Pose stands/HUDs

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

So, I an trying to learn SL photography, and the part I am struggling with the most is positioning myself without losing my camera position. I have googled a lot, and found some stuff that is helpful, but am still confused. I most likely have missed some important tutorials.

People seem to use pose stands to position themselves or other models, and I have run across pose HUDs supposedly for use in places you cannot rez a pose stand. Of course, SL being SL, the MP is full of both stands and HUDs. My problem is choosing the ones to get. Some have a lot of positive reviews, so seem like good choices, but I worry about missing 'the best one,' lol. Any suggestions?

Also, what do people actually do when they go to places they cannot rez a pose stand? Do they use the pose HUDs? Or is there some other way to position yourself where you need to be while looking at the scene from the more-or-less target camera angle?

Sorry if all this has been covered before. I did find bits and pieces, but am still somewhat confused, and get massively frusturated (neologism, sorry) trying to line things up in SL. Photography is so much easier in RL, if far more expensive.

Thanks!

Caerolle

[Clara Hollyberry]

When I am out in public I just play a static pose animation and take my time angling the camera. Or, I photograph the scene and then impose my image onto it later in post-production.  I do not worry about scripted huds when a click of the animation pose does it script-free. Therefore I purchase or create single poses myself.  (Purchased a lot in the past; created more often myself recently.) 

There's pose-ability in a third party viewer, also; make your own pose on the fly.  

There's a hud that will let you do that too, angle your limbs howsoever you wish.  

I think photography and how you arrive at the final image is as personal as each person; there isn't a right or wrong way to do it but really just "how you prefer it."  Hopefully you get some good ideas from the thread.

Edited September 2, 2019 by Clarrellae

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

59 minutes ago, Clarrellae said:

When I am out in public I just play a static pose animation and take my time angling the camera. Or, I photograph the scene and then impose my image onto it later in post-production.  I do not worry about scripted huds when a click of the animation pose does it script-free. Therefore I purchase or create single poses myself.  (Purchased a lot in the past; created more often myself recently.) 

There's pose-ability in a third party viewer, also; make your own pose on the fly.  

There's a hud that will let you do that too, angle your limbs howsoever you wish.  

I think photography and how you arrive at the final image is as personal as each person; there isn't a right or wrong way to do it but really just "how you prefer it."  Hopefully you get some good ideas from the thread.

Hmm, somehow I thought the pose HUDs allowed you to move your avatar without messing up your camera position. But then I know pretty much nothing about them.

Compositing is certainly an approach. I guess you must shoot yourself against a green screen or something that allows you to select it easily for the compositing?

If you don't make a composite, but shoot yourself in the scene at the location, are you just really practiced at getting your avi the right place before you move your camera, or do you just redo your camera position if you need to move your avi into a better position? That really tests my patience, lol. I wish there was a way to move your avi without it repositioning your camera. Edit and moving a pose stand is the only way I know to do that, though...

Black Dragon scares me, lol. It sounds really intimidating, but maybe I should give it a try.

Thanks for your help!

[Clara Hollyberry]

oh do give it a go; it will contribute to your experience and knowledge, and you'll have something in your pocket for certain situations. 

I think a fluid approach to photography works best for me so I keep all these techniques on standby in case one or another is simply the right way to go.  Group shots are different from single portraits. Sometimes I just like the shape of the subject's own AO. 

Unlike when I was shooting sales boxes for women's clothing, when I used a Deeposed posestand and poses, green screen, same setup each time, same procedure to get model onto poster each time, dull dull dull predictable stuff.

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

Thanks for the advice!

[Chic Aeon]

What I do:

 

Find a location and stand in the general area you want to take from.

Get your avatar in the general area you wan't to be.

 

Find a pose for the shot, adjust the Windlight(R) to your liking - turn on and adjust facelight if needed.

 

 

Now here may be the part where you get messed up?   

Holding down the ALT key click on your avatar and while holding BOTH keys, move your mouse "up" (away from you) toward the avatar. This will let you get closer to your avatar. You can move the mouse left and right and around (while still holding down the ALT key) to get the angle that you want.  

 

Sometimes your pose isn't aiming in the direction that you need in order to capture the background that you want. Then, and this takes practice, you can use the movement arrows to "twirl" your avatar around and move the angle that they are standing in.  It often takes a couple or more tries to get what you want there. 

 

 

 

Here is the same pose after "spinning" the direction a bit. 

 

 

I don't use pose huds, but I will put in a  HUGE NUMBER OF GOLD STARS for Amacci's neck pose hud.  There are versions to pose yourself and to pose others (just one other actually).  I LOVE THIS!!!!!!  Your AVATAR doesn't move, just the head direction. 

 

Take your shot (or shots). I take mine at 5000 width and 300 dpi.    Add any postprocessing that you use and you are done.

 

Note all photos are compressed more and resized smaller  than usual to get them all in one post.  Managed to get them all in one post. Woot!

