How does your avatar look today ?

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 minute ago, Jordan Lefevre said:

OMG! Is this your secret, coded way of telling us that Paul really is dead?

Excuse me while I play this picture backwards to search for hidden messages . . . !

[Scylla Rhiadra]

On 4/28/2021 at 8:33 PM, JeromFranzic said:

Visiting SU-SHI City, Azura Oasis.
 

Lovely composition, and you've got a wonderful looking avatar! I like this!

Can I be so bold as to make what I hope you'll take as a friendly suggestion, however, with regards to lighting? A few years ago, @Skell Daggerdelivered a mini-lecture to me here on this thread on the subject and, well . . . it more or less changed my life, reduced my cholesterol levels, and increased my sex drive. I can't promise to do the same for you (Skell is sort of a professional Helping Person, and provided diagrams and stuff, whereas I am merely an annoying busybody), but I do think you've got a good eye, and maybe better lighting might make your pics even better than I think this one already is?

This is a very dark picture, which of course obscures some of the lovely detail, but it also means that it's not as dramatic or interesting as it might be if there were more contrast in the lighting. You could, I think, go two ways with this. You could increase the light in the background (using EEP / Windlight, probably), which would produce a kind of cool silhouette effect on your avi, as well as make the pic more dramatic ( @BelindaNis more or less the house expert on nice silhouettes) . . .

. . . OR you increase the illumination on your avi. Given that this is, I think, a nighttime picture (?), that's probably the best option? With one or two well placed point lights, you could brighten all or (to my mind, better still) some of your avi. More contrast would make your avatar's attractiveness and interesting look that much more evident, but it would also just add a lot of interest and drama to the pic: your avatar would sort of "pop out" from the frame of the doorway. (You could also lighten the entrance on either side of you a little, but I like it a bit dark, as it frames you really well.) Placing the point lights so that some parts of your avi were still relatively darker would also be cool and dramatic and interesting -- it can also enhance the sense of the image as three dimensional.

I don't know if you have point lights (or projector lights)? They are really easy to make yourself, but if you don't have any and can't be bothered making them, give me a shout in-world, and I'd be delighted to send you a free set. ( @Orwaralso has a free projector on the MP: search for him under "creator name" on MP and you'll find it.)

So, yeah, sorry, this was a bit wordy, and I hope you don't mind me commenting. But I really like this pic, and how interesting your avatar is, and it would be great to see more pics from you and I hope maybe I've helped a bit but if not feel free to ignore me.

Ok, I'll shut up now. 🙂

[Eddy Vortex]

It's kinda hard to get a still snapshot when the yarn ball is trying to roll out from under you.

[Lucifer Ravenhurst]

[VictoriaGrwd]

[Mildred Blackwood]

[Jordan Lefevre]

10 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

OMG! Is this your secret, coded way of telling us that Paul really is dead?

Excuse me while I play this picture backwards to search for hidden messages . . . !

Well I did drez Paul for the pic.

[Jordan Lefevre]

[Daniel Blakewell]

I was meant for you...

https://pixelvr.me/post/24245 

[Doc Carling]

Fantasy theme

[MattNight84]

https://mattnight84.wordpress.com/2021/05/01/tomorrow/

 

[JeromFranzic]

22 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Lovely composition, and you've got a wonderful looking avatar! I like this!

Can I be so bold as to make what I hope you'll take as a friendly suggestion, however, with regards to lighting? A few years ago, @Skell Daggerdelivered a mini-lecture to me here on this thread on the subject and, well . . . it more or less changed my life, reduced my cholesterol levels, and increased my sex drive. I can't promise to do the same for you (Skell is sort of a professional Helping Person, and provided diagrams and stuff, whereas I am merely an annoying busybody), but I do think you've got a good eye, and maybe better lighting might make your pics even better than I think this one already is?

This is a very dark picture, which of course obscures some of the lovely detail, but it also means that it's not as dramatic or interesting as it might be if there were more contrast in the lighting. You could, I think, go two ways with this. You could increase the light in the background (using EEP / Windlight, probably), which would produce a kind of cool silhouette effect on your avi, as well as make the pic more dramatic ( @BelindaNis more or less the house expert on nice silhouettes) . . .

