Close-up on the AMS Position Editor

One of the coolest features of PhotoStage and PhotoLite is the Position Editor, which allows you to position lights, effects generators and gaze points quickly and precisely anywhere on the X Y Z axes. The editor also provides intelligent positioning which finds the model and locates the selected element in relation to her.

The Position Editor can be accessed using either menu, chat or HUD controls. For the purposes of this post, I’m showing the HUD interface since it visualizes the editor’s functions most effectively. Here’s how the Position Editor panel appears on the HUD:

Once you’ve selected an element to move (light, effects generator or gaze point), you can use the intelligent positioning buttons to move the element around the model. The buttons showing a grey human torso plus a yellow circle indicate how the element will be positioned when you click the button. The available options are: (left to right, top row) Right, Left, Back, Front, Back Up, Front Up, Toplight, Footlight; (l to r second row) Centre, Closer and Further (these last two buttons move the selected element closer to or further from the model).

You can also use the X, Y and Z buttons to manually adjust the element’s position. Clicking the minus and plus icons will decrease or increase the element’s X, Y or Z coordinates. The distance that the element will move each time you click one of these buttons is set by the 1.00, 0.25 and 0.05 buttons, which correspond to 1 metre, 25 cm and 5 cm, respectively.

A very nifty and easy to use tool, and one of the prime reasons why PhotoStage and PhotoLite allow you to focus on what matters!

On-Location Photography

Second Life offers an abundance of amazing locations for great shoots. Yet optimizing the lighting for an on-location shoot can be challenging, which is one reason why many SL photographers opt for studio shooting. I recently took Ananke Media Systems‘ PhotoLite toolkit to the beach to see how this highly versatile system can enhance the look of images you capture inworld.

This first photo shows our lovely model (none other than moi - of course!) posing on the beach with the existing night lighting. Nice location - what you can see of it!

Here’s the same location with lighting and effects added from the PhotoLite toolkit. I’ve used lights to brighten certain elements in the background (the pampas grass and palms) as well as the model (isn’t she gorgeous? — okay, I’ll stop). I’ve also added a very light mist with two effects generators to soften the reflected light from the sand and provide another colour detail.

After hiding all the lights, effect generators and the pose stand with a couple of quick clicks on the  PhotoLite HUD or menus, the scene becomes a vivid yet still natural looking setting perfect for capturing the romance of LeeZu Baxter’s Noir line!

Moving in for a closer view, I made some minor adjustments in the positioning of the lights using the PhotoLite HUD - all without ever changing the camera frame! One of the beauties of AMS products is the ability to stay focussed on the specific camera angle you want while using the HUD, menu or chat controls to adjust lighting, effects and even the direction the model’s eyes are looking. (Click “More” to see the photo.)

PhotoLite at the wheat fields

The other day I took PhotoLite for a tour at the Dreamworld North sim. Yes, where the beautiful wheat fields are. I wanted to try lighting on the fields themselves rather than the usual model or prop. Here are the results.

 

I wanted the grass to shine; you may be able to see some coloured hues on the distance. I used five lights with different colours in the yellow-orange range for these photos. The PhotoLite control box was sitting to the left, out of frame.

PhotoStage and PhotoLite update available now

Version 1.1.2 of PhotoStage and PhotoLite is available now via automatic updates for current owners. To obtain these free updates, please go to the Options menu and click Update. Check your User’s Manual (here or here) for detailed information.

An improved version of PhotoStand is also included with these products.

The major new features and changes in the new version are:

• TRU textures are no longer included with PhotoStage; 42 great textures from other providers are being used now (36 before).
• Backdrop texture tiling and editable glow for PhotoStage. You will need the latest Windlight-enabled Second Life viewer to enjoy backdrop glow.
• Create commands are not necessary now before editing a light, effects generator or gaze point.
• The interaction radius of lights, effects generator and gaze points has been extended to 50 metres (it used to be 10 or 20).
• 43 modelling poses are pre-loaded on PhotoStand, including 7 exclusive poses by Kali Meads.

Also, please remember that a gift card for 6 Animah poses is included with this new release.

This update will be made available at the Ananke Media Systems demo site in Lady Vale (112, 225, 301) and the web stores OnRez and SLExchange in the next few hours.

Enjoy!

Lights under new viewer

It seems that the new Second Life viewer, version 1.19.1 (4), has some quirks about local lights that may affect PhotoStage and PhotoLite. In particular, there are some situations where one or more local lights apparently switch off when other light sources are nearby. This happens, for example, when you are wearing a facelight.

