pic courtesy of 9thsimplex and Razbam Productions


Hello to all! When Clipper announced the new way for the Studio, I offered to write articles for it. This will be my first one. As always please cast your comments, suggestions and ideas.








PART TWO



Hey all!

What I wanted to talk about today isn't really technique related.

Though technique may eventually make you improve your shots. All what you do before actually shooting is very important as well.

There are several approaches to making screenshot. Some people just start up the sim, fly and take shots randomly. Others Have to set up a lot of addons before they start flying. They think exactly of how they want their sim to look for the screenshots they want to make. The same go for the number of shots taken.  Some take 50+ shots and only post 5 of them. Others take 10 shots and post 8 of them.  Most of us are somewhere in between probably. For me you ask? I used to be like the first example and post 8 out of ten shots.... Though over time I took screenshots with much more consideration about what I posted. Now my screenshots usually start with a nice plane or paint I see. like for instance, after this post I'm probably going up to fly a lovely Lucian Lie GR4 repaint for the Iris Tornado. Don't know exactly where yet but I'm thinking of Mountains as usual. or Maybe since it's FS I'll put her in a place that seems really unlikely and go for TNCM! With FS it's all possible. Whe I fly I look around atr the scenery, the sun, Clouds etc etc and think of an image in my head. I think of the angle I want etc etc. I position my plane in that position and then I pause the sim. with a bit of timing to get the thing between the pausebars and I shoot away. Now with recorder I'm even more picky about the angles I use. There more choice you have, the more picky you get I suppose.

The intention of most of my screenshot threads is making people want to fly. If I see good shots then I want to fly as well. Needless to say. Since I joined Simv my flying hours have increased greatly. I often hear that people think I'm an expert on this screenshot thingie. Well..... I'm not but I just do my best and that is all I can do.

For a screenshot competition shot I approach things differently. Also, in my earlier days I used to have my entry up within the five first days. Now it usually takes me two weeks just to get the idea and image of what I want. I then concentrate on that idea and on that idea only. I fly and take shots, I then choose the one shot that appeals to me the most. Maybe that shot isn't technically the most perfect. If it feels right

I work by trial and error.....

I take tons of shots, maybe 50 or 100 or more, playing with angles and times... sometimes I have an idea, most often not. I don't take it so seriously, setting up, planning, optimising etc, though I do appreciate responses to those pics that I think are good enough to post.

I've discovered long ago that there can often be an inverse relationship between the amount of effort one puts in, and the amount of replies and feedback one gets. Take one sunset and the virtual applause is deafening. Set up a bunch of carefully crafted shots, choose the best, crop them carefully... and for a reason you cannot find, blinkered by your own preferences, no one cares. I've found that the pictures that appeal to me the most usually appeal to other people the least. So now I just do whatever I feel like.... and if people like them it's a bonus 

When I'm just flying for fun then usually I stop several times in the flight and take shots, ending up to be about 10-20 shots.  When I'm going for the competition, I know pretty much what I want so I download all the addons I need and fiddle with the weather and time for hours .

- Kevin

Im a bit of both, sometimes i go up with no intention of taking shots and then other times i go up with the soul purpose of taking shots.

When taking a shot, i try to only take the ones i will use, except in the monthly contest.  Ill pause and have a good look around until i get a good angle, reflection and background scenery.  The i may even mess with the weather a bit (see stu's view 2 )

Souichiro wrote on Feb 11^th, 2007 at 4:55pm:


My way is a very nice mixture used to make pancakes and also used to fry fish in

On a serious note, I usually either go on with the intention to take shots or go on intending not to take shots. I don't suddenly decide that i want to take shots halfway through a flight. For the competition I usually only take about 4 or 5 pictures (any more and I would spend hours annoying myself because i want to choose more than 1 )

.mic