Edited September 3, 2019 by Chic Aeon
spelling

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

Wow, Chic, you are a Goddess! Thanks for squeezing so much into that post, and taking the time to do it! 😁

I do use the Alt key to center camera movement on myself, and sometimes Ctrl even lets me do that without zooming (btw, I use Firestorrm). The last couple of days I am tending to use either Ctrl 9/0 to move in and out or Angle of View, though.

Here is the problem I have, though, and I assume I must be doing something wrong since it works for you but not me:

So, I move my camera so that I am facing it. Then, if I use the move control arrow to turn my avi, my avi turns completely around so the camera is behind me again. Same if I try to nudge myself to the left or the right. So, I have to guess at where my avi should be, then get my camera back where I want it, and go through the whole thing again. Am I missing some setting somewhere, maybe? Or just completely misunderstanding something? Sorry to be so dense... 😕

Thanks for your help! I am sorry if I am not understanding something in your thorough explanation...

Caerolle

[Chic Aeon]

15 minutes ago, Caerolle Llewellyn said:

 

Here is the problem I have, though, and I assume I must be doing something wrong since it works for you but not me:

So, I move my camera so that I am facing it. Then, if I use the move control arrow to turn my avi, my avi turns completely around so the camera is behind me again. Same if I try to nudge myself to the left or the right. So, I have to guess at where my avi should be, then get my camera back where I want it, and go through the whole thing again. Am I missing some setting somewhere, maybe? Or just completely misunderstanding something? Sorry to be so dense... 😕

Thanks for your help! I am sorry if I am not understanding something in your thorough explanation...

Caerolle

 

IF you use the movement controls  it will -- well, MOVE YOU - LOL.   You need to HOLD DOWN THE ALT KEY and use the MOUSE to move the camera, not you. Don't use  the movement controls for that. I only use those if I have to "twirl" to get a different angle to the pose. THEN you WANT to move your avatar around, with the ALT key and mouse you are moving the "camera". 

 

You will get it. I have well over 40,000 SL photos under my belt. If you look at some of my first (OMG) photos (well it was also a long time ago and SL wasn't as pretty as now and neither were the avatars) you can see that "I" struggled too.   

 

Good luck. When you get the hang of it  you will be SO VERY HAPPY.

 

 

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

9 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

 

IF you use the movement controls  it will -- well, MOVE YOU - LOL.   You need to HOLD DOWN THE ALT KEY and use the MOUSE to move the camera, not you. Don't use  the movement controls for that. I only use those if I have to "twirl" to get a different angle to the pose. THEN you WANT to move your avatar around, with the ALT key and mouse you are moving the "camera". 

 

You will get it. I have well over 40,000 SL photos under my belt. If you look at some of my first (OMG) photos (well it was also a long time ago and SL wasn't as pretty as now and neither were the avatars) you can see that "I" struggled too.   

 

Good luck. When you get the hang of it  you will be SO VERY HAPPY.

 

 

What I really want is my camera to stay where it is and my avi to just move while still facing the camera. Sounds like that is not possible without using a pose stand and moving that? So you have to let your avi move and reset the camera, then move the camera back, like I have been doing. Extremely tedious. Le sighe...

Thanks for your help! I guess it just can't be as simple as I want.

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

Actually, I guess my camera stays where it is, but when I try to move my avi slightly with the move controls, she turns completely around to face the other way. Then I have to turn her back the right direction, which moves the camera behind her, which is now the opposite side of where I want it, so I have to move it back. And every time I want to move her a little bit I go through that again.

[Myra Wildmist]

Not sure if this is the solution to your problem... Try using your camera controls to save your camera position. that will help a lot. bring up you FS cameratools with ctrl+shift+C. Use the down arrow to save the camera position, then the up arrow to recall the saved position

 

 

 

[Louise Fyrewik]

4 minutes ago, Myra Wildmist said:

Not sure if this is the solution to your problem... Try using your camera controls to save your camera position. that will help a lot. bring up you FS cameratools with ctrl+shift+C. Use the down arrow to save the camera position, then the up arrow to recall the saved position

I was about to post exactly this. That is the method I use to save my camera position. It woks perfectly. Once I have found a camera angle, I save it, and then go about dressing the scene, with props, artificial lighting, pose(stand), avatar. Then I use the eye with up arrow button, and everything is back to the chosen camera angle. It's built in FireStorm, so no huds needed either.

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

5 hours ago, Myra Wildmist said:

Not sure if this is the solution to your problem... Try using your camera controls to save your camera position. that will help a lot. bring up you FS cameratools with ctrl+shift+C. Use the down arrow to save the camera position, then the up arrow to recall the saved position

 

 

 

 

5 hours ago, lavalois said:

I was about to post exactly this. That is the method I use to save my camera position. It woks perfectly. Once I have found a camera angle, I save it, and then go about dressing the scene, with props, artificial lighting, pose(stand), avatar. Then I use the eye with up arrow button, and everything is back to the chosen camera angle. It's built in FireStorm, so no huds needed either.

THANK YOU!!!! I think this is what what I needed. I saw this in a tutorial I can no longer find, but could not find it in FS. I thought it was under Phototools, and could not find it there (because it is somewhere else, lol).

