A Little Bit of Photography by Zoe Demar - Cropping

A great photo consists of many things tied together.  One of the most important aspects that differentiates a good photo from a great photo is composition.

In the visual arts — in particular painting, graphic design, photography and sculpture — composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art, as distinct from the subject of a work. It can also be thought of as the organization of the elements of art according to the principles of art. - Wikipedia (click link for more details)

One way to help achieve this in any photo is by cropping photos appropriately.  One rule of thumb to keep in mind is to avoid cutting off limbs in awkward places.  Cutting off feet is something I commonly see made with a lot of good photographers on the grid.  If you have to crop off at the legs, I recommend hitting about mid calf or mid thigh.  Same applies with arms - don't cut off right at the elbows - hit mid forearm or bicep.

Keep in mind the focus of the photo.  Whether it be landscape, model, fashion, object or shoe - make sure that you don't have so much going on that the photo loses the subject.

My biggest suggestion is to play.  Following I'm showing an example of playing with different crops all from the same photo.

Original Snap:

Close-up Crop:

Half-body Crop:

   Two-thirds Body Crop:

You see that even playing with the dimensions causes your eye to look at different elements but all maintaining the focus, which in this case should be the model.

Enjoy!
Love, Zoe

Quick Credits:
Dress: Mon Tissu
Hair: 69
Skin: Tres Blah
Location: Lulu
Pose: LAP aka Long Awkward Pose

A Little Bit of Photography by Zoe Demar - Depth of Field

Sometimes persistence pays off.  I named this photo after that word for the fact of how much time it took to grab a snapshot.  It is strange that I have a more difficult time with my new computer to pull off high res images than it was with my old computer - but I am tossing more technical things at it now.  A picture that looks simple can be much more technically challenging.  Something to remember when checking out photos.

The image shown here was taken with Kristens Viewer S20 with the settings at ultra which allows for both shadows and a new feature called Depth of Field aka DOF.

What is Depth of Field?
This is the short Wikipedia definition: 
In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, the depth of field (DOF) is the portion of a scene that appears sharp in the image. Although a lens can precisely focus at only one distance, the decrease in sharpness is gradual on each side of the focused distance, so that within the DOF, the unsharpness is imperceptible under normal viewing conditions. Eyes have DOF naturally, when you focus on your finger in front of your face the rest of the scene behind the focus becomes blurry.

The effects work very smoothly on my machine but as soon as I try to save a snap - forget it!  Even doing a typical print screen wasn't working at the time to I went to my Fraps program to grab a screenshot and post-editing in some shadows (I was 100% out of sunlight in this shot) and highlights this is the result.

Can I do pictures like this?
Yes, but you do have to have the machine to do it on first and foremost.  With my old video card I didn't have near enough technical power to get shadows let alone this new feature - so prepare to be disappointed.  Otherwise if you have a decent computer and video card, prepare to have patience and persistence when SL crashes or other random things seem to come up in the process.  And if you have an ultra computer - good for you!  Hopefully you don't have near the problems as I have had in order to snap 1 photograph.

I will say however, it was worth it - I do enjoy the potential of having more time to snap some pictures with the DOF options in Kristens Viewer.  I hope that playing around with settings will allow me less time to grab a shot in the long run.  It brings another element of reality to the Second Life world as well as saving me time in photoshop.

I don't spend a lot of time on my blog to talk about SL photography because I like to keep it mainly focused on SL fashion.  Here and there I'll bring up snippets but that's about it.  I guess I've decided to change up my format a little bit more for the new year.  I do wish I had more time to spend in Second Life for photography and other things but time is limited.

Enjoy!

Love, Zoe

Quick Credits: 
Hair by Lamb
Necklace by Paper Couture 
Skin by Glam Affair
Dress by Icing

Zoe Demar Photography

"Moment"

"Sparkling Diamonds"

My SL time is much more limited these days, but I still find myself enjoying spending time on the weekends to do photography.  These pictures purely are meant to fulfill my needs of a creative outlet.  Typically I leave my blog to more styled outlets than creative photography, but I decided to share.

Both were inspired by LAQ's Mima [Pale] Glow skins along with Elikatira hair.  Sparkling Diamonds also features some earrings from Paper Couture and the dress from the Halloween giftbag from LeLutka (no longer available - time limited item)

Zoe's Late Night Inspiration

This is a different post than what I typically do. I was in a creative mood tonight and thus here is the result!

I was inspired by the hair in Cajsa's blog - and found that I had it also in my inventory. It is Exile's Love Song 2. If you haven't checked out Exile lately, you should. He has re-textured his hairs!

Along with that I have been admiring Tuli's newest Eva skins that will be coming out on the 18th (yes, soon!!!). I'm wearing the make-up 10 - but I have modded the color of the lips to a much darker shade to fit in with the hair.

And finally, I knew I wanted to hit a bit of a romantic note and thus added the beautiful LeLutka Ultra constricted dress.

Enjoy!

Love, Zoe