Thanks for the tags everyone: @optimisticgrey @carnivaley @arlynx @gortashsrighthand @the-shadowfell-darkroom and @lucretiouswept💕
You know, I don’t usually talk much about myself, but I started putting my thoughts together on this, and somehow it ended up way longer than I expected. So I'm putting it under the cut for those who like to read. And those who don't, just take a look at the photos! Or not, you decide
Gentle tags for @onlytavs @thecampjuicebox @bhaal-battle-beer-bard @perpetualmaladaptivedaydream @monrayne @purpleasters-inseptember @michanvalentine @ratchsellsfornax and anyone else who wants to join in, consider yourself tagged 💕
The F12 Goblin Era
I'm the kind of person who happily spends half their life in the character creator, so it was only a matter of time before I started capturing absolutely everything my characters did. (Oh, no! I made them too pretty! Now I must stare at them from every angle.) At the time, I had absolutely no technical knowledge, so "documenting" was actually just hitting the screenshot button like a madman. I wouldn't call it virtual photography yet, but it was the beginning of the obsession and the reason I wanted to learn more.
Fun fact: I've just checked and apparently I have more than 3000 screenshots from this period.
New addiction Era
With Patch 8 Photo Mode came, and my screenshot-addicted self obviously had to give it a try. I won't lie, my first shots were pretty rough. Even with some experience in traditional photography, I couldn't quite figure out what all the sliders did. But there's this thing that happens when you pick up a new hobby: when you're starting from zero, it's easy to improve fast. That quick progress is addictive, and it makes you want to keep going. Maybe I finally found something I'm actually good at?
"New Screen, who this?" Era
One thing I haven't mentioned yet: I'm broke. Like, "my gaming setup is a laptop that crashes if you breath the wrong way" broke. And as you may have guessed from the previous screenshots that tiny laptop came with an equally tiny screen. Then my partner noticed my completely reasonable and definitely not concerning Virtual Photography obsession, and he was like, "Why not push her even deeper?" So in October, for my birthday, he bought me a proper monitor.
I still love it to this day… but the moment I turned it on, I realized everything I'd made before looked like absolute garbage. The colors were off, the quality was off, everything looked awful. So this was also the Great Remake Era. Luckily, I have the terrible habit of letting my shots rot in drafts for months before posting them. So I convinced myself I had to recreate most of them (and also some already posted works) with my now better setup for the perfect quality.
Around that time, I also started using watermark too! Not because I needed one, but because it just seemed like a very artist thing to do. It somehow tricked my brain into thinking I could actually make something out of this.
I also started using Lighty Lights! I had been against it for the longest time, because to be honest, I’ve got the soul and brain of a boomer when it comes to learning new things. I tried it a few times, got overwhelmed, quit, and then immediately tried again the next day. It was a long process, but now I can hardly imagine taking screenshots without them. The secret, though, is that I still only know how to use the basic functions. Haha.
This era lasted quite a while, and it's the one where I finally started creating shots that I proudly called VPs, and I still do. Something else changed during this time, too. You might've noticed the beginning of it at the end of the previous era: I finally let my muse go. It happened after a disappointing experience with some people in the fandom, but looking back, it was probably for the best. It pushed me to start photographing other characters instead, and I'm really happy with how diverse my portfolio has become.
Paint it Black Era
This isn’t exactly an era that’s over, in fact, it’s still very much ongoing. But around this time, I accidentally discovered that I’m kinda good at making black and white shots. They’ve basically become my go-to whenever I don’t really have inspiration… to, well, inspire myself. If they turn out good, it usually does the trick and makes me want to create even more.
Current Era
I count this era from this February, when I was asked to take shots for an upcoming pose pack. That was when I really wanted to learn hotsampling, mostly out of laziness, if I’m honest. The shots had to be vertical, and I couldn’t be bothered to rotate my screen every time. So I figured, if the source image is big enough, I can just crop out what I don’t need, and still have the right quality.
Not exactly the most professional approach, but at least it made me learn something new and useful.
Current+
Not sure if it should call it a new period, because it's not my accomplishment that Bone Zone exists. But I started to use it and build poses for my shots!
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I was tagged by @optimisticgrey @cinder-rellish181 @gortashsrighthand @deianestormborn - thank you all, I'll share a lot of pain and suffering. If you don't like heavy angst, run for your life.
So...
It started with simple photomode. No LL, no fancy outfits, just a couple of pose packs. The same moment I tried to take a photo of Halsin and Ethery together, the hell itself opened before me. And the hell was...
BT1/BT4
I know I could have learned a lot more during this time. Better composition. Better editing. Better lighting effects. But for months and months all my being was consumed with two things: aligning and cropping. I could waste an hour on positioning just to realize that the pose wouldn't work.
Eventually, and unavoidably, Lighty Lights came into my life. Not that it became easier (no), but it became much more interesting. I also switched to editing in Lightroom and started using Otis and Reshade (yes, I know how this sounds).
Almost all pose packs I had to use were made for BT1/BT2, and photography started taking even more time. I told you this would hurt. Bear with me. Speaking of bears...
All this time, up to today, I've been maintaining Daily Halsin tag. I came up with the idea basically out of spite - I wanted to make negativity in Halsin tag less visible. It gave me a lot of experience in portraits, although I've been fearing of becoming repetitive all this time.
At some point I got some new gear for better graphics, started using QSAT... and then @rdekarios happend to me. And her incredible pose packs aligned for different body types And then... then... Bonezone.
Still in the stone age. One of those beautiful moments when a pose aligned...
And behold, Nature's Guardian. This pack will always be special...
Bonezone meant that I could make any pose work - no matter the body types.
My favorite Halsin shots (only fully dressed, I got flagged for the previous version of this post).
My best and loveliest Ethery.
The best of them together.
And last but not least...
As you can see, I haven't developed any particular style, but I haven't aimed to - first of all because I'm fascinated with colors and the modders provide more and more custom maps. Plus some zones in the vanilla world need love too...
I still hope to become better. To take better shots. To squeeze more out of Reshade. To edit better... There's much, much to learn (Blender, please don't look at me, I'm still employed).
