Rough Guide: How I Do my Screenshots
This covers the basics of how I do my screenshots.
- If you want overlays, check out these links: one | two | three | four
- My tutorial on editing without G/Reshade, mods and CC is HERE
- My tutorial on how I do my fire effects is HERE. This covers how I edit .png overlays in the context of fire but might work for other overlays.
- I keep seeing people who think these tutorials are 'forcing' them to edit. YOU CONTROL THE TUTORIALS YOU DO OR DON'T FOLLOW.
This is a very rough guide, so it doesn't go super into detail. I am going by what I use most often for generic/ lookbook pics, so it won't go into screenshot overlays or after-effects editing.
I use GShade, but ReShade works fine as well. I use version 5.2.4, and I almost never update it unless I need to reinstall TS4.
I often use SWRE for clearer shots, but that isn't a major necessity.
I don't pay any attention to best dimensions for Tumblr whatsoever.
This guide will teach you how to use SWRE, but ONLY use it if you have a fairly powerful laptop or computer since it will cause things to run slowly as you take your screenshots.
OVERRIDES / GENERIC MODS I USE:
NoGlo and NoBlu lighting mods (A must!)
No Blur in Distance (A must!)
Helgatisha Default Camera Replacement (A must!)
Skin: Luumia Vanilla Skin, Lamatisse Bare skintones
Eyes: Pralinesims Oasis Eyes N155 + RubyBird's Aqua Trigger Eyes
No Fade on Everything mod
I use GShade's Screenshot Key to take my screenshots, as opposed to the C key, so that it includes the effects of the shaders.
PRESETS: I only use two GShade presets, both of which I made: Maleficium for lookbooks and Outdoor 2025 for outdoor pics and everything else. You'll need to the shaders that are linked as 'REQUIRES' on both. They both work for ReShade too but might look slightly different. I play with these a lot.
IMPORTANT: Make sure the iMMERSE - Launchpad shader is ALWAYS at the top, right-click it and select 'Move to Top'. I always put the RTGI shader underneath Launchpad. RTGI shader is what carries all of my shots and gives them all the realistic lighting.
I use the Alpha version of ReLight since I don't like the newer one.
SHADERS I LIKE (These came with GShade, so long as you selected to download all of the shaders upon install:)
For extra shadows, I use MXAO, MXAOFFIV, and RayAO shaders most often. I don't always use all of them, it depends on the background, and the MXAOFFIV is only for when I want lots of shadows.
You may like your pics to be sharp, but I always use one of the Anti Aliasing shaders to give a softer edge to everything.
The Prod80 shaders ContrastBrightnessSaturation and Shadows_Midtones_Highlights is always useful.
I use aDoF and CinematicDoF for depth of field. Depth of field can be awkward with using SWRE, and you'll need to be patient whilst it processes it.
If it's on a coloured backdrop, I only use MXAO so it's easier to airbrush over in a paint program with the background's colour to get rid of the crease shadows on the backdrop. sometimes I don't even use MXAO if I'm using a coloured backdrop.
Sometimes, the SSGI shader adds some slightly better lighting, but for me it's very situational.
For bloom, I use MagicBloom or Bloom, and sometimes ArcaneBloom shaders depending on which suits the subject best.
I can't explain what it does, but the PandaFX shader is nice too a lot of the time. It sort of darkens and saturates the image a bit.
Sometimes Drop Shadow is cool, but it doesn't always work the way you want it to.
SWRE: When I open SWRE, and when I select The Sims 4: The resolution of my game as defined in the game's options is 1920 x 991. So I change the numbers to Width: 1920 and Height: 991, and then in Scale, I change the number to 2 and then confirm it.
It takes a second for my GShade preset and shaders to reload, you'll need to be patient if you're using any Depth of Field. (This might make the game + your computer lag.)
And then when I'm done taking my screenshots, I change the numbers in Width and Height back to 1920 and 991.
I'll show you an example now:
- The top one is a zoom-in on a 1920 X 991 screenshot.
- The bottom one is a zoom-in on a screenshot where SWRE is used, where the scale is set to X2 that size.
My lighting is inspired by @elderwisp and @flovoid. My style is a kind of combo of Flovoid's vibrant coloured lighting and Elderwisp's darker-toned, more 'gritty' kind of editing style.
With the ReLight shader, I usually have 3 or 4 lights depending on the subject. I tend to choose colours based on what reminds me of the character. For Reynold, I always use a pale blue since it makes me think of moonlight, and he's a mooncaster.
For my lookbooks / edit pics, I use this Better Photography Lighting's AmbientLight_L and Vyxated's flat backdrops.
The left is with no preset, and the right is with the default Maleficium GShade preset. I also try to make sure that there's not too much lighting on the face coming from too many directions. On Reynold's face there's a little bit under his neck and a softer bit of lighting on the other side of his face.
When it comes to Sims with darker skin tones, I have taken inspiration from Black cinematographers' advice for lighting Black skintones and from a Black comic artist's advice for drawing lighting on Black characters. Also by looking at the photos on Google relevant to the subject and shots from films as well. Sadly, I deleted a lot of my bookmarks a while ago and no longer have access to these resources and couldn't find them again, but a piece of advice from the comic book artist especially focused on vibrant colours and edge lighting, so you don't colour-wash the character or end up lightening the skintone. You'll notice this in a lot of my edits of the Reyes family:
I always use bright colours for the edge lighting and try to make sure that their skintones aren't brightened or washed out by the lighting. Or I use low-brightness colours for the same reason, like the low-brightness blue lighting on the left sides of the bottom three portraits.
The Outdoor 2025 Gshade preset I linked earlier works well with pretty much any time of day and any skintone. The RTGI shader carries this preset as well.
You might want to turn off MXAO during daytime photos. But this is a nice and very universal preset that works with most things.
I usually only ever use 1 ReLight light for this preset if I'm doing a landscape shot and I position it where the Sun or Moon should be, adjusting the Intensity and Position accordingly. You can't always see the ReLight light super brightly for landscape pics.
For morning, I use pale yellow light. For daytime, very pale blue light. For sunset, usually an orange or yellow light. For night-time, either light blue or white light for moonlight.
If you want some more specific + colourful presets, try my old Mega Collection. I used this with the Milk Thistle lighting mod though, so you might get a different result.
