SECOND LIFE'S VISIONAIRE INSTITUTE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY

In Second Life, I shop sometimes, when I have the time. As a shopper, if the vendor photos are not clear and do not easily show what the products are, I never buy if there is not also a demo to try. My motto is, "No try, no buy," and I say it as I pass on by.

In Second Life, I blog sometimes. As a blogger, I do not want to present the shoppers with photos that are not clear and do not easily show what the products are so they will not pass on by. Therefore, my blog photos are simple and clear, with very little creativity involved.

However, I also wanted to be able to take really nice, creative photos, as well. I had basically no knowledge of Firestorm's photography tools, and, not having a lot of spare time, I didn't want to stumble around trying to piece together all the information . Several friends had spoken about Visionaire Institute, and it seemed very interesting to me. I thought that would be a source of concisely gathered information that would be given to me at my fingertips.

I knew a new session was going to be starting soon, so I decided to apply. I thought the application process was a simple apply and be accepted procedure. But, that was not the case. Applicants had to submit qualifying photos before being accepted. I worried that I would not be accepted, but, fortunately, I was, and my journey began.

Now, the journey has ended, and I recently graduated from Visionaire Institute.

Here, I would like to present the photos that I displayed for graduation. The theme was "Hide and Seek."

AVANT ELEPHANTE

AVANT LATEX

I entered the ModeLS Magazine challenge for the June issue, which was Avant Latex. While I was composing my photo, I kept in mind the Visionaire graduation theme, "Hide and Seek," so I could fulfill two obligations at once. It was a successful action, because the photo was chosen as one of the winners of the Avant Latex June challenge.

Here is the photo I composed for the Avant Latex challenge and used for graduation.

Here is the photo that appeared in the ModeLS Magazine, taken by Stavaros resident.

BEHOLD

BLUE IN BLUE

COLD TRACTOR

FUTURESCAPE

SPHERES

THE BRIDGE

VEILED

Visionaire delivered everything I had hoped, and a whole wealth of serendipities that I could not have imagined. The instructors, Wren and Koko, are a perfect blending that come together to give the ultimate learning experience. In addition, I made several new, wonderful friends! This class was worth every penny and every second!

Learn more about Visionaire Institute HERE.

VISIONAIRE HOMEWORK, CLASS 3

Three weeks, now, and I have learned far more than I could have imagined!

This week, the lesson was about the Phototools Depth of Field and Glow settings. Our assignment was to take a photo using a technique or concept we learned in the class. Last week, the critique Koko had for my photo was that it might look a little better if the fire and beach were a little more blurry (you have to understand, in landscapes, I mostly like everything to be razor sharp!) so I decided to go back to the same location and duplicate the picture with some blur in the fire and beach.

I adjusted, adjusted some more, and readjusted the Phototool sliders until I had achieved what I considered to be a pleasingly blurry look. I saved the picture, went to my computer to look at it, and was completely dismayed! Oh, NO! What?!  Lol. What I saw was a completely clear picture, no discernible blur at all!

Very luckily, Wren was on Second Life and I could ask her what had happened. She explained that it was because of my good computer, which took it upon itself to make a very clear image. I paid 4,000.00 to have a super fast and powerful computer made, and NOW it is giving me trouble!  Lol. The remedy for the problem? Go back into SL and adjust, adjust, adjust until I saw on my computer the look I wanted to have in my photo.

I am sure all this gets easier and quicker with practice. I think this is akin to learning how to ride a bicycle.  Lol.

So, here are the settings I used to get this week's homework:

Preferences settings (I kept the particles because I wanted the roaring fire to be included as part of the photo, and for Hardware Settings, I had anti-aliasing set at 16x):

The Windlight Settings:

The Edit Sky Preset, with the sun rising very nearly in the west:

The Light settings (I wanted to keep Local Lights, because I wanted to keep the firelight):

And, the Depth of Field and Glow settings:

So, I decided to take a simple, quick screen capture of the view I had in Second Life, the view I had to have in order to achieve the desired look in the actual photo on my computer. It is amazingly out of focus! This is it:

And here is what that very same view looked like on my computer, giving me the photo I decided to use for class. This is a RAW shot with some crop:

And, just for fun, here is the similar photo I used for class 2, without any blur at all. In comparing the two, the fire and beach are more blurry, as well as the trees behind the sail, and certainly the sea, sky, and horizon. For what I was trying to attain, I am pleased with the overall effect.

The pictures were taken at Kaleidoscope sim: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kaleidoscope/185/144/29

Thank you so much for looking!

VISIONAIRE HOMEWORK, CLASS 2

More Visionaire homework!

Again, we were asked to watch three videos, this time to learn about Windlight settings. I must say, this class is giving me more than I had hoped for! I adore this class! I am gaining the knowledge of how to use the Firestorm Phototools that I had desired, and then some!

