Tutorial: Optimizing Windlight for Second Life Photography

There are endless ways to optimize Windlight settings for SL photography, not to mention many tutorials for preferred settings and premade Windlight skies to download (Torley's skies being a perfect example). Today, I'd like to share two of my favorite Windlight settings with you for when I take in-world photos. One will be most useful for general picture taking when patrolling the grid, the second will be useful for those of you who are seeking to take pictures using a green-screen skin (which can later be removed).

Things you will need before beginning this tutorial:

1. A Second Life client with Windlight's shaders activated. To ensure that you have the Shaders options turned on, you will need to go to Edit > Preferences in your toolbar, and select the Graphics tab. Under this tab, tick the Custom checkbox on the right side of the window. A larger window will open underneath. In this larger window, you will see a list of checkboxes, called "Shaders". In this list, you will see a checkbox called "Basic Shaders" and "Atmospheric Shaders". Be sure to check BOTH of these. Once these are turned on, you will be using Windlight.

2. Photoshop or GIMP (for the green screen removal tutorial follow-along below) or any other photo editing software of your choice.

3. Check out this snapshot of my current graphics settings (your mileage may vary depending on your computer hardware):

4. IMPORTANT NOTE: You will notice in the settings above that I *DO NOT* have Nearby Local Lights (middle, bottom setting under Lighting Detail) turned on. I only EVER use Sun and Moon Only. The reason for this is simple - many lights within SL are INCREDIBLY bright and will burn out and overexpose your photos VERY easily. Think of a brightly lit avatar who is likely wearing a too-bright face light. Using Sun and Moon only will disable your ability to see in-world prim rendered lighting (such as facelights, store lights, furniture lamps, etc).

Creating Your Own Custom Windlight Settings

First, you should know how to create your own custom Windlight settings. To do this, perform the following:

1. Inside Second Life, on your toolbar, go to World > Environment Settings > Environment Editor. A window of environment settings options will pop up. You will have a dropdown box named Sky Presets. This is where your Windlight settings will live when you create one, or want to change them around, pick a new one, edit one, etc.

2. On this window, you should see the button "New". Press this button. A name window will pop up.

3. Give your new setting a name you will remember. Because I have so many Windlight settings, I often prefix mine with an exclamation point (!) to make them appear at the top of the Sky Presets list. Now you are free to modify the settings in all three tabs (Atmosphere, Lighting and Clouds) to get lighting, clouds, atmosphere, anything you want! You may also feel free to use the settings below at your leisure.

4. Voila! You have officially made your first Windlight setting. Keep in mind that SL will save whatever settings you have specified in the Environment Editor, so be sure to have the correct Windlight setting selected in the Sky Presets list BEFORE you begin editing or saving over anything. Also keep in mind that pre-installed Linden Lab Windlight settings CANNOT be saved over.

5. Your new Windlight setting will reside in the C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\SecondLife\user_settings\windlight\skies directory on your harddrive. If you are ever installing downloaded Windlight settings, this is the directory you will want to put them in.

I. General Photography Using Windlight

Like I mentioned above, there are several pre-made Windlight settings floating around the grid and various blogs (such as Ana Lutetia's and Caliah Lyon's). I would highly recommend reading, or at least skimming, Caliah's Windlight settings tutorial, however, for the purpose of this tutorial, I will provide you with the settings I typically use when taking a photo like this one (raw from SL, no facelight used):

This photo was taken using a custom preset with a subtle orange light glow to give the skin more exposure and life. Below are the settings for it (click for larger image):

The Atmosphere Tab:

The Lighting Tab:

The Clouds Tab:

I find that this particular setting works incredibly well when taking general photos of SL because it provides a nice, overall even light distribution without harsh shadows or highlights, and due to the slightly orange tint to the lighting, it will look fantastic both inside and outside.

Combining Windlight Settings with a Green Screen Skin

Another thing that Windlight has made incredibly easy is  taking photos of clothing while wearing them and standing on a green screen. This allows for easy removal of a green screen while leaving the worn clothing intact and posed. Content creators often use this method to create various art for their vendors and storefronts, such as store mannequins, clothes-hangar vendors, etc. Before I share the settings I typically use in Windlight, first I'll explain how to create your own green screen skin:

1. In Photoshop, GIMP or any other editing software, create a 64x64 pixel square image filled with pure green (R: 0, G: 255, B: 0 -- Hex #00ff00). If you are unable to do this right now, I have provided one for you to download. Upload this file into your Second Life texture library.

2. Inside of Second Life, right click on any folder in your inventory and from the menu, select New Body Parts > New Skin. Double click this skin to wear it (be sure to name it something you'll remember if you wish to search for it later) Now, go into Appearance Mode on your avatar and click the Skin tab.

3. In the Head, Upper and Lower "tattoo" layers, drag the green texture you uploaded. All three of these layers must be filled with the green image.

4. Press Save. You now have your green screen skin!

Everybody with me? Great! Let's continue.

The settings I use for green screen skin photos are very basic. They provide excellent lighting, allowing for maximum exposure of the worn items/clothing, while allowing your avatar to appear completely invisible when standing against an in-world green screen by removing all harsh highlights and shadows from the light settings. Here are the settings for your use (if you desire the same effect I will be displaying below, copying these settings EXACTY is essential - click the photos below for a larger image):

The Atmosphere Tab:

The Lighting Tab:

The Clouds Tab:

This setting, in cooperation with an in-world green screen and proper green screen removal, will allow for an effect such as this:

Once the green screen and skin have been removed, you are free to do whatever you like to your worn clothing/accessories. Add a hangar, put them on shelves, rearrange them entirely, etc!

I hope this has been useful! As usual, I will do my best to answer any questions in the comments section! Until next week!