MillyWH

Posts like this pop up every once in awhile and honestly there are clothes out that there to fit a more modest look or a mature one or whatever. It can take a little more time to find things than just going to events but events are limiting. You are going to see a few things by a designer and that's it. A lot of times you have to go and check out what is in the store to see what other options they have Someone suggested Flickr and that's great, so is looking through a blog feed or even just going out and around SL and using the What is She WEaring Hud when you see something you like. Or just exploring around shops. some other stores to recommend: Belle Epoque, Ecru Couture, Well Made, spectacledchic, mimikri, AsteroidBox, The Secret Store, Rowne , RKKN, S@bbia, Riot,

See I prefer outfits in separate folders because I often buy the pieces separately and so I don't want to have to deal with the stuff I don't want. I also don't keep outfits together in my inventory but separate out the top/bottom/etc into the subfolder I have so I want a separate hud, although I can easily make copies of them. But that just goes to show that people want different (and often contradictory) things. I have noticed a new trend with umpacking HUDS is to have buttons for various bodies so you can pick which ones you want to unpack rather than having them all unpack. Saves me time deleting the things I won't wear.

I don't think my avatar has changed that much. Most of my old pictures are on my old computer but I found some searching for flickr for my OG avatar (and for my OG flickr account) Mostly it's just been updated to mesh and I probably wear a wider variety of styles but I'm pretty much the same. I don't know what that says about me. The first picture is all the first stuff I ever bought. I know the skin is SLink and the hair is from Devious Kitties , and I think the rest is from Ivalde. Second is my well into my purple skin & wings phase And then more current pictures of me. Se

Love your looks! Belleza Isis body is my favorite for the reasons you've said

At one point there were "new" starter avatars that were created by in world designers - they are still in the folders- Adam & Eve, Renegade, Nylon Outfitters -- etc but they are just in the generic names of "gamer girl" or "girl next door" . The vehicle avatars are still in there as Vehitars. I'm still not sure how you envision these simpler avatars to look like or perform. I agree that I wish the clothes on the mesh avatars was in parts and easier to use and mix and match .

I would recommend using Maitreya Petite chest and something like Izzie's Flat breast layers to get the look. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Izzies/115/125/32 in world https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Izzies-Flat-Breast/19938449 marketplace. And there is a small breast option as well with less shadowing. There is also an in world group for Maitreya Petite chest and they can direct her to stores where skin makers include a small chest/flat chest option. I know Deetalez, The Skinnery, and Glam Affair all have small chest options although that is just off the top off my head (and from my inventory)

You can always customize who you follow on Flickr, If you go to your homepage on Flickr you can just show people instead of all activity or groups. That way you can follow groups and check in on them but only regularly see people you follow. People post on flickr what they want to and what they want to share. It's not what everyone wants to see. I generally stay out of groups that have a lot of sex poses and things like that and I post what I feel like and what I like and hope other people like it too and if they don't.. well there's lots of stuff that is popular on flickr that I don't find that interesting or like. If I had a blog I was trying to grow and wanted a certain demographic I'd pay attention to that but otherwise I'm going to do what I enjoy and not spend so much time worrying if other people. Which would be my tip for photography--figure out things you like and enjoy and focus on doing that in general. And then specifically I often find it overwhelming when there are a lot of tips or advice and trying to implement too much so I have tried to figure out what is the main thing bugging me that I want to improve on and then focus on just that. For example I've spent time playing around with camera angles and taking lots of pictures (that never end up anywhere but my hard drive) of the same thing from different angles. Or with EEP/windlight settings I've done pictures from the same angle in lots of different settings to get an idea of how they look and how the light changes things. I'm still learning but I've come along way from where I started just by taking lots of pictures and experimenting and practicing with things.

There are a lot of places and some will have a mix of clothes. Some other recommendations: Neve, Petite Mort, Fashionably Dead, Tres Blah, The Secret Store, C'est la vie, spectacledchic, S@bbia, Adorsy, Amias, Meva, Riot, Decoy, Ison, Zenith, Coco, Aphromism , Emery, Ecru Couture , Nerdio, Miss Chelsea, Rowne, True Damage, Ghee... That is not an exhaustive list by any means and I got most of those from either my inventory or double checking Seraphim website and looking at what is at events. I know I've missed some that I like but can't remember. And there are stores like Salt & Pepper that do really sexy things but then also have less revealing clothes as well.

That could be really cool and really wouldn't be that hard to do.. way back in the days of yore in SL I had a black and white /grayscale look that would really get comments and a few people thought I had some kind of special attachment or something. But it was just grey skin & eyes, black hair and black and white clothes. This may have been after tattoo layers were introduced so I might have had a red lip. Kind of like the sliver look here. There's no filters and no weird weird windlight. A couple stores to check out might be Wyrd and Nylon Outfitters. Wyrd has more handdrawn looking skins that photo realistic and Nylon Outfitters are even more so plus their hair would work for that kind of look.

A lot of that depends on how quickly things rez . The only way I know to get around that is to wear BOM underwear but..but I don't worry witht hat stuff anymore. I mean, people can derender your clothes and there are too many variables.

