how to become a sl photographer?

hey all,
im a woman who is in sl for over 1.5 years now.... i have a sl job, a home.....friends and even have tried to design clothes and sell them in vendors on sl... I have done a lot off things the last 1.5 year....and now i have reached a point i want to do more. In rl im a photographer and an arts and crafts teacher on a school and have worked a lot with photoshop etc. Now i want to try to make a living out off this in sl. I know how to work with compositions..lightning, photoshop etc in rl... but havent tried things like this in sl. Who can help me out? give me tips and tricks to become a photographer in sl? and i mean with tips and tricks not how to use photoshop... but how to gain poseballs, equipment, space and publicitiy in sl...inworld.

I hope for usefull tips...and not stupid reactions i cannot work with.

xx

Mirjam

When you are just starting out, using an alt account with the alt sitting on a pose ball makes a great camera. You log on as the alt, position their view to frame the imafge you want, and then can use your main account as a fashion model or as a person in the picture, without your camera position changing every time you move. Just switch back to that alt and have them do the snapshots. Makes for easily repeatable photos.

Using the Windlight environment settings can make a world of difference for still photography in Second Life. Adjust the sun position, at the very least, for time of day. But also explore what can be done with the non-default Windlight settings. For example, you can get a foggy morning effect with some of them, or can adjust the high-altitude clouds to have more or less of them.

If you do landscapes, you may want to consider getting a weather generator system. Damanios Thetan makes a nice one. Then you can make it snow, or rain, or even have lightning in your pictures, with no post-work. For example, this snapshot was taken in-world. The low-lying clouds, the falling snow, and snow on the ground were created by a weather system. The sky color and lighting were Windlight effects. There is no post-work at all in this image:

Lets see, first of all i'm NOT someone claiming to be an SL photographer but in terms of some of the questions, when I take pictures, I don't try to use "model" poseballs or "studios" because i'd rather capture the scene as is and likewise with avatars. I take lots of pictures of dances and clearly you can't use a poseball for that and the lag of taking the snapshot requires a great deal of anticipation. At least the animations cycle so you can keep trying

This is just my preference though, if you want poses, go to all of the typical pose places, a good one stop is Animation Warehouse which is a collection of many animators with both animations and model poses.

I'm also going to put a plug in here for Cheree Bury who does poses (cos she made the cool "animate your vampire" and die thing for me

So taking out the what you don't want, pretty much leaves the space and publicity and also "what is it that you want to achieve?" Do you just want to show pics or sell or be hired?.

Create a magazine, rent a shop, go find art galleries (some of the ones with RL art may choose to sponsor an SL section?), do "footwork", contact stores who use models, contact model agencies to see if they need photographers.

Pretty much the same as RL...make a portfolio, tout it around.

Quite a few seem to create a flickr stream and use that for this purpose.

Whenever I see someone wearing a "photographer" tag or similar, I say "show me...". A couple of times, i've been impressed. (That's not to say that the others were rubbish, just wearing a tag for no particular purpose). One guy was taking lots of pictures of me in a public place, he didn't ask but doesn't need to but I joked and said "you'll run out of film!" once i'd identified the av taking the pics. He sent me a couple a bit later and my response was.."Oh..WOW!" and his flickr stream was impressive.

Possibly all obvious/useless to you?

aww thanks for the answers already!

Its not all useless or obvious with me... yeah the part of making contact with galleries making a portfolio etc..thats not news for me... i have done the same thing in rl.... but the other stuff... using windlight and other options in sl i dont know much off... so im already fixing up a portfolio and will post it sometimes soon somewhere on the forum.
I want to sell pixtures and be hired as a photographer in sl. I have nothing with landscapes... but love to take pictures from people in sl in action.... posing....and edit them in photoshop to make an artpicture out of it. But i also love to take pictures from people without editing them in photoshop... just plain and raw out off sl....and play around with lighting... and composition there.... Its also the bussinessthing an making a portfolio in sl.....the beginning off being a proffesional photograper in sl i love to get some help with. Oh...... and how to use windlightfunctions in pictures ect.......

xx

Hi, Mirjam. Welcome to Resident Answers

There is a large thread running still on the first page called "Advice on Sales." While a lot of things are specific to clothing and items rather than service, some of the marketing concepts will be the same. If you haven't yet, take a glance at that thread and see if anything sparks for you.

Pose balls and modeling: I have seen a bunch of free ones out there. I have one of those posing stands where you can cycle though the animations and have, oh, 50 to 75 or so poses. I'll send you a copy if I make it home for lunch (4 hours). You can also make your own poses, it is easier than one would think and there are tools out there to help you with that.

I have noticed that there are hundreds of good poses for free out there but few for couples or groups. As for where to get free or cheap poses, I would hit SLX and OnRes first.

