One of the (few) pitfalls of being a fabulous SL fashionista, is that there are so many great looks to show off, and so many must-haves, that – sometimes – we find ourselves all dressed up with no place to go. To remedy this, many fashionistas have flocked to Flickr, to show off their fashion sense and artistic talent. (Do a search for “Second Life” or “SL” on Flickr, and you will find many groups for this.)
For my first post on Second Style, I wanted to give you some tips on how to spruce up your snapshots to show off to your friends! I would like to show you some ways to take your pics, using Adobe Photoshop, from [original.jpg]:
(If you want to practice along, save this image and follow the steps along with me.)
to [seven.jpg]:
For the purposes of this tutorial, I will assume, lovely reader, that you have a basic working knowledge of PS, and a pretty decent eye when it comes to photo composition. (If there is interest, I can touch on those two skills in future tutorials.)
1] One of the first things I do, after opening my snapshot to PS, is to crop the image to a square. (Meaning the image has the same height and width, e.g. 512H x 512W.) Doing this, you can cut out undesirable portions of the original image, as well as make it the right ratio for best translation back into Second Life. SL has a tendency to skew textures that aren’t the correct ratio. *Please note, however, that if you plan to re-upload the image for use on your profile or in a classified ad, it’s best to leave the image at the original height to width ratio. Consider the appropriateness of image size you are working with, as well.
2] After cropping (or not cropping) the image, you’ll want to go to Window > Layers, and make sure your Layers window is visible. From here, make a copy of the background layer, so you have two identical layers, as shown [prntscrn1.jpg]:
Click the eyeball icon on the upper layer, so that you’re not viewing it, and select your bottom layer. You’re going to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, and are going to put a light blur on the bottom layer. You can see below, on the example image, I used a 3.7 blur radius. (You can experiment with different blur strengths in the future.)
Now, click the eyeball on the top layer to view the original look of the image again. In your Layers window, you will see “Opacity”, and you can turn this down to around 25-35%. Basically, what we’re doing here is to soften the hard edges on our avies, to make them appear more “real”. Your image will look something like [two.jpg]:
At this point you need to go to Layer > Flatten Image. This merges the two layers into one. Many people who frequently work in PS like to leave the layers separate until the image is totally complete, however, these two layers will have to be merged in order to carry on with these next steps.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness / Contrast… now to tweak the brightness and contrast of the image. This re-sharpens the blurriness above, but keeps that “real” look. (Here, I did Brightness: +15 and Contrast: +32, but go with what looks good to you.)
3] This is a good time to take your “raindrop” tool, and blur the sections of your avvie that still don’t look quite right, e.g. under the left breast where there’s a funky fold. Another good idea is to turn your raindrop tool into the triangle tool, and sharpen any areas where you’d like to maintain detail (such as the eyes, lashes, lips, or highlights in the hair). Then, make your triangle a pointer finger, and smudge (Strength set to 12-16) the funky looking bits of prim hair. Be gentle with these tools!
4] Now, for the really fun part! Go back to your layers window and hit the “New Layer” button at the bottom. This layer should be on top of your image layer. Take your pencil / airbrush tool (you’ll have to judge the correct size according to your image), and select white. As shown below, draw in some highlights on skin areas where highlights would naturally be.
I’ve done cheeks, chin, forehead, cleavage, arms, lower belly, and right leg. Basically, the spots where the skin is bright already. You don’t need to do it in dots the way I have, this is just an illustration. You’re going to apply a gaussian blur to the highlights layer, to create a lovely glow on the skin.
I used a 5.4 blur, but you do what looks good to you. For best results, create a layer for each section of highlight. You can also use the same method for adding additional colors to the skin (e.g. a golden summer glow, or rosy apple cheeks), just by changing the highlight color from white to whatever. Adjust the opacity of the highlights like in step 2.
Flatten it all again, just like before, and adjust Brightness / Contrast to make the image look unified.
5] Lastly, (and optional) I sometimes like to frame my avvie with a nice shadow or mist around the edges of the image. You can do this by turning up your pencil to about 100, drawing a frame on a separate layer (in the desired color), and applying a blur to this. Again, you’ll probably want to adjust the opacity.
6] Don’t be afraid to experiment with filters, saturation, color balance. With the Hue / Saturation tool, you can decide if you want your image more colorful, or more on the drab side. If you really want to punch up a certain color (in this case, I liked the yellow highlights in the water), you can use the Color Balance tool to emphasize those.
I hope this has been useful for you, and I can’t wait to see the amazing images all over Flickr!
Skin: CHAI Cin by Launa Fauna
Hair: TRUTH Polly by Truth Hawks
Bikini: SHAI Hamptons Bikini in Blue by Shai Delacroix
Seen in world: Yes, Review Copy: No, Friends List: No
