RL Photography in SL

Hello,

I'm thinking of selling my RL photos in SL. I can rent a place for what I consider a good price. I can get a shop near the TP. And there is no camp chairs at this place. It just sell art.

Do people buy RL photos in SL?

Depends on the pictures.

Keep in mind that people are able to grab a picture from a place like deviantART and may upload it to SL for L$10.

Give it a try and open a small gallery! Maybe you make some sales. Also enroll on XStreet to sell and direct people to your place. Many sellers make most of their sales through that channel.

Good luck!

Some people do. I've sold a few paintings and photos inworld, from my RL photography and painting activities.

It depends as much on the buyer as it does on the pictures. A few things to be aware of are the permissions settings and some possible pitfalls as far as people stealing images. If you haven't done so already, it would be a good idea to go around inworld and at SLX and see how the other artists are doing it, how they have their work set up, what permissions they use, etc.

Good luck, and have fun!

-Atashi

You also may want to consider selling something other than static pictures.

For example, you could add multiple pictures to a frame and then change pictures (even with fade in/fade out effects triggered through a script. This may be more interesting than just a static picture.

If you can't script that yourself go ask over in the scripting forum. Maybe there even is a freebie script floating around which you might adapt.

I sell my RL photos in SL, and it's key to have opening events and market them well. Visit other galleries, too, including those in the Cetus District.

Mine are set no mod/no copy/transfer, since they make nice gifts; and I've recently added a resizing script that allows the owner to size the photo to fit their home or office and turn full bright off and on.

Thanks for the info. I have to learn more about the resizing script. What is SLX? I'm new to this whole scripting and selling thing on SL.

Rendette

If your photos have any real commercial value at all, you are better off using avenues other than Second Life.

1. As mentioned before, stealing your work from SL is incredibly easy. (Of course, it may be pretty easy no matter what digital format you use.)

2. When it comes to selling artwork in Second Life, the place is rampant with people who have stolen art to resell in Second Life. Though legitimate artists certainly exist in Second Life, I just generally presume that art in Second Life is stolen, because those are the percentages and it's hard to verify otherwise. I don't want to support thieves anyway, but if I were going to spend serious money to buy something, I'd want to be sure of its authenticity.

3. If you do need to do something to protect your work (like filing a DMCA claim), I wouldn't trust Linden Lab to vigorously help me defend my rights.

4. The only big-ticket items that really sell well in Second Life are items that really only exist for Second Life. Avatar skins, furniture with animations, virtual land. I'm not aware of any company that has used Second Life to sell products that exist independently for purposes outside of Second Life. If you mean you're going to sell not real life photos, but digital photos for use in Second Life, you cannot expect anyone to pay a lot of money for them when there are so many cheap alternatives (and stealing is free).

5. If you are selling real life photos, I cannot see any advantage that an SL store might have over a digital gallery on a web page, for example.

I don't doubt that it's possible to sell rl photos through Second Life. I just can't see Second Life as the most advantageous way of doing it.