Photography Tips & Tricks

Well I was going to post some "tips n' tricks" type info... But in reality most of them I got from other sites/blogs or via experimentation which are already covered by others, and I feel the need to give credit due where it belogs. So the following are some good links that I've used for photography tricks in SL that may be of use to you. Some of the highlights of the tips I've found or discovered are also posted below.

SL Photography/Snapshot Links:

SL Wiki: Snapshots
SL Wiki: Torley's Guide to HQ Photography
Vint Falken's Blog
SL Photography Tips by Steven Lavington
Rehula Diary: photo tips
New World Notes: Vint's Photoshop Tips
Linden Lifestyles: Photography for Idiots


RL photography links/articles that may be of some use in SL:

Photography Tips .com
PhotoSecrets
Digital Photography Tips .net
Digital Photography at Tip Central
Better Photo: Top 10 Beginner Tips

Photography Composition Articles:

Beginner's Guide to Nature Photography Composition
Guidelines for Better Photographic Composition
Mastering the Art of Composition - Rule of Thirds and Golden Mean
Lessons in Composition - Rule of Thirds

And some of my personal Quick-Tips:

To take a snapshot while in mouseview (to disc only): ctrl + ' or ctrl + ^

You can also take photos by changing your camera focus and either clicking on "Snapshot" button or using Ctrl + Shift + S

For Models: ALT + Click on your avatar will get them to stay still and focus directly to the front.

To manipulate your camera focus:

Alt and clicking something focuses it to the center of the screen.
Alt and dragging the mouse zooms the camera.
Alt-Ctrl and dragging orbits the camera.
Alt-Ctrl-Shift and dragging pans the camera.


Disable Camera Constraints: this is great for landscape shots, allowing you to move your camera anywhere on the Sim. Go to Client > Disable Camera Constraints.

Draw Distance: This allows you to adjust how far out the world renders, make it longer for landscape shots or make it shorter for portraits. Go to Edit > Preferences > Graphics tab > adjust the Draw Distance.

Changing the Time of Day: You can change the daylight/night lighting settings on your local client only. This will not affect how anyone else views the lighting, and will only affect how you see things locally. To change this, go to World > Environment Settings > then select which one you want. You can also select the region default which will allow you to revert it back to how it used to be.

Mouse Moves the Sun: This is a very handy tool for composition and lighting in photography, play god with the sun's location on your client only. Go to World > Mouse Move the Sun to activate it. Then go into mouselook and as you move your mouse around the sun will follow. Pressing escape will leave mouselook mode and the sun will stay put where you left it.

Antialiasing: This smooths out the jagged lines in SL. To turn this on, go to Prefrences > Graphics > Hardware Options: then adjust your antialiasing as you wish. Please note this will affect your performance speed.

Anisotrophic Filtering: This makes things at angles in the distance look sharper. To turn this on, go to Prefrences > Advanced Grahics.