Snapshot resources

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

The history of snapshots in Second Life hasn't been well-chronicled. Every Resident vérité takes a picture at one point during their Second Life or another, but until recently, there's been a poor understanding of fundamental "pillars", including how many postcards get sent out, how many snapshots are uploaded to inventory, as well as the finer points of taking beautiful pictures.

Dismissing snapshots as "just for fun" neglects much context: in increasing amounts, the first exposure someone who's not yet part of Second Life may get of our world are Resident-taken snapshots. Especially on sites with a much broader audience like Flickr, the art of fine photography helps communicate our passion for capturing real emotions experienced in our online world.

In addition, taking better snapshots also helps increase your self-confidence. Snapshots require a combination of skills, including precise camera control, knowledge of lateral features (like adjusting the sun to get desired lighting), and frequently, avatar customization. Putting all of them together to get "the perfect shot" is a testament to how "meta" quality snapshotting can be.

Better snapshots also hint at dreams for a lovelier Second Life. Applied post-processing effects are done in absence of the ability to perform the same magic in realtime. But as new features emerge, avid virtual shutterbugs can indulge in them, and build on their repertoire of techniques used to create beauty as they see it! For example, the RenderGlow (more info) feature added in 1.15, and planned to be a more accessible part of the interface, has already captured the imaginations of photogs in search of softer looks.

So where do we stand today? Bert Linden recently began work on regular metrics reports for postcards. For the first quarter of 2007, over 300,000 postcards were sent out. That's substantially more than the almost-269,000 sent during the whole year of 2006! We've seen an enormous surge in postcard sending, much of it prompted by the new Orientation Islands, which feature a postcard station as a basic first step in learning your Second Life. Also, as Resident-run social sites continue to expand, there can be no stopping the sharing!

With so much photographic activity trackable, and much of it not (we don't know how many snapshots you saved to disk), it's clear that more resources prominently be put forth to educate and entertain snapshot enthusiasts, new, old, and everything in-between. By improving our quality in quantity, we gain more of an appreciation for the Grid we live on, and preserve our digital cultures in ways never thought possible before. All of this also challenges preconceived norms: parallel to machinima being taken seriously, are Second Life snapshots merely computer screenshots, or a new form of art? Hindsight will make us wiser, as it tends to do.

In the present, as the old adage goes, "practice makes perfect", and what's important is you're enjoying yourself as you "capture the moments". The resources below are intended to aid in rewarding your continued self-discovery.

Enjoy your photographic memories!

-Torley Linden, 2007-04-26

Tips 'n' tricks

Video tutorials:

• How to send a postcard - Self-explanatory fun!

• Advanced Snapshot Magic - Shows you how to zoom, get great lighting effects, and more.

From the Knowledge Base (sadly, we can't link to direct articles there, so try searching for these titles):

• How do I take pictures or snapshots of things inworld? - Start here first!

• Guide to the snapshot window's options - Intermediate-level skillz!

More guides:

• Torley Linden's personal guide to high-quality Second Life photography!

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

Did you also know you can:

• Change image size and quality settings when sending postcards? See this blog post for more info.

• Save textures to your hard drive? For example, if you've uploaded snapshots to your inventory, this lets you export them so you can upload them to other sites and post them outside of Second Life. You can do this by opening a texture with full permissions and going to File menu > Save Texture As — see the link for further details.

• Hide the ugly gap between the water and horizon? (This is workaround for a bug, SL-24381, and will be deprecated when First Look: WindLight comes out.)

• Hide foot shadows? Client menu > Rendering > Features > Foot Shadows.

• Use "Slow Motion Animations" to make action shots easier?

• Move the camera around while taking a freeze-frame snapshot? Great for getting an ideal angle with little fuss.

• Use Flickr photos as streaming media in SL?

Social sites featuring postcards

• 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.
  • Links to all Second Life Groups on Flickr - 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.

Useful utilities

Add programs you've personally found valuable.

• Picasa (free, Windows and Linux) - Elegant photo organizer. Add your folders to be scanned and perform some light image enhancement while you're at it.

• 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.

• GIMP (free, Windows, Mac, and Linux) - The "GNU Image Manipulation Program" is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages. A lot of Photoshop's features are also available in GIMP, and there's also a GIMPshop, which emulates PS' functionality even closer.

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.