Oh --what kind of stylized skins do you want? like only anime style because there are a lot of options for human skins in terms of different looks/effects. A lot of times you may not be able to find exactly what you need from a skin but you can use BOM layers and tattoos and play around with tinting layers to get the look you want. If you could show an example of close to what you were looking for I could probably point you to some stores

I used to do only raw shots but then I started doing more editing, I'm not very good at it (although I've gotten better) and I use free programs so it's kind of hit or miss. I've seen some tutorials on youtube about how to deal with the halo effect with hair in photoshop but I can't remember exactly where. but there was something that someone did that was touted as a simple edit to fix it. I kind of do what ever I feel like at the moment but usually I end up going thorugh a bunch of EEP settings, trying different body lights/projectors and seeing what I like then taking the picture and maybe playing around in pixlr with it.. I have tried Black Dragon a few times but it takes ages for things to load for me so I don't even though it takes great photos and you there is more freedom with camera angles

Yea. I have been wanting to play around with male avatar but dont' want to buy a male body but I have some things that are long sleeve and turtleneck or have a high neck and I've realized I don't need an actual body. I can use bento gloves or I have some odd hands that will work and some boots and it's good to go. Those clothes aren't free but I'm looking around for other options. I checked out Gild and found their group gift hat with the horns and it's inspired a look (not free) but I'm pulling it together and will post it

That's a great Look and the coat works great

There are a lot of benefits to BOM. And a lot of places are doing BOM instead of appliers and even though make up or skins are optimized for certain heads with BOM you can wear it with different ones. The fit might not be great but I've found some work really well. AND you can do things like add body marks or imperfections and tattoos and all kinds of things. Do you want to have freckles and tattoos and things you can add those in and don't have to worry about glitching with alpha layers or limits. Or if you like a skin but don't like the high lights or contouring you can add fixes to take them off. Another nice thing is if you save outfits and have BOM skin or make up you don't have to save the appliers because the layers will be saved on the outfit. AND many skin creators did do updates for skins for BOM so there maybe an update you can get for the skins you already have. AND you can use your applier make up and tattoos with BOM skin (but not BOM tattoos with an applier skin because of the alpha layer needed for the applier). However if you don't want to do BOM you don't have to. But it's not that hard to get some free skins and make ups and such and play around with it and see if you like it. If you want help I would be glad to , you can message me in world (millywh). I've helped a lot of people with trying BOM out and did a lot of step by step walking through and I have a lot of different bodies and heads (or at least have read enough) that it won't matter what you have I can help walk you through it. I do suggest that you get updates for your body and head though from the creators just because there are some slight changes that have been made to some of the bodies that will make it easier with the updates.

Sapa has some great animations some of them are static and some have a minimal breathing and movement. Some of them have really weird movements Eat Me copy bots animations or they have and I don't know if they still are but I got a couple of their aos that were free and realized I already had some of the animations they just weren't by whoever owns EAT Me. I don't have the aos still in my inventory but I am pretty sure at least one of the animations was by SLC. Be warned.

A lot of times I'm looking for gifts or things or free things. Or gacha items that might be under 10L and if I don't exclude demo items then I'm going to get tons of demos to have to look through. Also lots of people post demos in black and white so if you want to see what something really looks like filtering out demos makes it easier to look at details etc.

I've posted pictures in other threads today that are Kaya head but different shape for 2 of them (elf/alien look and then the 2 human ones) the human ones have the same shape, but different skins. At least I think they were the same shape. And you can end up with a lot of different looks (I posted in how does your avatar look and the black and white challenge if anyone is looking for them. It's a really versatile shape and I'm going to be playing around with Logan and some looks and see what I can do.

I had 2 looks going on today-- one finishing for a photo and one just for running around

The Stringer Mausoleum has some really wild hairstyles and also cool eyes and skins (not for Evo X though). Psycho byts makes some accessories Birth has some cool add ons for eyes. If you are using BOM (which I recommend because you can add lots of layers) you can try Even Tide http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Novazeit/248/18/2801 for tattoos of various kinds for skin markings. Fallen Gods, Cubic Cherry, Clover, Wyrd (skins), LuluB are also good places to check for accessories and pieces for a cool alien look.

Have you checked out Flickr for ideas? I know it would mean sifting through a lot of pictures but I find checking out flickr groups is a good way to get ideas for looks or to find clothes/decor /etc that I'm not familiar with . If I see anything around I'll drop a link in

I think the Boatam skin could be made to look older with some of the Izzie's lines and wrinkles and stuff. Although I thought that looked more like 40s. Also most people I know have wrinkles and gray hair before their 60s. I mean not super wrinkly and full gray hair but noticeable wrinkles (laugh lines, crows feet , things like that) and starting to gray before their 60s. I can't pass for my early 30s any more because of my gray streak that is finally looking gray instead of like a lightened section of my hair (I have dark blonde hair) and the lines , etc around my mouth and my eyes..and I'm 48.

The thing about trying to look a certain age is that... a lot of people don't look whatever age they are. I hate to use actresses as an example because of plastic surgery and edited photos and everything but Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Reese Witherspoon, Gabrielle Union, and Charlize Theron are all in their late 40s. Personally I'm in my late 40s IRL and I have always looked younger. I can't pass for early 30s anymore but I always surprise people when they find out my age. But also based on my friends who are in their late 40s to mid -late 50s the avatar looks like late 50s/early 60s. The photo using the smile filter looks younger but I 'd have to probably see in world. My avatars always look younger but for me it doesn't feel fake. I know everyone uses SL differently and wants different things for their avatar and has different expectations. My avatar is an extension of myself and true to who I am in terms of my personality etc but the physical stuff isn't because.. well it's SL and I can experiment with the way I look.