SL Photography 101

A simple guide to taking good snapshots in SL. You dont need a super gaming computer to do this. I use to work on an ancient desktop computer and did just fine.



1. Poses- You need poses, and not old freebies from 2007. people recognize that old garbage and it looks terrible. Please invest in some nice poses. There are many stores to choose from.

 here are a handful of stores that i use and that are not too pricey.



 E.Ink

Seil Xpression

Bebotes

Love Me Brutal

!bang poses

Diesel Works

Purple Poses

Focus Poses





 and to store all of these poses in i recommend this

BOOM-Animation-Station



2. Windlight- Are you still using default lighting? Then you have a problem. You need to be playing with the windlight settings to get the best lighting for your av.

You can also download windlights to install into your viewer.
http://strawberrysingh.com/tutorials/windlight-settings/

http://juicybomb.com/2012/07/16/juicybomb-com-studio-windlight-settings/


3.Backgrounds- If  you just want a simple shot, then rezz box and change the texture to solid white  use that as the background. if you want a theme for your photo find a sim, or set something up in your home.

4. Graphics Settings- Not all computers are able to handle the high settings, but The Mid level settings will work just fine to get the good quality you need on an older computer. If you have a better computer than crank up those settings to the max.

5. Camera-Hop on a pose stand and select your pose, then hold ALT while you click on your av anywhere and it will focus on that area. If you are on Firestorm use Phototools camera controls button, open it up and use View Angle to get the camera closer or farther away.If you are worried about crashing and need to save that particular camera angle hit the eye with the downward arrow to store the current view.


You snapshots should not be dark default lighting and poorly chosen backdrops.
If you are as blogger you need to have decent photos to show off the designers products properly.
If your snapshots are done properly then you wont need to edit them , maybe cropping and thats all.