We have observed the following. If you are wearing a facelight and use PhotoStage or PhotoLite to create a light, it rezzes up correctly in an “on” state, but apparently switches off (i.e. it stops illuminating the scene) after one second or so. If you right-click and edit the light object it will switch on again instantly and, in fact, if you look at the Light checkbox in the Features tab of the Edit floater, you will see that it is ticked. However, the light object apparently does not emit any light when it is not being edited.

Evidently, this affects the look of your photos, since lights that are supposed to be “on” do not illuminate the scene as they are supposed to do. The workaround is to avoid wearing any facelights or similar light sources when operating the PhotoStage or PhotoLite.

This seems to be caused by the way in which the new viewer version handles local light precedence, which is different to what previous versions of the viewer used to do. If you have any feedback about this behaviour, please post a comment here. Many thanks.

Tutorial: Updating your PhotoStage or PhotoLite

In this tutorial I explain how to update your PhotoStage or PhotoLite. Owners of these products are entitled to lifetime updates, which basically means that once you buy from us, you will receive any future version of the same product for free, forever.

Having the latest version of your product is important, since we often introduce fixes for all those Second Life glitches and performance improvements, as well as new features. Also, we usually do not support products that are not up to date.

If you want to stay up to date, the first thing you need to think about is how to find out whether a new version has been released. There are basically two channels that we use to publicise updates: this web site and the Ananke Media Systems User Group. We suggest that you join this group to receive notifications about new releases and the occasional exclusive gift.

An alternative way to find out whether an update has been released is to make your product check for updates. I explain how to do this in the next section.

New updates of PhotoStage and PhotoLite

We have just made available a new version of PhotoStage and PhotoLite, numbered 1.1.1 in both cases.

The major new features in this release are:

• A chat interface has been added. This means that you can control your PhotoStage or PhotoLite by typing commands on the chat area.
• The much improved PhotoStand 1.1.0 is included. This new version of PhotoStand features rotation pinning.
• Technical fix: we have rewritten most of the communications infrastructure in both products, which works around the cause of the dreadful stuck menus effect.

Please see your User’s Manual for detailed instructions on how to use these new features.

If you already own a PhotoStage or PhotoLite, remember that you can obtain this update for free by click Options, then Update from the main menu. As usual, you can buy these products from the Ananke Media Systems demo site in Lady Vale as well as the online stores OnRez and SLExchange.

Stuck menus

A few PhotoStage customers have reported recently that, sometimes, the menus get “stuck” after using them for a while. As documented in our FAQ section, this is often caused by Second Life “eating” or losing one of the messages that the different components of PhotoStage use to communicate with each other. Usually, resetting the scripts in the Control Box solves this (see the FAQ page for step-by-step instructions).

However, we have found two cases in which resetting the scripts in the Control Box did not solve the problem. In those cases, the “stuck menus effect” seemed to happen randomly, not related to lag, but apparently related to a particular sim. We have not been able to reproduce this issue at our headquarters in Lady Vale. In one of these cases, a sim restart solved the problem, but not in the other.

Please notice that the stuck menus effect has never been detected on PhotoLite, but since PhotoLite and PhotoStage use the same communications facilities, we wouldn’t be surprised to find it there as well. Also, please bear in mind that using the HUD does not work around the problem.

At this point we have not been able to diagnose the cause of this problem. Due to the apparent randomness of the effect and the fact that it seems to be related to the Second Life infrastructure (it is sim-dependent), we have decided to rewrite the communications facilities of PhotoStage and release an update as soon as possible. The new communications facilities will be more robust and less dependent on Second Life’s ability to deliver every message.

We will let you know as soon as a fix is available. We are working on it now. In the meantime, please accept our apologies, and please contact us if you observe the stuck menus effect. Your feedback will be useful in heping us diagnose the problem.

Thank you!

PhotoLite is out

PhotoLite, the lightweight photography toolkit for on-location shooting, is available now.

If you are familiar with PhotoStage, this new product works in a similar fashion but does not use a studio backdrop.

You can buy PhotoLite from the AMS Demo Site in Lady Vale (112, 225, 301) or from the online stores SLExchange and OnRez. If you already own PhotoStage and would like to acquire PhotoLite as well, please contact us for a promotional offer.

Oh, and thanks to Serenity Mercier for the product concept

Enjoy!

Tutorial: Lights and effects basics

In this second tutorials post I explain the basics of lights and effects. This is valid for PhotoStage and PhotoLite as well.

First, some definitions. A light is just an object that emits light. You can have up to six of them with either PhotoStage or PhotoLite. Lights allow you to illuminate your subject using what SL calls “local lighting”, i.e. light cast by prims with the light flag active, as opposed to “environment light” which comes from the sun and moon. As you surely know, light is the essence of a photograph, so a fine control of lights is crucial to achieve great results.