Vint's Diffusely Useful Tips for Photoshopping Second Life Screenshots

As a perusing of the ongoing New World Tableau series will show, a lot of Resident artists who use SL screenshots as their medium often process their images through Photoshop.  The challenge is often figuring out how to use it in a way that enhances the image without losing it to excess effects.  On her blog, seasoned image maker Vint Falken offers a helpful pictorial that walks you through the pros and cons of using Photoshop's diffuse glow function, and suggests an alternative.  I just never thought I'd come across a comparison between a Photoshop tool and thermonuclear war.

Comments

[rara]

hello i learned your blog in a magazine. nice. keep it up.
we dont have second life here in manila, b ut there's groovenet

[Melissa Yeuxdoux]

I share Vint's dismay at your scrupulous avoidance of the P-word. In "Ophelia's Gaze," we read "What’s the business-minded avatar wearing?" rather than "What textures do business-minded SL players apply to their avatar meshes?" You write of Khannea Suntzu as "dancing" rather than "running animations that simulate dancing."

When Vint, or I, or anyone, "create an image" in SL, we select a point of view; we can zoom; we have to worry about lighting and composition, and whether somebody will walk into our picture unexpectedly... all the things a photographer has to deal with, with only a few exceptions because SL doesn't simulate depth of field and exposure when generating its "snapshots". Otherwise, we push a button and get a .bmp file, just as a RL photographer pushes a button and gets a RAW file or a JPEG--if you insist on silver halide being injured in the production of a photograph, there are darned few photographers in RL these days.

SL photography merits suspension of disbelief as much as any other activity in SL.