Here is an absolutely adorable fae outfit from Wishbox, that was on the MM board in store recently. I searched the store for a vendor with the outfit but didn’t find it, which seems a pity, but it is available on the marketplace. While there are no appliers in this kit, all the pieces of clothing and ornamentation come with resize scripts, which allowed me to easily wear this with Lara.
It’s not often we get together to do a fashion shoot, however today it just worked out. I was trying on this lovely winter gown (which I might have to keep hidden from certain people until next winter when I can wear it to Eden‘s Winter Queen Event) when Aeon turned up with this fabulous looking off-the-shoulder gown. I immediately suggested we do a picture featuring both, only to think, “Oh my, do I have a couples pose that will work?”
You may not realize it, gentle reader, but a lot of work goes into putting a fashion shoot together. First, THE LOOK. What hair style to wear? (Aeon ran out and used this shoot as an excuse to buy the style she’s wearing). What skin? Makeup? Jewelry? Shoes? Do we need hosiery? Nailpolish? Handbags? Hats? Will this outfit work on this mesh bod? Or do I have to wear system (oh dear!) Oh my the list can go on and on!
With the proliferation of mesh bodies and enhancements such as Slink, just where did I tuck that skin applier away in my 50 thousand plus inventory?
The next question of course is THE LOCATION. What suits the outfits? What mood are you trying to create? What atmosphere will you use (and of course in Second Life, you have the option of selecting from a myriad of WindLight settings, or even creating your own). If you have the luxury of being able to rezz objects (like in this shoot that was done in our photo studio, also known as the roof of our house) you get the option of using lighting and projectors to create shadow effects and so on. I’m not even going to go into some of the camera options you have.
Once you have your outfit set up and a location selected, what pose are you going to use? For solo posts, we mostly use a posing HUD when we can’t rezz items, but occasionally when we can rezz we will use a remote control pose stand which makes positioning and even rotation a breeze.
In this shoot, we needed a couples pose. The first one I looked at was quite nice but needed some serious positioning adjustment. So I quickly threw the poses into the carpet we are standing on and added nPose so we could get everything just right.
And after all that, you point the camera and go *click* only to realize that someone’s eyes are looking the wrong way… “Can you go into mouselook and look over my shoulder love?” *click*
And don’t forget post-processing. I tend to eschew most post-processing other than crops and some smoothing if needed, although I have been playing around with some soft focus techniques in The Gimp recently. I’ve also recently seen some lovely examples of added lens flare that have got me thinking…
Wow you finally have your pictures! Which to choose to post? How should we crop that? Does that angle work? Ahhh, are you still here love? Let me get one more pic…
And what story to tell with the pictures? You should have figured out by now that Aeon is a better story teller than I am. I’m too busy putting pictures together and thinking about the next outfit and where are we going to shoot and on and on.
From start to end, this one post probably took 3 hours (although they hopefully average much less).
When I first started in SL, I used to hang out at a place called Two Moon Paradise a lot. The people there are friendly and there were some nice events on a lot of the time. The sim features a large dance club where there are often live music performances. The other main feature of the sim is the underwater section which is just beautifully decorated. There are often mer contests on this dance floor!
Here’s an outfit I came across recently in a hunt. It was very timely as we were having an underwater party at Eden the following week. Here are a quick couple of photos to give you the idea.
Outfit, including jewelry, tattoos, tail, and top: Taliesins Tails 2015 Ombre
I was clearing out my unopened folder today and came across this lace top with Omega appliers. I’m not sure where I got it but it’s made by Black Swan, one of the premier lingerie makers in SL. I paired it with my favourite mesh jeans and thought an urban setting would be suitable. Enjoy!
I may have found a new love in bellydance! Bellydance Goddess ensnared me this week with the new Raks Egyptian line. Raks features appliers for the arms, top, and leggings, and wonderful prim ruffled skirt pieces.
Raks comes in 15 beautiful colours, and if you run over to Bellydance Goddess soon, you will find that Aqeelah has left us a gift surprise: one of the colours is free as a gift! I won’t say which one, but I’ll tell you that it inspired me so that I had to go and get the emerald that I’m showing you here today.
You may remember when I featured Bellydance Goddess‘ Pure last week that I mentioned that I had to go practice my bellydance. Unlike normal photo poses, I took these while dancing on bellydances from Abranimations. The motion capture animations are truly impressive! You can see a few more images on my flickr page. I had a hard time choosing which ones to feature here.
I need to add a quick word of thanks to my wonderful friend Jazaar, who graciously let me use her sim for these photos. You’ll see some more of her lovely gardens in future posts.
While I’m on hair, here’s a lovely blonde style from Entwined called “Holly”. While the style I’ve chosen to show you is blonde, the hair has every colour imaginable, from light and dark blondes, reds, browns, blacks, naturals, fairies, and mers!
The hair was a FREE group gift from Entwined back in October. Entwined is FREE to join!
Snowpaws have come out with this fabulous gown for the Maitreya Gifts, Sales & News group. The group is FREE to join, and if you have Lara, I suggest you run – don’t walk – and pick up this lovely gift!
Today I’m showing you an old group gift from Wertina. And another fav hair from Exile 🙂
Wertina is FREE to join, and occasionally comes out with fab group gifts like this dress, which is mesh in the standard sizings. I would absolutely love it if this was in fitmesh for Lara!
The hair from Exile was available at last year’s Hair Fair as a free event gift. If you missed the event last year, make sure you make it there next time it’s on! It’s a “must go” event and is for a worthy cause to boot!
I thought I’d show off my favourite mesh hair today. It’s Stone Cold Seduction by Exile, and I just love it! I originally discovered it when someone posted a portrait of themselves on Flickr wearing it. I ran and got a demo and was a little conflicted as I really wanted it but it was expensive, at least to me. I took a picture of myself wearing the demo and cropped the demo box off the top of the pic hehe. I’ve become a better SL photographer since those days though, so here are two pics of me wearing it.
And although this is the “Red” version, there are some very light reds, letting you get close to blondes.
Well, it’s been a busy few weeks, but I finally managed to get the latest gift from Blue Moon Enterprises! Lady Charming is a lovely all-mesh skirt and jacket, with independent ruffles at the wrist, a lovely gauzy scarf, and a fine top hat to cap it all off!
Hats are always tough in SL, but Lady Charming’s top hat is not hard to fit well – although a good choice of hairstyle is important!
Despite the chill, I thought I’d doff my hat, and tie my hair up in a ribbon. The ribbon is HUD-driven, and comes with A&A’s Evelyne hairstyle. I really love this cut, it’s just a bit sassy, and perfect for costumes from Steampunk to Flapper (as you’ve seen here before), or just wearing around the town.
This gift has been around all January, so time is likely running out! Stop by Blue Moon, you won’t be disappointed by the steampunk and fantasy apparel!