Thanks so much to everyone for your help!!!!

Caerolle 😊

[Chic Aeon]

Another method (camera tools which I will probably never use but LIKE it) would be to have two avatars at the scene with one the "cameraman" and the other the "model".  I used this a lot when making machinima. This only works of course if ones computer is up for it.  The model can have a very low graphics setting if needed. Only the avatar taking the picture needs high quality graphics. 

 

Here is the button to add to your toolbar if you aren't a keyboard shortcut person.

 

[Alyona Su]

These are great. To take it even further, here is a thread I created on lighting and camera-controls (via keyboard, which is a lot more flexible that the viewer controller):

 

[Nalates Urriah]

20 hours ago, Caerolle Llewellyn said:

Actually, I guess my camera stays where it is, but when I try to move my avi slightly with the move controls, she turns completely around to face the other way. Then I have to turn her back the right direction, which moves the camera behind her, which is now the opposite side of where I want it, so I have to move it back. And every time I want to move her a little bit I go through that again.

You can avoid all the problems and get more control by getting a SpaceNavigator (SN - 3D mouse). They often go for US$50 to $100 on eBay and Amazon sells them new for $120 to $300. 

Once you start using A SN for camera control... you will be so totally spoiled. Shopping, machinima, snapshots... all are way easier.

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

9 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

Another method (camera tools which I will probably never use but LIKE it) would be to have two avatars at the scene with one the "cameraman" and the other the "model".  I used this a lot when making machinima. This only works of course if ones computer is up for it.  The model can have a very low graphics setting if needed. Only the avatar taking the picture needs high quality graphics. 

Here is the button to add to your toolbar if you aren't a keyboard shortcut person.

<snippeed>

 

That is a great idea! For sure my desktop will run two instances of FS, and that is where I take photos I care about anyhow. Also, I can take my laptop down by me desktop and use two computers, if I want.

Thanks for the button! I saw that in the Toolbar Buttons list, but did not know what it was. It looked like some kind of video camera by the icon.

Thanks again for all your help!

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

8 hours ago, Alyona Su said:

These are great. To take it even further, here is a thread I created on lighting and camera-controls (via keyboard, which is a lot more flexible that the viewer controller):

 

Hi Alyona, I *have* read that thread! It was very informative and I learned a lot from it, thanks! I just was confused about some posing stuff.

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

54 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

You can avoid all the problems and get more control by getting a SpaceNavigator (SN - 3D mouse). They often go for US$50 to $100 on eBay and Amazon sells them new for $120 to $300. 

Once you start using A SN for camera control... you will be so totally spoiled. Shopping, machinima, snapshots... all are way easier.

Nalates, I have no idea what that is or how it works, lol. But I will look into it, thanks!

[LittleMe Jewell]

@Caerolle Llewellyn - Since you use Firestorm, also make sure you do NOT have the "Reset camera position on avatar movement" clicked -- on the 'Move and View / View' tab.

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

On 9/4/2019 at 12:27 AM, LittleMe Jewell said:

@Caerolle Llewellyn - Since you use Firestorm, also make sure you do NOT have the "Reset camera position on avatar movement" clicked -- on the 'Move and View / View' tab.

Wow, I just now figured this out, I thought you meant a different setting. This is just exactly 100% what I need, is going to make my life massively easier when taking shots!!!!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! 😁😍😘🤗

[Catrie]

For poses, I'm kind of weird.  I find an AO I like, and use that in the majority of my shots. It's just been the past few months that I've started using actual poses on a regular basis. 

For camera controls, I use this https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Furlgrimr-W-Camera-Presets-HUD/17708516

and for lighting, especially on a sim I can't rez on, I use this https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Furlgrimr-SOL-Professional-Photographers-Ambulatory-Lighting-Apparatus/16240366

both are free tools and something I use A LOT. 

[Jackson Redstar]

Pose Anywhere  is a good HUD to store poses, (it can also save camera positions)  there is also Animare Plus to move your different joints to tweak a pose, or, you can try Black Dragon viewer with its built in poser to adjust/modify/make a pose. Alot of photographers use LumiPro HUD but that's rather expensive just to shoot yourself

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

On 11/3/2019 at 7:19 PM, Catrie said:

For poses, I'm kind of weird.  I find an AO I like, and use that in the majority of my shots. It's just been the past few months that I've started using actual poses on a regular basis. 

For camera controls, I use this https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Furlgrimr-W-Camera-Presets-HUD/17708516

and for lighting, especially on a sim I can't rez on, I use this https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Furlgrimr-SOL-Professional-Photographers-Ambulatory-Lighting-Apparatus/16240366

both are free tools and something I use A LOT. 

Thanks, Catrie!

[Caerolle Llewellyn]

12 hours ago, Jackson Redstar said:

Pose Anywhere  is a good HUD to store poses, (it can also save camera positions)  there is also Animare Plus to move your different joints to tweak a pose, or, you can try Black Dragon viewer with its built in poser to adjust/modify/make a pose. Alot of photographers use LumiPro HUD but that's rather expensive just to shoot yourself

Thanks, Jackson!