Photo finish

Ever since I found out that the Second Life client had a facility for doing screen captures—i.e., taking photographs—I've enjoyed using it, at least when I remember to do so. I have a bunch of SL photos on my hard drive, and I've uploaded some to my Flickr site as well as to this blog.

For portraits and fashion-type shots, though, I got tired of having so little control over backgrounds and lighting. You can take only so many shots on the beach at dawn. So since my office is VLP (very low prim), as is most of the furniture up there, I built a twelve-prim photo studio down lower. It's not much. I haven't even really finished it. It's still ugly plywood on the outside. But it gives me a place to experiment with what is becoming a fun hobby for me.

As usual, I don't know what the heck I'm doing yet. I haven't consulted with anyone about how a studio should be built, how to configure the lighting, or even how to set up the shots I really want. I am in desperate need of a system for doing multiple poses, not to mention in desperate need of better poses. But it's a start, I'm under no pressure to do great things, and I'm having a blast.

I have some First Life photos of Maui that I'm using for backdrops, as well as a purple satin thing that came from who knows where. Clearly, more backdrops needed. I created a couple of light balls and positioned them a little in front of and on either side of the wall I shoot against. Refinement probably needed there.

I found out last night that it's much, much easier to do self-portraits than it is to work with a model. When you're shooting yourself, you basically position your avatar, turn the camera around, get the right angle, and shoot. Easy peasy. But with a model, you have to get yourself out of the picture. That might involve using mouselook, an inexact tool at best, although handy. More likely it involves using the camera controls to carefully position the camera where you want it while staying far out of the picture. That takes a bit of time.

Patrice was so good about modelling for me last night, patiently standing there whilst I fiddled and fussed. And the results aren't bad so far, if I do say so myself. I took several other shots, but I wanted to find one that was more-or-less PG rated! Thus, Patrice in her armour, not in her see-through chain mail slingshot outfit.

I will enjoy learning more about this.