Requesting Constructive Criticism :)

[alienaisha]

Hey there! So recently I discovered that I could ACTUALLY update my graphics card (I'm...dumb an d not a computer person, LOL, sorry) and so I can run SL on Ultra in Firestorm, and Ultra in Black Dragon (BD is slow as hell but if I just log on, take a pic, and get out, it's manageable). I want to really get better at taking pictures of people. So far I've just been practicing on myself until I get a good understanding. Still, with better graphics, I feel like my pics are a bit boring, or 'flat', if that makes sense.

 

So I'm looking for genuine constructive criticism to help me improve! Here's the link to my Flickr.  Also, if youy check it out, can you let me know what you think some of my "best" pics are, so far and why you think that? That way I can try to work around those because I honestly have no idea what looks good LOL. 

I know for a fact I need to learn how to use the depth of field better (having some issues) but anything else that'd help me I'd really appreciate. I want to be able to take pictures of people someday because there are so many opportunities in SL with pretty people, and pretty locations! Thank you!

[EnCore Mayne]

you're doing good. i see a lot of improvement from your earlier work. one thing that i've noticed is your Windlight choices sometimes tend to over expose the scene. Windlight settings are easy to play with. sometimes just a subtle variation can lead to that aha moment. another suggestion would be to fiddle with your sun position and watch the affect it has on your light and shadows.

as far as your best i've picked out two that represent good use of depth of field (not one of my own strong points) but your sharp subject focus with foreground/background blurring is spot on. they both have excellent lighting, one with shadows falling on the body lending to deliciously complex shapes, and the other over exposure affect invokes a soft scenic mood. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/33802598278
https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/47610721752

keep shooting. get around to some updated regions that use high resolution textures in their models for backgrounds. can't beat hanging around beautiful spaces looking beautiful. some shots can take a lot of time and planning to get right. the more you practise the easier it'll be.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

I'd agree generally with what EnCore says, above.

I have a question, though. The Holy Grail for most SL photography tends to be photorealism -- or pics that have been processed in such a way as to make it look as though the originals were "real." Probably the two most important tools to achieve that are lighting and DoF. But is that really what you want, given that you are using an anime avatar?

Obviously, only you can say what "look" you're going for, but (for me, personally, anyway) there's a sort of dissonant clash between an a "realistic" background, lighting, and DoF, and an avatar look that deliberately isn't photorealistic.

Just a thought, but rather than measure your pics against the standards that are applied by others to pics that are supposed to look "real," maybe you should devise your own formula for a look that better suits your avatar? I think that the very nice way that you use colour is moving in that direction: maybe add more contrast and saturation. And if you don't want "flat," just a touch of shadow and DoF . . . just enough to help your avi pop out a bit better?

Maybe you can set a new standard for anime avatar captures!

[Elora Lunasea]

I'll third what EnCore and Scylla have already said.

Your avatar is darling, I like anime characters quite a bit although I'm not familiar enough with the genre to know one from the other 😋

For me, the one thing which you can easily work on is the lighting, which is too bright and washed out. Being as anime is on the light/bright and pastel side to begin with you do want to get the hues and tones a bit deeper so they pop more on the screen. The fact that they read "flat" I don't find fault in since they are cartoonish and I'd assume you don't want too much depth to them. 

Try playing around with various Windlight settings until you find some you like., play with the sun and other sliders until the shadows look nice on you and the backgrounds too. You can save them as new settings, call them whatever you like; they will wind up at the top of the whole list if you are using Firestorm (not sure with other viewers).  Easy to access. 

The one other thing is perhaps if you have the finances for it, invest in a few cute poses too. You don't have to buy full packs - they can be purchased one by one most of the time at lots of shopping events. Today for instance, I bought a few that were only something like $28L each (can't remember off hand where it was though - I was just bouncing around the grid). 

Overall though, you're going in a good direction and I see nice improvement from when you started out. Have fun with it, look up some tutorials too. Lots of them out there!

Edited May 4, 2019 by Elora Lunasea

[ClariceRose]

I'm not a professional photographer in RL or SL but what I have learned is to make a picture interesting to the eye. There are many ways to do this, whether it be by lighting, the subject, the background, shadows, etc.

Looking at your Flickr, my eyes were drawn to these photos, meaning that I found them interesting:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/47652817132/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/32737087817/ (the windlight could be better though)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/33802598278/ ( I really like this one)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/40624649933/ (would be better if the door on the left was cropped out)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/32461164377/ (would be better with a darker windlight to create some shadows or can do via photoshop)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/46456960045/ (love the costume but needs a better background and lighting)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/32211501217/ ( I like this one)

 

I agree that the windlight used in many of the pictures, is way too bright.

I'm learning as I go with pictures myself, you're on  your way

[alienaisha]

On 4/25/2019 at 10:15 AM, EnCore Mayne said:

you're doing good. i see a lot of improvement from your earlier work. one thing that i've noticed is your Windlight choices sometimes tend to over expose the scene. Windlight settings are easy to play with. sometimes just a subtle variation can lead to that aha moment. another suggestion would be to fiddle with your sun position and watch the affect it has on your light and shadows.

as far as your best i've picked out two that represent good use of depth of field (not one of my own strong points) but your sharp subject focus with foreground/background blurring is spot on. they both have excellent lighting, one with shadows falling on the body lending to deliciously complex shapes, and the other over exposure affect invokes a soft scenic mood. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/33802598278
https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/47610721752

keep shooting. get around to some updated regions that use high resolution textures in their models for backgrounds. can't beat hanging around beautiful spaces looking beautiful. some shots can take a lot of time and planning to get right. the more you practise the easier it'll be.

