Exploring Photography

[MsTik Nebula]

Found this beautiful spot in Fantasy Isle 💖 

I am only starting to discover the photography side on SL.

Anyone out there in the SL universe care to share any pro tips?

No matter what I know I'll have to polish it in Adobe Photoshop. 😁

Edited March 21, 2022 by MsTik Nebula

[Ayashe Ninetails]

Pretty photo!

 

8 hours ago, MsTik Nebula said:

Anyone out there in the SL inverse care to share any pro tips?

No matter what I know I'll have to polish it in Adobe Photoshop. 😁

Not necessarily! I don't do any post-processing for my SL photos. I like the challenge of getting a great shot and keeping it as raw as possible, so any tools I use are limited to what's in my viewer and and what I can do within the scene itself. I like to see what I can achieve just through playing with EEP/windlights, setting up my own lighting and projectors, trying new angles, tweaking settings, playing with shadows, tinkering with my props (adding glow, shine, etc.), making particles for fog and weather effects, experimenting with body materials and worn attachments that give body effects like animated sparkles, etc. There's nothing at all wrong with doing things in Photoshop later and many people do, but this is just a personal challenge I've set up for myself.

The downside to this method is I can easily blow a whole two hours setting up a shot, taking it, and later notice one single thing out of place like a misplaced shadow or an attachment that weirdly partially derezzed itself or a teensy smudge caused by my hair alpha - long after I left the scene! And then I scream. This is exactly why I leave my most recently used set and props out for a few days on my platform - and why I still have some of my more detailed photos still not uploaded - I need to redo them and didn't realize until AFTER I had broken the sets down. 😂 

 

So clearly, I'm by no means a pro, but a few beginner tips I can share:

- Learn how to play with lighting. It makes a huge difference.

- You can make your own custom EEP settings and it's definitely worth experimenting with all the sliders. You can also save the settings to your inventory.

- I find it easier to buy my own photo backdrops/scenes and decorate them myself if needed - just more fun and faster than scouting for locations to shoot (though you can do that, too!). Some can be bought for 50L and up when on sale.

- Poses are *always* on sale every weekend. I generally buy sets of basic ones to customize when needed in Black Dragon's poser.

- Flickr is super active for sharing your photos. There are some great photography groups there that you can join and post your work to.

Good luck!

[Rowan Amore]

36 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

The downside to this method is I can easily blow a whole two hours setting up a shot, taking it, and later notice one single thing out of place like a misplaced shadow or an attachment that weirdly partially derezzed itself or a teensy smudge caused by my hair alpha - long after I left the scene! And then I scream.

Eh, I used to scream but now I just post it anyway.  I don't Photoshop either.  I might crop or brighten but recently, all of mine are shot as shown.  

I know a lot of people enjoy the after work but I'd rather spend the time before, choosing lighting, pose, angle.  I rarely make my own backdrops.  I'll hit a backdrop photo place (always laggy) but more often, find a region from the destination guide that looks pretty or appropriate for the pic (usually way less.laggy).

[Ayashe Ninetails]

1 minute ago, Rowan Amore said:

Eh, I used to scream but now I just post it anyway.  I don't Photoshop either.  I might crop or brighten but recently, all of mine are shot as shown.  

I know a lot of people enjoy the after work but I'd rather spend the time before, choosing lighting, pose, angle.  I rarely make my own backdrops.  I'll hit a backdrop photo place (always laggy) but more often, find a region from the destination guide that looks pretty or appropriate for the pic (usually way less.laggy).

Lol, I've tried posting, but then I say nope I can fix that and make it even better and toss it in the "to be fixed" pile. 🤣I guess it depends on what the issue is, too.

I agree with you, though. The set up is the most fun for me. I really enjoy the experience of seeing the end result and thinking wow, SL really did that! Of course, photos would look absolutely amazing with actual Photoshop work, but SL is really very pretty on its own, and I kind of like letting things stand as-is.

The main reason why I stopped going to backdrop places (which are fantastic!) is because I realized how long I'd park myself there and think - wait, I have a home, why not just...get these? So I found where they were sold (most of the bigger places seem to use a lot from Foxcity) and when weekend sales came around, I started buying a few here and there. Now I've got a pretty big collection from a few stores and it's just a lot easier to say "I need a city! Wait...got it..." instead of having to hunt for a sim where I won't get a random person standing in my shot after spending an hour setting it up 🤣 The decorating is a fun bonus - setting up scenes can be so relaxing and I never feel pressured for time (auto-return, etc.).

[Rowan Amore]

53 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

random person standing in my shot

Oh, the joy of derendering which I've had to do on occasion.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

5 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Oh, the joy of derendering which I've had to do on occasion.

LMAO move or I'm throwing you on a poseball for 30 minutes! 🤣

[MsTik Nebula]

4 hours ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

- Learn how to play with lighting. It makes a huge difference.

- You can make your own custom EEP settings and it's definitely worth experimenting with all the sliders. You can also save the settings to your inventory.

- I find it easier to buy my own photo backdrops/scenes and decorate them myself if needed - just more fun and faster than scouting for locations to shoot (though you can do that, too!). Some can be bought for 50L and up when on sale.

- Poses are *always* on sale every weekend. I generally buy sets of basic ones to customize when needed in Black Dragon's poser.

- Flickr is super active for sharing your photos. There are some great photography groups there that you can join and post your work to.

Good luck!

Thank you, I appreciate the tips! I am going to get a Flickr account now. 🙂

[Ayashe Ninetails]

1 hour ago, MsTik Nebula said:

Thank you, I appreciate the tips! I am going to get a Flickr account now. 🙂

Very welcome! Take a look at the Second Life Official Flickr group if you want a good idea of what's possible. It's really great!