. . . OR you increase the illumination on your avi. Given that this is, I think, a nighttime picture (?), that's probably the best option? With one or two well placed point lights, you could brighten all or (to my mind, better still) some of your avi. More contrast would make your avatar's attractiveness and interesting look that much more evident, but it would also just add a lot of interest and drama to the pic: your avatar would sort of "pop out" from the frame of the doorway. (You could also lighten the entrance on either side of you a little, but I like it a bit dark, as it frames you really well.) Placing the point lights so that some parts of your avi were still relatively darker would also be cool and dramatic and interesting -- it can also enhance the sense of the image as three dimensional.

I don't know if you have point lights (or projector lights)? They are really easy to make yourself, but if you don't have any and can't be bothered making them, give me a shout in-world, and I'd be delighted to send you a free set. ( @Orwaralso has a free projector on the MP: search for him under "creator name" on MP and you'll find it.)

So, yeah, sorry, this was a bit wordy, and I hope you don't mind me commenting. But I really like this pic, and how interesting your avatar is, and it would be great to see more pics from you and I hope maybe I've helped a bit but if not feel free to ignore me.

Ok, I'll shut up now. 🙂

Oh, no problem! Thanks for the comment. I do have another take offline where I brightened this a bit more and converted it to b&w. 

I'll have to learn how to make the point lights for sure. 

[Stephanie Misfit]

I'm still in Fantasy Faire mode

 

[BiliEyelash]

 

[Nalates Urriah]

10 hours ago, JeromFranzic said:

Oh, no problem! Thanks for the comment. I do have another take offline where I brightened this a bit more and converted it to b&w. 

I'll have to learn how to make the point lights for sure. 

About learning photography, lighting, and doing back drops... Focus Magazine has gotten together a show for SL photographers:

https://www.seraphimsl.com/2021/04/30/everything-to-up-your-photography-skills-is-at-the-focus-photography-fair/

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Holly Kai Estates/164/124/3801

I am finding interesting new things for posing the avatar, heads, eyes, etc.

[BelindaN]

My Rezz day today................THREE YEARS IN! and still sane................

I treated myself to a new studio set up to celebrate. Today was my first shot with it.

Thankyou forumites for tolerating my evolving vanity.............. 😇

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

9 minutes ago, BelindaN said:

THREE YEARS IN! and still sane................

Debatable.

Happy Rez Day, Belinda!

[Orwar]

36 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

About learning photography, lighting, and doing back drops... Focus Magazine has gotten together a show for SL photographers:

   I was looking at that earlier, and whilst I quite liked the idea of the theme, it's just .. Not actually a whole lot of usable stuff. The 2D backdrop textures you can make yourself, for free, with a few button clicks. The lights you can make yourself, for free, with a few button clicks. The props .. Well, you can use anything as a photo prop in SL; there are plenty of stores that sell statues and decorative clutter that you can use for photos - lots of stuff in the weekend sales usually that has plenty of potential for cheap, as well as any furniture you buy anyway to put in your homes. 

   The gadgets are just a bunch of pointless scripts; so long as you don't want your light to do anything peculiar, like blinking, there's no reason whatsoever to script it when you can use the build menu options to a higher degree of precision anyway. 

   The one thing 'useful' are the poses, but anyone who's interested in doing photography ought to learn to make their own, whether through animation programs, or getting something like Anypose - which direction your head is facing, how broad the shoulders and hips of the model used to make the pose, the arm length, the hand size; buying poses made by someone else will limit what you can do with them, unless you use BDW or a posing HUD to adjust the poses - by which point you might as well have made it yourself anyway. 

   If I walk into a studio and see a bunch of mesh studio lighting setups, I get the feeling the owner of the place is roleplaying a photographer, which is not the same as doing photography - whilst one doesn't have to exclude the other, it's a bit of a red flag. The exception is photo studio setups made to allow others to use them, which whilst a 'nice thing' to do is also pretty silly - you can achieve better results in a sandbox, some prims, and some locally uploaded textures without spending a dime.

[Nalates Urriah]

16 minutes ago, Orwar said:

   I was looking at that earlier, and whilst I quite liked the idea of the theme, it's just .. Not actually a whole lot of usable stuff. The 2D backdrop textures you can make yourself, for free, with a few button clicks. The lights you can make yourself, for free, with a few button clicks. The props .. Well, you can use anything as a photo prop in SL; there are plenty of stores that sell statues and decorative clutter that you can use for photos - lots of stuff in the weekend sales usually that has plenty of potential for cheap, as well as any furniture you buy anyway to put in your homes. 

   The gadgets are just a bunch of pointless scripts; so long as you don't want your light to do anything peculiar, like blinking, there's no reason whatsoever to script it when you can use the build menu options to a higher degree of precision anyway. 

