Elora Lunasea

I like you. We can be friends. FYI - on a serious note. I run the Explore Second Life group on Flickr. It was Strawberry Singh's group, however, she handed it over to me since she didn't have time to run it anymore for various reasons (this even before she became a Linden). I'm the only person administering it regularly - extremely taxing to say the least. The other admins are mostly MIA. I could use help so if anyone that posts in this thread would like to help out, even if only now and then, it would be really helpful to me. I am a stickler for rules though and the one about no avatars in the photo is the top of the heap. Please contact me on Flickr or here if interested! Ok now back to your regularly scheduled serene landscape viewing 😊

I love shooting landscapes in SL! Sometimes I set up little scenes on my own land, others are from my travels around the grid. Ideally, for me, landscape pix should not have any distracting peole in them or if they do, they should be very unobtrusive and more "background", not a focal point of the image. I'm a stickler on that. This one is from a sim, Missing Melody. I like cows ❤️ http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Aftershock/165/82/22

This IS incredibly different than how you photograph yourself. It's a more gentle, softer side of you. More soulful. Like he saw into who you are not your facade. Really lovely portrait.

Thanks Nalates. The final image as shown was shot at the highest resolution and settings that my laptop can handle which is really high for a laptop. Typically I do keep the graphics lower as I'm setting up, then switch over to higher ones to tweak lighting. I probably over analyze the images a tad too much sometimes. It seems to be an endemic problem with some of us on these forums 😋

A lot of hair is made for Lelutka and Catwa although the creators do not explicitly say so - or very few anyway. There are only a handful that mention it. So yes, as Scylla said you need to tweak the head shape a bit to get the hair to fit correctly. Most times you can manage to do it without really changing your head appearance too much. Or, if lucky, the hair you have comes in a few sizes in the package or has a HUD to size it up/down. For the most part, most hair will fit Genus heads. I've only ran into a few that really don't fit well and I just avoid them. One I remember is Pritty, just can NOT get it to look right at all so I've stopped even trying. Not like there isn't plenty of other options to be had.

Curves works really well for my RL photos - especially the RGB one. Tones things done quite a bit

I like this a LOT. Genus Strong Face may be to your liking. Even better if you tweak it just a bit. The nose on it is fantastic - very different from most heads. I think it is what sets it apart from all other heads as it has a more unique look and I've found certain skins really accentuate this; Session and Skinnery in particular. Also, Genus has their own basic skin for sale called "March" which is an older looking aged skin and you can turn on "wrinkles" in the HUD to add to it. It's beautiful. Here's the Genus Strong head with the March skin:

Thanks! The lighting in world is my first line of defense. That usually works for the most part but once I start to post edit I always wind up noticing small problems I'd like to fix. I really should be using the PC for it but truly I'm just too lazy to go upstairs to our home office, preferring to be where the tv, kitchen (and cat usually) are lol. So, laptop it is. On this one, I used some tools *barely* because it wasn't too terrible looking. I also had to do a fix on the left ear because some of the fine head hairs were embedded into the ear. I saw that while taking the photo but no matter how I adjusted the ears I couldn't get the hair out of them. Even if I took those ears off and used those that came with the head. I could have easily have swapped out the hair style but I liked it too much and it had the right feel for this picture. Anyway, I used the clone tool for that and I'm more happy than not with the results.

Bump up! Head: Genus Project, Strong Face Applier: YS&YS, Maria, Tone 02 Ears: Swallow, Pixie Ears Hair: Stealthic, Paradox, Ombres Earrings; Rebel Hope, Tassel Earrings (HUD Driven Color Change). Not sure where I got these from they are from 2018 Dress: Justice, Jett Dress, Black Eye Applier: YS&YS, Extra Giftie in Maria box

I really need to learn how to work on the neck area or, stop using my laptop at minimum to take these kind of photos. It's really difficult to edit them on the laptop. I can, but with difficulty. Tips and tricks appreciated!

Sometimes creators don't bother answering your notecards, they just go ahead and resend the item. I just had that happen this weekend. Bought something at Fameshed from a very well known creator - it never made it to my inventory. Wrote them right off Friday evening. I knew she's not in my country. 24 hours later nothing. I was kind of getting annoyed. Then, yesterday evening I was looking for something else in my inventory which had a similar name to the other item and came upon it. She'd sent it, but never told me and I do not recall even seeing a notification that it had arrived (to be fair, i'm kind of lax reading those). As mentioned, recheck your inventory. And also yes, give a day or so to allow the creator to get back to you. You never know what time zone they are in (some put it in their profile - others do not) or they could be on vacation, etc. I do try to be as patient as possible. Most are good about getting back to you and if it becomes more than a few days drop them another note; it could honestly not have been seen. It happens.

When I chose my last name from the list given, I liked it because it was basically "moon" and "sea". I didn't even put 2*2 together to realize it was also "lunacy" until quite some time later on. Had I done that math I probably would have gone with another one 😋 It has made for some interesting pick up lines through the years, though.

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!

Ears are by Swallow. I'm assuming they are HUD driven with the earrings. EDIT: They were at Kustom9 in March.

Some of the older styles by Truth might fit the bill also. I seem to recall seeing some of the bottom flips there. Try Doux , EMO-tions, Vanity Hair. I have some from each that are kind of retro in feel. I agree about Lelutka - they don't specialize in hair but the few they have a really nice, classic styles with a retro feel that might suit what you need. FYI as far as I know there aren't creators that do custom hair.

Haha, we just cross posted, yet that's it

It's by Doux, called Brianna. Came out March 2019 for Fetish Fair. Might be in the store or not. Love their hair. FYI you can purchase it 2 ways - the basic hair or that and a separate HUD which will give you further options (styling etc) for an additional small fee. For many the basic is enough if you like the look as is. Store is kind of a PITA to navigate through so beware - very high key white appearance, large and difficult to find stuff. If I know what I'm looking for I just do a search.

Do you think it's better to pick one now from what's available on the grid, or wait until the upcoming new continent homes show up?

Thank you Sylvia. Much appreciated!

Wow, I am incredibly impressed with all of these photos. It's amazing how much one can do now that mesh is here and objects are so low prim in most instances. I don't pay much attention to LL's homes since I've been away from mainland for years but this is making me think about having one of my alts go premium to snag one of the upcoming plots. I took a walk/fly around the continent yesterday and was surprised how how well laid out it all is. They did a great job with the choice of home styles and there's enough land between them so you don't feel cramped near your neighbor at all - although the houseboats are a wee bit too near each other for my tastes. I'm curious how you all managed to get your lot? Was there advance notification? Was the home randomly assigned or is there some amount of choice provided? First come first served?

Just saw this thread. While not what you're looking for at the moment, I've been occasionally attempting to recreate the covers of albums of female artists I admire, best as possible with what I could find in world. So, here's 3 of them. First, is Hole, Live Through This; Second is Kate Bush, Hounds of Love. Last, Carly Simon's Playing Possum. Feel free to utilize them if you like. You can find my images on Flickr. There are a lot of real life stuff mixed in but you have my permission to use anything SL related that catches your eye as long as you contact me first to advise me of it's use. https://www.flickr.com/photos/elora_lunasea/

Thank you! Wish I remember - that one is from a couple of years ago. I do know it's from the Ribbet photo editor which is my go-to. So is the polaroid frame.

Someone I work with has the same sunglasses