallery. IM me in world and I'll send you a copy of the book she made up and a LM to the Gallery. Most work with the photos in Photoshop and do some remarkable things with them.

Hey Brenda, I think I might want that info too. Will have to remember to IM you as well. I've taken a few good ones thus far of myself, but I think I might like something professional done as well.

Is there any way to reduce the depth of field of SL "photographs"? I'd love to see the background thrown out of focus.

There's a women who has been doing classes in world, I went to one last week but wouldn't you know it crashed on me in the middle of the class. That's SL for ya! I think her name was RoseLondon maybe? Or something like that. Maybe you might want to do a search for her. I have the notes from the class in my inventory with her exact name, but won't be online probably until tomorrow but if you're intererested, I'll try and remember to IM you with it. I'm sure she would be able to help w/questions - maybe you can just tell her you were in her class /lying thru your teeth

Her Name is RoseLinUK London and she teaches at NCI.

imogen

Elora, I'll send it to you tonight.

Lindal, there is a way to caputure depth in a snapshot. I think it's called z-depth in the snapshot GUI or something. Things that are close are white and things that are far are black. Using z-depth and Lens Blur in Photoshop is good for faking DOF.

i had photos taken for my sl model portfolio.

not only did the photographer take the photos, provide the poses, the background and the props ... he uploaded the photos to his pc ... re-touched them with photoshop (removing the "points" you sometimes see on shoulders, etc in various poses) ... offered me dozens of pictures to choose from .. and then further enhanced my choices with photoshop ... and sent them to me.

so there is a LOT of post-production work after the snapshots are taken.

his name is maddox dupont and i highly recommend him. he's also a rl photographer. and it shows.

There are some people in SL that do a much better job than others, but I think ALOT of us are "SL photographers" to some degree or another. Take a look @ flickr.com and search for Second Life. You'll find some GEM pieces in there.

Good quality SL photography is indeed a skill and a art.

Lighting, composition, poses, location etc play a part and have to be considered here, just as they do in RL photography. Post-SL processing in software like Photoshop is again a skill in itself.

Flickr has many SL Groups displaying hundreds of SL Art photos, as well as tens of thousands of SL snaphots.

http://www.flickr.com/ and search for some of these Groups to see some of the wonderful work the SL Artists are producing:

'Second Life Retouched'
'SLart'
'Second Life Your Top Ten'

Individual Artists that you might want to look at include:
'S-Venkman'
'Cienega Soon'
'Adec Alexandria'

There are many more Groups or individual artists that I could have named, but looking at these will open a host of new avenues to explore...

This post is pretty entertaining to me...

You can give a monkey a camera, but will it take good pictures? Ok, that came out wrong, let me start again...

Yes, anyone can purchase a camera and take pictures...but this does not mean you will have the 'eye' for it. Photography is much more than point and click. You must take into consideration many things, things which are invisible to the untrained eye...

* depth of field (you can create this in post if you want)

* composition--weight, depth, balance, colors--each of these alone have entire books written on them.

* subject matter --yes it's true a great photographer can make a trashcan look beautiful...but not everyone has that gift. Usually, you want your focal point or subject matter to be interesting in some way.

* framing. This is huge...how do you crop the image? Just because you framed it a certain way when you took the picture, does not mean you will keep that frame. Cropping is HUGE.

* photo manipulation

These are just a few reasons why pointing and snapping does not make you a 'photographer'...you should have to earn that title--this goes for both RL and SL.

I hope I've helped.

My partner and I just had our profile pics done by a SL photographer. We went to her studio and it was set up just like a RL photography studio. We sat down in her reception area and discussed the look we wanted for our profile, then she showed us some work she had done that sounded like what we desired.

The photographer provided the various pose balls, took the photos, uploaded and manipulated them into a profile pic we are very pleased with. (She also took one of the photos I had taken of us and added our names to them and gave a lovely frame for it to us. *smiles*)

And all of this took approximately a half hour or so.

In addition to the fact that I have no idea how to use PhotoShop, the experience was a lot of fun!!

Yes, anyone can take snapshots in SL. Anyone in RL can pick up a disposable 35 mm camera and take a picture of their dog, their kids, or the Tower of London. But it takes a skilled photographer to get the lighting and composition of a photo just right, so people look at the pic and go "WOW!". It's a lot more than "point and shoot", even if we all use "the same camera".

A good SL Photographer has access to tools like in-world lighting arrangements and backdrops, and to good post-production tools like Photoshop. They can also provide pose stands, pose balls and props to make the picture really work out well. In many cases, they also have killer video cards on their systems, and wil save to theie local hard drives, do the post work, and can then import a finished picture that most people can't come close to, with just the in-world snapshot effect.

