Snapshot resources

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The following consists of miscellaneous info which often isn't easy to find, but very useful if you take Second Life snapshots, including postcards. Historically, documentation in this area has been sparse, and Residents have provided some great resources, so this is an ongoing endeavor at compiling those in an easy place — please help keep this updated!

A state of snapshots

^ Torley's personal notes on how things've come to be.

Guides

• Torley Linden's personal guide to high-quality Second Life photography! - Awesomely comprehensive, richly illustrated.

• Vint Falken's tutorials - Vint serves up fabulous slices of knowhow with a specialization in beautiful post-processing of your inworld shots.

Video tutorials

How to take a snapshot <videoflash>prno9o9n2ic</videoflash>

How to send a postcard <videoflash>iFzbvZc1BX4</videoflash>

Watch more video tutorials!

Social sites featuring snapshots

• Snapzilla - The original pioneer to really make use of postcards in such a widespread manner, its success has encouraged many Residents to share their inworld memories. As of April 2007, Snapzilla currently boasts over 150,000 pictures and is en route to a "2.0" upgrade.

• SLBuzz - Postcards are part of SLBuzz's community site offerings. It also allows uploading of photos from your hard drive.

• SL Profiles - This page allows you to quickly add Second Life pictures to your profile on this community site.

• Koinup - Koinup, the first social network for all virtual worlds residents. Recently Koinup introduced the chance to send postcards directly from Second Life to members Koinup galleries

• Flickr - The popular photo-sharing service. They recently abolished their NIPSA restrictions in favor of a content filtering system, so Residents can show their SL snapshots in public searches.
  • Via Snapzilla-to-Flickr and SLBuzz-to-Flickr, Residents can crosspost to another service to have their pictures also show up on Flickr, where they can be easily organized.
  • Flickr's Second Life group - The largest. Look inside the discussion area for varied photographic tips 'n' tricks.
  • List of all Second Life Groups on Flickr.com - There are many Second Life-related groups. More keep appearing, so this likely isn't "all" of them — add ones you notice are missing!
  • You can also use Flickr's tools to upload snapshots from your hard drive, and there are a variety of 3rd-party amusements like fd's Flickr toys and Dumpr which you can apply to your images.

• blogHUD - Use this gadget to send send your postcards to the web.

Tools

• Picnik (free version available, web-based) - Online image editor super-easy to edit your snapshots (in both basic and more fun ways), then post them on the web, or save back to hard drive. Integrates seamlessly with Flickr. See Torley's review.

• ReNamer (free, Windows-only) - Batch-renames your files. Great for taking a heap of snapshots named "Snapshot" and turning them into something more descriptive. Also see Torley's review.

• Autostitch (free, Windows-only, Mac and Linux versions planned) - Easy-to-use 2D image stitcher that turn a collection of snapshots into a breathtaking, wide-angle panorama. Also see Torley's tutorial on how to specifically use it with Second Life.

• virtualPhotographer (free, Windows-only) - Incredibly tasty little Photoshop plugin to add extra "pop" to your snapshots. Had a nice collection of presets and can simulate film grain, sepia, bloom, etc.

Also see Texture_Tools for image editors and more.

Related resources

You may also be interested in seeing this wiki's compilation of:

• Texture Tools - Image-editing stuff you can use to prettify your pictures. Some overlap with this page.
• Video Tutorials - An assortment of multimedia guides, good for those who enjoy seeing how things actually work inworld.