You're such a sweetie!! Thank you so very much ; A ; I will pay more attention to choosing the better windlights for my surroundings~

On 4/30/2019 at 3:13 PM, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I'd agree generally with what EnCore says, above.

I have a question, though. The Holy Grail for most SL photography tends to be photorealism -- or pics that have been processed in such a way as to make it look as though the originals were "real." Probably the two most important tools to achieve that are lighting and DoF. But is that really what you want, given that you are using an anime avatar?

Obviously, only you can say what "look" you're going for, but (for me, personally, anyway) there's a sort of dissonant clash between an a "realistic" background, lighting, and DoF, and an avatar look that deliberately isn't photorealistic.

Just a thought, but rather than measure your pics against the standards that are applied by others to pics that are supposed to look "real," maybe you should devise your own formula for a look that better suits your avatar? I think that the very nice way that you use colour is moving in that direction: maybe add more contrast and saturation. And if you don't want "flat," just a touch of shadow and DoF . . . just enough to help your avi pop out a bit better?

Maybe you can set a new standard for anime avatar captures!

Omg I didn't even consider this!!! I've been too busy trying to copy everyone else that I didn't even try to change up my M.O. Thank you so so much! I'll try to find places that better suit anime avatars ^^

On 5/4/2019 at 7:18 PM, Elora Lunasea said:

I'll third what EnCore and Scylla have already said.

Your avatar is darling, I like anime characters quite a bit although I'm not familiar enough with the genre to know one from the other 😋

For me, the one thing which you can easily work on is the lighting, which is too bright and washed out. Being as anime is on the light/bright and pastel side to begin with you do want to get the hues and tones a bit deeper so they pop more on the screen. The fact that they read "flat" I don't find fault in since they are cartoonish and I'd assume you don't want too much depth to them. 

Try playing around with various Windlight settings until you find some you like., play with the sun and other sliders until the shadows look nice on you and the backgrounds too. You can save them as new settings, call them whatever you like; they will wind up at the top of the whole list if you are using Firestorm (not sure with other viewers).  Easy to access. 

The one other thing is perhaps if you have the finances for it, invest in a few cute poses too. You don't have to buy full packs - they can be purchased one by one most of the time at lots of shopping events. Today for instance, I bought a few that were only something like $28L each (can't remember off hand where it was though - I was just bouncing around the grid). 

Overall though, you're going in a good direction and I see nice improvement from when you started out. Have fun with it, look up some tutorials too. Lots of them out there!

Ahh, I see! Yeah I'm super obsessed with pastels so like... shadows? What are those? I'm kidding, haha - and yes! Good poses, and cheap ones can go a long way you're absolutely correct. Thank you very much!

On 5/5/2019 at 12:21 PM, ClariceRose said:

I'm not a professional photographer in RL or SL but what I have learned is to make a picture interesting to the eye. There are many ways to do this, whether it be by lighting, the subject, the background, shadows, etc.

Looking at your Flickr, my eyes were drawn to these photos, meaning that I found them interesting:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/47652817132/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/32737087817/ (the windlight could be better though)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/33802598278/ ( I really like this one)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/40624649933/ (would be better if the door on the left was cropped out)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/32461164377/ (would be better with a darker windlight to create some shadows or can do via photoshop)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/46456960045/ (love the costume but needs a better background and lighting)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156313823@N07/32211501217/ ( I like this one)

 

I agree that the windlight used in many of the pictures, is way too bright.

I'm learning as I go with pictures myself, you're on  your way

Hey, thank you so much for giving me specific examples and your feedback on them! It's nice to hear from someone else wh is learning, too! Thank youuuu ^^

Thanks to everyone who replied. I'm going to keep all of yur comments in mind for future photos. Y'all made me really happy and I truly appreciate it!

[Scylla Rhiadra]

On 5/10/2019 at 2:55 PM, Edohrou said:

Thanks to everyone who replied. I'm going to keep all of yur comments in mind for future photos. Y'all made me really happy and I truly appreciate it!

Yay! That's why these threads are so useful! You don't get feedback on Flickr or Instagram. And I've learned sooooooo much from what others have said about my own pics!

Really looking forward to seeing where you take your pictures!

[Jackson Redstar]

on a technical note, I would say watch the use of your face/body lights.  they should never overpower the rest of the scene. One other important thing on shadows: Just because we can make shadows doesn't mean we always should. look at RL photography with models in the scene. Rarely see professionals have shadows go across the subjects face or body - most often you might see backlight shots with perhaps a little fill light (which would be your face/body light)

[Jordan Rizzo]

Hey, you're doing better for sure. What windlights are you using? I suggest grabbing Jay Battlescars WLs. They are really some of the best on the grid. If you need help on how to get them on your FS or BD let me know! Here's the link. 

http://fashionformenbattlescars.blogspot.com/

Here's the last shot I took, in FS though I do love Black Dragon too. This was taken with a Battlescar windlight.