hi, sorry to bother you if you've already answered this, but i can't seem to find it if you have, how do you get your photos to look like that? i have a story i'd really like to share, but all the photos i take look almost...blurry for lack of a better word? not sharp and colourful like yours. i don't know if it's an editing thing or maybe i'm just really bad at taking photos, that's a totally possible option
Well, the good news is, I’m not very tech/edit-savvy compared to so many people on here, so my process is super simple!
First off, I DO have my graphics setting in game set to “Ultra,” and that alone makes a huge difference. But different computers have different abilities, so this could cause lagging or overheating on some computers.
After I take my picture, I open it up in Photoshop (I use CS6 shhhhhh) and run two actions on it.
The first action, which is where you really get those vibrant colors, is the “Warm n Colorful“ action by @daniparadise. This action doesn’t automatically merge, so you can open up the folder and fool around with the different layers. I don’t generally do this unless the photo is a little TOO warm due to in-game lighting.
99 percent of the time, I then run the “Darken Me Down” action by @woohooligan, unless my sims are in dim lighting. You can also play around with the opacity on that, if you want it just a liiiiitle bit darker.
You can also use Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask to, well, sharpen things up a bit, but if your photo is super blurry to begin with it can only do so much.
The original photo is completely untouched. As you can see, it’s already pretty crisp and really doesn’t “need” editing per se. I don’t use Reshade or anything like that so this is all due to having settings on Ultra.
In the edited photo, I ran the two actions listed above. That’s it.
I hope this was a little bit helpful, and along the lines of what you were looking for? PLEASE don’t hesitate to ask me anything else!
Unrelated to blurriness, but something to keep in mind when taking pictures: The Rule of Thirds. It makes a huge difference in keeping your photos dynamic. I’m pretty sure this is literally the only information I retained from my major. Sigh. But don’t be afraid to experiment with “weird” angles, too. Sometimes a shot of just people’s feet can be both interesting and powerful (there’s literally one coming up in one of my posts this week, haha), or an extreme close-up, etc.
Also, be sure to either leave enough space at the bottom of your picture to add text, if that’s how you’re going to portray your dialogue. Sometimes I don’t get as close up as I’d like in my picture because I know I’ll be laying down text as well.
P.S. PLEASE share your story with all of us! And tag me when you do! Don’t get toooooo hung up on having the perfect photos. And the more you do, the better you’ll get!