Equipment: I make my own since I will be adding the backgroud and lighting effects in photoshop anyway; all I want is a clean shot. I use a 8 meter wide hollow cylinder wide solid white walls. Set the path cut to B0.200 E1.000 to give an opening to look into the tube. I guess you could set the exterior texture to 100% transparent but I have never tried it. opengl can do funny things with layed textures that contain alpha channels.

I put one light source about butt high and behind the pose stand to chase off the shadows from the white room. Two more near the "door" to light the subject. Move and adjust lighting for the picture as you would in 1st life.

Space and Publicity:
And 512 piece of land is all you need for a shop. But you need to get signs and landmarks out where people can see them. If it were me, I would make a small portfolio and start hitting up clothing stores offering some art work (photog models for their vendor boards) in excange for letting you put up a couple of signs. Be sure to set limits if you do this because you don't want one place to be your full time work for just a couple of prims in their shop.

The 512 piece of land for your studio will need your best work for the parcel image. When someone gets one of your landmarks, that is what they will see. Do some profile pics for your friends and ask them to put your place in their picks. Be sure your logo, name or shop name is easy to read on the photo.

Anyway, by the time I get this all written, I am quite sure most of these things will already be covered and argued both for and against.

Good luck in your new endevor.

I just take pics for my own amusement, but I like the Photosphere studio with a lot of the extra backgrounds.

http://shop.onrez.com/search/?SearchString=photosphere

Long Awkward Pose, LostAngels, and Torridwear make most of my favorite poses. If you're photographing a single subject, you don't need pose balls - you can theoretically just run the pose out of inventory - but using a pose stand will keep your subject from moving accidentally. I like this one for its multitude of features:

http://shop.onrez.com/item/624552

Aside from that, I'd say build up a portfolio using friends and your own av, so you have something to show potential customers. A lot of people in SL use Flickr, so posting pics there and adding them to the various groups will probably do some free advertising for you.

When you're ready, put together in-world and forum classified ads, just like any other business.

Rule #1) Make sure, absolutely sure, you can run the highest graphics settings possible. It's one thing to take a snapshot and touch it up ad-nauseum until it looks half-descent. It's a whole different world to start with a nice picture to begin with. So, the best equipment you can get is RL equipment. Namely, the best graphics card you can afford. (^_^)

After that, get some practice on the environment controls and local lights. You don't need to BUY lights unless they have the aesthetic you're after and will be included in the picture. My main light sources are just plywood spheres that I build on-the-spot. =^-^=

Backdrops are useful too. Getting a nice inworld snapshot, rezzing it on a full-bright cube, and adjusting local lights to fit the scene make for very good imagery. (^_^)

Most of all, use a few image hosting services to show off your work. I'm usually mostly goofing off, so my Snapzilla collection is spammed with a lot of my "look at this neat thing" shots. But, I still have some personal gems there. Especially since my first tour of Bay City, that was when I finally turned on Anti Aliasing. (^_^)

For me, I just go and do. Experiement.

I have a number of poses I've bought here and there - harder to find stuff that works with a kid avvie that doesn't interpenetrate the avatar. You'll likely want a multi-pose stand for photography work, or hunt up stores that sell poses (Protip: Poseballs are super easy to make: one prim and one script + an animation file. Usually better to buy the animation an toss it into one as needed).

I use my mystitool for some quick light, or will res not-quite-white lights on the fly (I like shooting "in the wild" as opposed to using my studio - your mileage may vary). Mysti can give you a nice smile or other expressions, but there are free ones as well.

Get to know Windlight. Playing with the advanced sky controls can really help with lighting a scene. You can get both dramatic, surreal effects as well as some really nice ambient lighting. Getting familiar with the tools can really help.

Also, learn your camera tools. control 0 to zoom in is very useful for close-ups. Learn all the ways you can twist, turn, and track.

To get a distinctive portrait, consider "props" to give the avatar some personality. There's a billion basic portraits, but just adding something personal can really add to an image. The exception is that you may want a "stripped down" look for some uses: my most popular photo ever is just my avatar, in black, against a black background.

Your best bet, though, is to get out and practice. But you're a RL artist, so I know you know that.

And because I never pass up a chance to show off...











(all of these form http://www.flickr.com/photos/marianne-mccann/)

Mari

I missed an opportunity to show off?

One of the things we've talked about when talking about SL photography studios is, the photographer is never THERE.

I think Flickr and other photo sites are great places to advertise, but I also think you need an in-world studio and gallery. After all, if I want to hire an SL photographer, I will probably do a Search and visit a few of them in world. At least that would be my first thought.

Your studio doesn't need any of those expensive cameras or lights...not for actually taking good pictures, anyway. However, you may want to have some "equipment" out as props. For work, as others have said, all you need are some simple light prims and a backdrop and a pose stand.

