Well it seems as though I’m going to attempt to kill many birds with one stone here.  (Sorry little birdies!)  I decided to use these photo(s) as a good example for Strawberry Singh’s Windlight Challenge.  Though it may not be thee most creative of all windlights I use.   I’ll explain why more later and maybe it still is of help to ‘someone’ out there.  I’m also showcasing some items from The ARCADE, FaMESHed, and the upcoming Fifty Linden Fridays.  I’m a busy girl.. gotta keep it movin.

So without further ado… here’s the Q&A:

1. Do you use windlight while taking pictures? If not, why not? Yes!  I definitely do.  I honestly would be lost without them.  And have been.  On occasion when updating my viewer didn’t take care to save my created Windlights and lost them when doing a clean install.  I might’ve cried that day.  So now I’m very careful as I rely on them for all my photos.  I will share that my discovery of Windlight settings and subsequent falling in love was after coming across Elysium Eilde’s photography.  Her vibrant and rich colors to her photos inspired me to get creative with my own.
2. When taking a closeup snapshot for a profile picture, which windlight preset do you use most often? I don’t really have a designated go-to windlight that i use for profile pictures.  Most of the time, even when doing closeups in world, I will use whatever setting I’m using for a full body photo and just take care to adjust the time of day and sun angle to not cast too many shadows on the face that wash out the skin.  If I’m shooting a photo in my makeshift studio then I select one of my pre-made Studio WLs that are probably tweaked from some of the default ones that came with the Firestorm viewer.  (I’ve included some of those below).
3. Which windlight presets do you use for full body portraits? Again, I really do customize most every single one.  It completely depends on the mood of the photo and the colors in the elements of the photo.  Sometimes I really like to play up the sky coloring and make it something unusual and unexpected.  Some examples of that are HERE and HERE and um… HERE too. 🙂
4. If you do landscape photography, which windlights do you use for that most often? I rarely do landscape photography, but as I mentioned before, playing with the coloring of the sky can really create a dramatic backdrop for any photo.  If possible I love to use sunset, or sunrise windlights to set a mood when doing landscape pictures.  I will agree Annan Adored’s windlight settings are very dramatic.  And as Berry mentioned, sometimes just using the default sim windlight is enough.  Usually the person that created the environment, chooses a windlight to set the tone for the sim and enjoying it in its original state is great.
5. Do you have any tricks or tips that you could share for using Windlight effectively? My tip is play with all the buttons.  Definitely the sun/moon position and angle and for me the sun brightness and ambient lighting are the most commonly modified.  Although lately, I have been working on playing with the density and haze horizon settings more to give that far off faded look to things in the distance.  I’ve also found that making sure to lock the clouds helps avoid certain graphics glitches when shooting photos with shadows and ambient occlusion on.  You can also adjust the color of the clouds and really give your photos a very different two-toned look in the sky.  And lastly, don’t just play with the sky settings…. if you’re shooting over where there is water, don’t forget to take that into consideration as well.  Like my above photo, having reflection in the water adds a lot of realism to photography in Second Life.
6. Have you created any windlights that you would be willing to share with us? I do.  And I’ve uploaded several of them HERE for you to try out, including the “Midday Hazy Blue” sky and “Glassy with Waves” water settings I used for the photos in this post.  Please keep in mind though that this picture was post-processed and I did add a lot of contrast and brightness as well as de-saturated it some to get the final look.

I hope that I was able to give a little more insight into how I achieve the look in some of my photos, and hopefully that is useful to some of you as you experiment.  I am so very glad to have access to so many wonderful windlights built into the Firestorm viewer that they really do give a great base to start from and to the many other photographers who have so graciously shared their custom settings for us to try too. 😀

CREDITS

BODY

Skin – Candy Skin (America 03) –  Glam Affair **NEW** @The Arcade

Eyes – Vanity Eyes (Denim) – IKON

Hair – Giz (Rare Type B – Citrine) MESH – D!va **NEW** @The Arcade

Lashes – Fantasia MESH Lashes – Gaeline

Rigged MESH Hands – Slink

OUTFIT

Dress – Lili Blouse/Skirt (HUD texture change) MESH – Mutresse **NEW**

Jewelry – Charmed Necklace (silver) MESH – Cae’s **NEW** @FaMESHed

Shoes – Lolita Espadrilles (Linen) MESH – Gos Boutique

PROPS / SET / POSES

Wood Fence MESH – Five Minutes After

Grass,Wildflowers & Chair – [We’re CLOSED]

Flowering Grass & Birds – Happy Mood

“Saffron” Singles Poses – oOo Studio **NEW** for FLF (Fifty Linden Fridays)