After watching the videos, we were required to take three photos, changing only Windlight settings while keeping the camera in the same location. We had a choice of using three different windlights to show different emotions or of showing three different "seasons." I opted for one Windlight, the Analu Outdoor City, with sunrise at 6:12 a.m., and changed the shadows to create different moods.

All three photos are RAW.

My first, and least favorite, photo is with the sun rising in the south. This is just plain boring!, though it does have a certain ambiance. lol This is that photo:

My second favorite photo is with the sun rising in the north. This is it:

I definitely don't like those glaring leaves over there on the right side, so, for fun, I cropped them out. This is the result of that. I like it much better:

And, my third, and favorite, photo, with the sun rising in the west. I love the shadows on the sail and that rock with the rope draping across it.

I wanted to learn about shadows, and I certainly did this week! Thank you Visionaire!

The pictures were taken at Kaleidoscope sim: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kaleidoscope/185/144/29

Thank you for looking!

VISIONAIRE HOMEWORK, CLASS 1

For this class, we were asked to watch several videos, including how to set Preferences for photography purposes. We then were asked to take a simple RAW snapshot, post it on Flickr, and in the description, to write down what preference setting we used while taking that photograph. Well, I admit it again, I am lazy, and I truly do believe a picture is worth a thousand words, so I decided simply to capture the preferences I used and create a link to them here. I hope that everyone appreciates seeing my preferences settings in this way.

So, here they are!

These next settings are, of course, in the general tab. I did deviate in a few cases from what Wren and Nariko had suggested, and you can see those differences circled in red below. I put my graphics on ultra, and the sky, I experimented with and found that 16.000 worked well to achieve a mood I liked. Don't ask me why I chose to keep avatar cloth, since there were no avatars in the photo I finally chose; however, there was some cloth hanging about in various places, soooo....  lol

Next, my settings for the Hardware Settings tab. I adhered very closely to Wren and Nariko's suggestions, with the exception of putting Antialiasing on 16 instead of 8, just to make the photo as smooth as possible.

And, for any that are stumbling onto this by accident or by other means, well, here is the RAW photo I chose to present for class 2. I call it BEHIND THE STAIRS.

Here is the landmark for the Outer Garden sim where this photograph was taken:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Outer%20Garden/23/57/2505

And, that is the end of this short blog! Thank you for reading!

VISIONAIRE INSTITUTE APPLICATION PHOTOGRAPHS

I blog. It's what I do. Laugh out loud. As a blogger, I am sharing the great creations of Second Life designers with the whole shopping world. Well, I also am a shopper, and when I go shopping, if the ads are too artful, to the point of not correctly representing the colors and shapes of the designs on display, I most often will not buy those items, and certainly never if there is no demo available so I can accurately look at the items as I would be using them.

Therefore, when I am representing designs to potential buyers in my blogs, I keep my photos straight-forward and simple, with very little in-world manipulation or post-photo editing, so the buyers can accurately see what they will be buying.

That does not mean that I don't have a fledgling creative side tucked away down in there, however! I have been wanting to take the Visionaire Institute photography course for some time. I recently attended a Photography for Models workshop conducted by Visionaire, and that really opened up my eyes to what I didn't know and was missing out on in my use of Second Life and Firestorm photography tools! Now, more than ever, I want to take the full Visionaire photography course so I can fully learn and take advantage of the photography tools at my disposal.

To apply, applicants must submit from three to five photographs taken by them. At least one of these photos must be RAW, meaning there is no post-photo processing work done on it. Well, that made my decision easy! I would submit some RAW photos and save myself some work!

Now, for the photo submissions for the Visionaire Institute application, I took the liberty of actually going out to take some "creative" photos using the tools I had learned about in the Visionaire workshop, since there certainly is not an abundance of creative photos lying around in my inventory! I chose three of those I took specifically for the Visionaire application to go along with one other photo I actually had in my inventory that I had done some creative work on previously.

Now, for the photos!

This first one is the one I had done some creative work on previously. I used it for the Models Magazine October Horror Challenge. I was one of the winners and was featured in the magazine.  I call it "Crow Queen." This photo was taken at the DarkDharma Haunted Manor and Haunted Forest sim.

The second Visionaire submission was taken on a sim I discovered while looking for a place to take blog photos. I call this one Mirrors. This, I did do a bit of post-photo work on. You can go to the Oniro sim here.

Next, I present Violin. This is one of the RAW pictures I chose for application. This is another sim I discovered while looking for locations for blogs, the Digital Art sim. This is one of my favorite sims in Second Life.

And, finally, my personal favorite, Scarecrow Dreams, also RAW. Here, you can catch a ride to the Ocho Tango sim where this was taken. It adjoins the Digital Art sim and you can wander from one to the other as you explore the amazing beauty on display.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and look at my photos!

Have a great day!