I don't think people truly understand how SL photographers work behind the scenes.
While you pose and do basically nothing, we cam around, set windlights, set LOD, set camera focal length, check your eyes, move you around, rotate you, take snapshots, take more snapshots, set windlight, check shadows, take snapshots - accumulating about 100 images just for one shot, check all of them one by one. Well, if you forget, our settings are all on ultra high with LOD factor 5 so crappy meshes appears right, but we suffer huge laggy movements and every click now moves by 5000m, but the designer sure doesn't bother about this, because they can go grab a coffee, or hell, have sex while this whole shoot is going on.
After that, I spend all the remaining time in Photoshop (while the models or the designer can sit back and relax) trying to layer many of the 100 layers so that the picture is what I want it to be, making sure every skin texture is not altered and touched, no jagged edges, manually retexture the eyes, skin, nose, face and hair strand by strand. I do not use blur, only smart sharpen. Then I go back the many layers to adjust each and every one until I find the right combination to the picture brightness and shadows I want, go back and retexture more hair and eyes and stand back from the computer to see if anything if weirdly jutting out, smart sharpen again, add in the slightest amount of light that most probably you wouldn't even notice. Zoom in 300% to make sure the edges are crisp, retexture, go back to raw shows of skin in different windlights previously taken to make sure clothes and skin looks exactly the way SL will display them should you be in CalWL. Retexture again. Go look for or make photoshop brushes, look through my photoshop actions. Blur 2cm of the wall. Sharpen eyes. Sharpen things. Dodge. And then crop to the size I want before you looking at them on Flickr.
Yet people think I am not worth the Ls for the time I've put in. The full 8 hours of it.
Designers need to realise that we only get paid once while you sell your textured mesh or skins over and over again, you can walk away and the vendors still sell but we have to be physically around to be able to make things work. If we (photographers and models alike) don't deserve the money, or you think we can't pay, DIY. You textured the skin, I am sure you can also take your own pictures, can't you?
There's only one thing to finally say to this certain skin designer, "Thank you, I love you. Loads."
Because I need to find my eyeballs that just dropped on the floor after all the computer-ing.
Actually there's another thing I want to say to them, "If you can't pay, don't tell me its urgent. Nothing is urgent." If it's urgent because you need them for a publication, you PAY. That is the only logical way for me to exchange my time for the time I had to put into the work that YOU had to do but failed to do so yourself.
NOTHING is more urgent than my sleep compared to the Ls you pay me.
That's why I love blogging for designers. I approach each and every one of the designers I have previously blogged for, many a times, with many many NCs. I'll rather be taking pics of their products than to be paid less than peanuts for my time.
Peace out.
Update: Apparently it happens in RL too!
http://nikkifublog.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/how-much-do-you-charge-for-makeup-and-hair/
People of the world, you've really got to stop~