I recently purchased a professional-grade Photo studio to use in SL. I have a pretty good sense of composition, and most people tell me the simple snapshots that I take look really good. But it will be months yet before I offer my skills as "a professional SL Photographer". Because even though I am a professional texture artist, it will take me that long to get good enough at using the new studio and light sets to consider myself at that level.

Yep, its called extract foreground, gaussian blur the background, and add a black-to-white gradient layer mask to the blur layer with black for the least blurred areas and white the most blured. You can use a white-black-white gradient if the subject is in the middle. Of course you have to keep the original unblurred background below the blur layer to fill the pixels that the blur layer doesn't

Here is a quick and dirty example, with way to much blur for demonstration purposes. note the area at the avatar "depth" is sharp, with progessive blur at a distance.

http://img137.imageshack.us/my.php?image=artificialdofzw5.png

I tink dat's basically it. They may be especially good at their craft, and/or have better equipment for takin' piccies. It's someting I've pondered before, too, because of my own photographic doodling.

I guess it's a bit like building. Anyone can rez a cube and slap some freebie textures on it. Some are better at this than others.

Mari

I have noticed that clients of photographers enjoy seeing the "final product" after it has been edited in photoshop (or other graphic editing program). Just taking pictures of course makes you a photographer by trade, but it doesn't necessarily make you a good one.

We have a wealth of photographers and models in our group. You can take a look at the one's who have taken the time to upload images to their portfolio at:
http://www.never30.com/evolve/aphotographerslist.asp

Some have just listed their studio locations and business info.
So in a nutshell, I think it takes a creative eye to be a "good" photographer. If you are looking for a photographer I would always suggest asking to see a portfolio of "finished" images before employing them to do work for you to be sure you are hiring somebody who does work on the level you are seeking.

It makes a big difference when you pay L$1000 for this:



or L$1000 for this:


http://www.madamg.com/Art/MaddyArt2.jpg
http://www.madamg.com/Art/MaddyArt3.jpg
http://www.madamg.com/Art/MaddyArt4.jpg
http://www.madamg.com/Art/MaddyArt5.jpg

Photoshop skills make a difference.
Hope this helps!
~Maddy

Nice example MadamG.

BTW: my studio is selling a really high quality digital camera--the model is top notch, and the texturing is spot-on.

If any of you photographers desire a realistic, professionally modeled camera...IM me inworld.

I'm sorry about this blatant self-promotion...I honestly do it more for you than for me...and I'm not even kidding.

This is highly entertaining.

Yes...anyone can buy a camera and take photos.....but not everyone can turn out Ansel Adams quality work.

As photography is my closet passion IRL.....I became intrigued with the idea of doing it in SL. I thought the same thing at first....seemed sort of silly.....until I realized that all the same rules apply.....you still have to set up your shot.....as has been stated.....subject, composition, framing, manipulation, depthe...... It all matters and it's not as simple as you'd think it would be in a 2D world. The more I do....the more I enjoy it. I don't upload anything in-world....I save everything to my hard drive and do my own editing and post on flickr.

Incidentally....I've toyed with the idea of doing it professionally in-world but I couldn't guage the market.....I guess people really do seek out photographers in SL tho huh. Something to consider.......

Takes pictures. And Stuff.

Hey Michael.

Sorry in advance for a dumb question. What does your camera do that's different than the snapshot button? Is there some sort of screenshot script or something that helps line up the picture or have an effect on resolution?

On the original topic - my .02. Don't laugh. I've seen several pictures lately (stop laughing) and the quality is ALL over the place. Some look extremely professional and very well done to my untrained eye - and some just look like they were thrown together. For the purposes of my little project (damnit, I said stop laughing) it doesn't matter a whole lot, but I can certainly appreciate the difference. It's very obvious.

There are some naturally talented photoshop designers that have blossomed because of Second Life. Lady Tempura is one of those people. I enjoy her work when she uses reallife backgrounds with avatars.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e298/bladyblue/AquaEroticDining.jpg

yes it does make a difference having the tools to work with

such as...

I now feel a little bit better about the pictures I've taken for my shop. I thought I was doing something wrong because my model didn't look as perfect as I've seen in other people's ads.

I start to wonder, though . . . is that the reason why the outfits I buy rarely look as good on me as they do in the picture? Should I 'airbrush' to make things look better with the understanding that people are expecting a little less than what they see?