Acceptance (Future Is Now Series)

Title of picture - Acceptance (Future Is Now Series)

Photographer's Name - Arcadia Nightfire (arcadianightfire@gmail.com)

Models Name - Arcadia Nightfire 

Location used - The sky above MDR Photo Studio,http://slurl.com/secondlife/Glitter/202/211/23

Poses Used - /me Poses (/me is a firestarter)

Windlight settings used -  Custom - see image below

Second Life Graphics Settings - Ultra

Inworld photo tools used - Sculpture by Elros Tuominen called Creating This New Year To Come

outworld tools used - Photoshop - added black border, tagged, and added a small Gaussian Blur

Comments & Additional info
 This photo was part of an entire series of photos.  The rest can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdrstudio/

Emerging (Future Is Now Series)

Title of picture - Emerging (Future Is Now Series)

Photographer's Name - Arcadia Nightfire (arcadianightfire@gmail.com)

Models Name - Arcadia Nightfire

Location used - The sky above MDR Photo Studio,http://slurl.com/secondlife/Glitter/202/211/23

Poses Used - /me Poses (/me is a firestarter)

Windlight settings used - Default Setting with these modifications: max altitude 1605
distance multiplier 98.0  density multiplier 0.01
Second Life Graphics Settings - Ultra

Inworld photo tools used - Sculpture by Elros Tuominen called Creating This New Year To Come

outworld tools used - Photoshop - cropped, tagged, and added a small Gaussian Blur

Comments & Additional info
This photo was part of an entire series of photos.  The rest can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdrstudio/

Reverence (Future Is Now Series)

Title of picture - Reverence (Future Is Now Series)

Photographer's Name - Arcadia Nightfire

Models Name - Arcadia Nightfire

Location used - The sky above MDR Photo Studio,http://slurl.com/secondlife/Glitter/202/211/23

Poses Used - /me Poses (takes my stance)

Windlight settings used - Windlight - Default Setting with these modifications: max altitude 1605
distance multiplier 98.0  density multiplier 0.01
Second Life Graphics Settings - Ultra

Inworld photo tools used - Sculpture by Elros Tuominen called Creating This New Year To Come

Outworld tools used - Photoshop - cropped, tagged, added a diffuse glow of 8 to the entire photo and a small gaussian blur


Comments & Additional info
This photo was part of an entire series of photos.  The rest can be found at www.flickr.com/people/mdrstudio

There's a light in the darkness

Title of picture - There's a light in the darkness

Photographer's Name - Chandni Khondji

Models Name - Chandni Khondji

Location used - MC Photostudio

Poses Used - Unknown (part of a pose stand)

Windlight settings used - Pre-loaded  AnaLutetia AvatarOpt whiter

Second Life Graphics Settings - Custom: Lowest, view 64, with bump mapping and shiny, Mesh Details High,  nearby local lights

Inworld photo tools used - Photostudio for pose and background

Details of inworld tools - NA

Outworld tools used - Photoshop CS2

Processes used in outworld tools -


Base has been the Avatar posing in front of the Background. First Processing has been to increase saturation and contrast to make it more vivid.


Since the lights of the background come from the front i made the area behind the Avatar darker and before it brighter with semi transparent layers of black and white in those areas.


Then I used another layer as overlay for the white highlights on the front of the avatar and the dress to show where the light hits it. With the dodge tool and a soft round brush I highlighted the areas of the front skirt.
The Sparkles are made with different sets of brushes, the long trails i copied and put a gaussian blur filter over the copy for some glow effect.


Next step has been to highlight the hand, arm, chest and face to show the light effect of the sparkles - done with an semi transparent layer with white brush strokes (soft round brush).
The Frame was added with a selection, invert and fill with black, added a blending mode drop shadow for more depth.

The last step has been to copy the foot and put it over the frame to make it look as if she steps out of it.
Done :)

Comments & Additional info

This picture was not planned. I actually played around with the photostudio while being bored and found the background interesting and had this pose from a picture i made before. I did not know what will come out once again the playing in Photoshop was more because i was bored. The first time i did this image with a different model (an alt of mine) but i wanted to have it with my main as well :) This is the second version.