But you SHOULD have a display of your best work, up on the walls. And a free take-home portfolio that people can pick up and browse through. And a rate card. And a link to your website, if you have one. And, if you can't spend a lot of time just hanging around and waiting for a client to show up, an online indicator board that someone can use to see if you are in world, and can use to leave you a message if you're not.

A thread on photography and Ann didn't show a pic of her ass

For me, I just go and do. Experiement.

I have a number of poses I've bought here and there - harder to find stuff that works with a kid avvie that doesn't interpenetrate the avatar. You'll likely want a multi-pose stand for photography work, or hunt up stores that sell poses (Protip: Poseballs are super easy to make: one prim and one script + an animation file. Usually better to buy the animation an toss it into one as needed).

I use my mystitool for some quick light, or will res not-quite-white lights on the fly (I like shooting "in the wild" as opposed to using my studio - your mileage may vary). Mysti can give you a nice smile or other expressions, but there are free ones as well.

Get to know Windlight. Playing with the advanced sky controls can really help with lighting a scene. You can get both dramatic, surreal effects as well as some really nice ambient lighting. Getting familiar with the tools can really help.

Also, learn your camera tools. control 0 to zoom in is very useful for close-ups. Learn all the ways you can twist, turn, and track.

To get a distinctive portrait, consider "props" to give the avatar some personality. There's a billion basic portraits, but just adding something personal can really add to an image. The exception is that you may want a "stripped down" look for some uses: my most popular photo ever is just my avatar, in black, against a black background.

Your best bet, though, is to get out and practice. But you're a RL artist, so I know you know that.

And because I never pass up a chance to show off...









(all of these form http://www.flickr.com/photos/marianne-mccann/)

Mari

I know! SO unlike me!

Edit: Oh, and I have a nice new ass shot that Mac forced me to take, too!

(I won't post it directly, since i know some of my fellow forumites don't appreciate the more naked pics. )

http://www.flickr.com/photos/annlaunay/2835603048/

Just do it.

I started to dabble in SL photography about a year ago and just the process itself has taught me so much. Photography is one of my passions IRL and though I am by no means a professional.....SL has allowed me to really hone a lot of the basic skills that apply to RL photography. The other wonderful thing about SL is that we can manipulate the environment and subject in ways you never could IRL....allowing for experimentation and learning. I love it!

I have found that getting a good handle on creating environments in the windlight settings has been a huge help too. I can't stress enough how much I have been able to adjust and manipulate and correct just by using the environment sliders alone.

I'm not entirely sure where your subject matter will take you so I can't say much about posing. I have never used an alt account....all I have ever used for setting up shots is collections of poses I've got from various places. I usually just position my avatar and then use the 'alt' and arrow keys to pan around and zoom to get the angle I want. To me it's been the easiest process to use. And the flickr groups have been great, lots of inspiration and encouragement there~!!!

This is my stream....as you can see....I have a blast with it. You will too~!

http://flickr.com/photos/rythmnmuse/

Hi mirjam,
I worked as an Sl photographer for a few months in sl before quitting. I'm not claiming to be talented, but here's my 2 cents:


Photoshopping can never fix bad shots. Take good shots first, photoshop second.

Unless you really want to, buying a lot of fancy schmancy equipment is not necessary.

Be aware of your photo resolution. The higher it is, the nicer your shots will be. Of course, shooting at high rez and with high graphic settings can also kill your computer. Find what works for you.

Be aware of your lighting. The wonders of Windlight do exist, but a simple light prim can make the difference between a horrible and an incredible shot.

Educate yourself by reading tutorials, finding a mentor/teachor, and exposing yourself to other's work. Visit in- world photo galleries and studios, pay attention to the ads with photos while you're shopping, and READ TUTORIALS. At a minimum, get all the info you can about camera keystrokes, resolution and lighting. Anyone in SL can take pictures, but if you want to take good pictures, you have to learn how. To find a mentor or teacher, sincerely complimenting a person whose done some work you admire is helpful.

Here's one link you may find helpful. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Torley_Linden/Snapshot_tips

If you really want a lot of clients you may want to consider wedding photography. It's often annoying, but it's plentiful work.

Consider getting a business partner. It makes you more attractive to people who might hire you for important events, like weddings, as it's less likely that 2 photographers will crash at the same time and miss an important moment. When you become SLfamous, it can also help to have someone to answer IMs when you aren't around and to split the workload. Also, if you plan on investing in a lot of poses/props or land, you can split the cost. Absolutely choose someone you trust, as you may have to give them permission to do stuff to your objects.

You may want to learn how to make ThinC books so you can make wedding albums, modeling portfolios, and a portfolio for yourself.

Take pictures of yourself, of your friends, of random strangers. Just take oodles of pictures.

You can never be too professional about your SL work, but you can be too serious. Don't forget to have fun.


Good Luck!