   The one thing 'useful' are the poses, but anyone who's interested in doing photography ought to learn to make their own, whether through animation programs, or getting something like Anypose - which direction your head is facing, how broad the shoulders and hips of the model used to make the pose, the arm length, the hand size; buying poses made by someone else will limit what you can do with them, unless you use BDW or a posing HUD to adjust the poses - by which point you might as well have made it yourself anyway. 

   If I walk into a studio and see a bunch of mesh studio lighting setups, I get the feeling the owner of the place is roleplaying a photographer, which is not the same as doing photography - whilst one doesn't have to exclude the other, it's a bit of a red flag. The exception is photo studio setups made to allow others to use them, which whilst a 'nice thing' to do is also pretty silly - you can achieve better results in a sandbox, some prims, and some locally uploaded textures without spending a dime.

Yeah... I have to agree with you. But, I do think that for the newbies this is a good starting place. Especially as I am not going to spend time teaching them how to do all the things those toys do.

Everything there can be duplicated by anyone in SL. The problem is the effort and knowledge required. For newbies I think it provides a way to a fast start.

[Rowan Amore]

8 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Yeah... I have to agree with you. But, I do think that for the newbies this is a good starting place. Especially as I am not going to spend time teaching them how to do all the things those toys do.

Everything there can be duplicated by anyone in SL. The problem is the effort and knowledge required. For newbies I think it provides a way to a fast start.

Poses, although doable with BD viewer which I will try some day, are still.something I will buy.  I've made a couple of poses for pics but it can be time consuming and I'm usually just pointing and shooting.  I do use the Anypose for slight adjustments when possible, though.  That one thing alone is invaluable.

[Coby Foden]

Tropical feelings 🏝️

[Orwar]

1 hour ago, Nalates Urriah said:

But, I do think that for the newbies this is a good starting place.

   If someone came to me asking where to get started with photography, I'd probably point them towards builder's brewery instead to have them learn how to manipulate basic prims, and how to work with the lighting and texture tabs in the build menu - in one class you'd make any of those gadgets obsolete.

   I'd also suggest they avoid many of the photography blogs out there, as oftentimes people make things more complicated than they need to be. You can learn some basic tricks and rules of thumbs through any RL photography guide just as well, in terms of framing, zoom, aspect ratios, bokeh, etc.

   Aaanyway, to adhere to the topic - here's how my avatar looks today. Just a snap taken whilst attending a mer-meeting.

 

[JeromFranzic]

3 hours ago, Nalates Urriah said:

About learning photography, lighting, and doing back drops... Focus Magazine has gotten together a show for SL photographers:

https://www.seraphimsl.com/2021/04/30/everything-to-up-your-photography-skills-is-at-the-focus-photography-fair/

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Holly Kai Estates/164/124/3801

I am finding interesting new things for posing the avatar, heads, eyes, etc.

Thanks for the links. I already used the Holly Kai spot for some photos with one of my anime avis. I'll check that out ASAP.

[JeromFranzic]

IRL that book's on my bucket list. 

Mikhail Boulgakov's "The Master and Margarita".

[Scylla Rhiadra]

2 hours ago, Orwar said:

I was looking at that earlier, and whilst I quite liked the idea of the theme, it's just .. Not actually a whole lot of usable stuff.

I'd agree, generally. And there were some creators I'd like to have seen as vendors who weren't. More of the high-end backdrop and structures creators would have been good.

On the other hand, this is a pretty new event, and Focus isn't really in the commercial business. I hope they keep it up, and that it improves each year, because it does have the potential to be interesting and worthwhile.

On the subject of DIY vs. commercial products for photography . . . well, I'm mostly DIY nowadays. I do have a commercial lighting system that I bought early on (not a really expensive one, however), and which I just no longer use for the reasons you state. I don't even use AnyPose very often anymore. The one commercial HUD I that I do use for pretty much every shot is the Lelutka Axis HUD, which I find pretty indispensable.

On the other hand, I know people, and not noobs at photography, who swear by some of these products, and who evidently (from the quality of what they produce) use them very well. So, YMMV? If a L$1500 HUD is what works for you, go for it!

But I think I would suggest to those just starting out that they not lay out huge amounts for commercial items, but start simply and cheaply. If they then decide, having played with simple point lights and projectors and such, that they would like an expensive system, they are at least doing so from a relatively well-informed position.