Low to Ultra Faceshots using Windlight

Title of picture - Low to High to Ultra Face Shots 

Photographer's Name - Aldwyn Zanzibar

Models Name - Aldwyn Zanzibar

Location used - My Home Studio

Poses Used - MMP3 Stand Pose 5 by Serenade

Windlight settings used - Custom Windlight Settings by Caliah Lyon (see previous post)

Second Life Graphics Settings - Low to High to Ultra, left to right


Low Settings

High Graphic Settings

Ultra Graphic Settings

Inworld photo tools used - My Studio for white backgrounds

Details of inworld tools - NA

outworld tools used - Paint.net

Processes used in outworld tools - Just cutting and pasting 2 photos together, no processing done

Comments & Additional info

I know it has been said over and over, but I am going to repeat it anyway.  The higher the resolution and graphics settings, the more detail you are going to be able to see, and will give you the best base to work from.  But I wanted to demonstrate the differences in the graphic level settings, and that with a good tool like Photoshop, GIMP, even paint.net, you can get a good base from a lower graphic setting also, and then do your favorite processing from there.

I am going to see if I can put this custom windlight setting together into a file that I can send anybody that wants it.  If you would like it, please either IM me inworld (Aldwyn Zanzibar) or email me (aldwynzanz@gmail.com).

Have a great day everybody!

The difference between Low and High Graphics?

Title of picture - The Difference between Low and High Graphics

Photographer's Name - Aldwyn Zanzibar

Models Name - Aldwyn Zanibar

Location used - My home studio

Poses Used - MMP3 Stand Pose 5 by Serenade

Windlight settings used - Custom WL by Caliah Lyon (See previous post)

Second Life Graphics Settings - Left Pic Low, Right Pic High
Lift Pic

High Settinngs

Inworld photo tools used - My Studio for white backgrounds

Details of inworld tools - NA

outworld tools used - Paint.net

Processes used in outworld tools - Just cutting and pasting 2 photos together, no processing done

Comments & Additional info

just wanted to highlight how the different graphic settings can make a difference. 

The Windlight Difference even on Low Graphics

Title of picture - The Windlight Difference even on Low Graphics

Photographer's Name - Aldwyn Zanzibar

Models Name - Aldwyn Zanzibar

Location used - My own custom Studio

Poses Used - MMP3 Standing Pose 5 from Serenade

Windlight settings used - For Left Pic, default, for right pic, Custom Windlight settings designed by Caliah Lyon, both set on midday

Second Life Graphics Settings - Low, with a few tweaks below:

Inworld photo tools used - None

Details of inworld tools - NA

outworld tools used - Paint.net

Processes used in outworld tools -  Just a cut and paste to get the two photos side by side

Comments & Additional info

I asked a question regarding photographing skins inworld, and Barbara Nichols dropped me a notecard she had about some great windlight settings to use for skin photography.  I wanted to do an experiment on using the lowest graphics settings to see the difference.  Here is the notecard she sent me.



FACELIGHTS, LIGHTS AND WINDLIGHT SETTINGS


* The default light in second life generates some very annoying shadows, this results in a horizontal line for the blond straight hairstyles and dark puffy spots in your avatars face. We used to be able to deal with these issues by attaching (face)lights. But in the new (WL) viewer light-attachments are blinding us mostly and are no longer a solution to the shadow-issues anyway. The best way to deal with these shadows now is to adjust your light at the 'environmental settings' --> 'environment editor'.  Caliah Lyon has shared some great settings she created by tweaking the default midday. It's a beautiful bright light, without loosing all contrast.
Thank you Caliah, for sharing these with us :)


The Atmosphere Tab:


Blue Horizon: R: 0.12, G: 0.12, B: 0.16, I: 0.16
Haze Horizon: 0.09
Blue Density: R: 0.32, G: 0.59, B: 1.00, I: 1:00
Haze Density: 0.65
Density Multiplier: 0.18
Distance Multiplier: 2.0
Max Altitude: 188


The Lighting Tab:


Sun/Moon Color: R, G, B and I at 0.86
Sun/Moon Position: 0.000
Ambient: R: 0.67, G: 0.64, B: 0.63, I: 0.67 (raise I up to 0.70 for outdoor settings)
East Angle: 0.16
Sun Glow: Focus: 0.10 Size 1.75
Scene Gamma: 1.08-1.15
Star Brightness: 0.00


The Clouds Tab:
Cloud Coverage: 0.13
(other setting in cloud tab can stay the way they are)


Save this under a "New" preset. (or any other name that you will be able to remember..:P )

Barbara Nicholls

Barbara Nichol