Family Pictures - best way to take photos?

fazemanpress · August 2023

I play my sims legacies and starting to brunch off to 4 Generations - starting from granda to her 3 kids and their kids and grandkid -- as i i wanted my main sim Johnny Reed to take photos of his kids/grandkids/nieces/etc for family tree or post around the house

what be best way to take pics - can i use the phone camera?

mcrudd · August 2023

@fazemanpress I do it this way

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/1007599/how-i-take-my-sims-photos-and-make-them-family-portraits/p1

SweetieWright_84 · August 2023

I've found the best way without mods is with the camera, tripod, and markers from Moschino. With mods, pose player and poses. You'll still need a camera for that, and I haven't played around with another sim taking the pics, just screenshots

fazemanpress · August 2023

mcrudd wrote: »

@fazemanpress I do it this way

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/1007599/how-i-take-my-sims-photos-and-make-them-family-portraits/p1

omg tysm love your tutorials and posts - i remember this

fazemanpress · August 2023

SweetieWright_84 wrote: »

I've found the best way without mods is with the camera, tripod, and markers from Moschino. With mods, pose player and poses. You'll still need a camera for that, and I haven't played around with another sim taking the pics, just screenshots

i had tried the camera/tripod from moschino pack and had issues as the family wouldnt stay long or wouldnt go there was pain

mightysprite · August 2023

You can use the phone, but getting one of the better cameras and using "Take photo of..." on the camera is nicer. You get a better quality larger picture, and there are some nice poses. Skilling up photography first is helpful so you have more control over the camera angle and it doesn't wobble around on you.
I don't have the Moschino pack so can't give advice about it.

Lenny_Ogg · August 2023

We took the following photos with the best camera. But without poses/cc. Just ingame.
The right distance is important and patience. A lot of patience ⏳
I wish we had better poses for the camera. Most of the ingame poses are so stupid, we would never put photos made with these poses on a wall -.-
And we'd love to have poses for pets, toddlers and more than 3 Sims.

I like that they are a bit off, looks more natural ^^'

SweetieWright_84 · August 2023

fazemanpress wrote: »

SweetieWright_84 wrote: »

I've found the best way without mods is with the camera, tripod, and markers from Moschino. With mods, pose player and poses. You'll still need a camera for that, and I haven't played around with another sim taking the pics, just screenshots

i had tried the camera/tripod from moschino pack and had issues as the family wouldnt stay long or wouldnt go there was pain

Turning off autonomy and locking the sims in the room helps with getting them to listen better. I usually build a basement and have them teleport. It's frustrating for sure. Like @Lenny_Ogg said, it takes a lot of patience.

Edit: I posted before I meant to. Anyway, also mcrudd's method works well too. It's a very good idea.

Lenny_Ogg · August 2023

How to (not) take family photos without poses

👩‍🌾 Tell your Sims where to stand/sit
👩‍🌾 Place the goats
👩‍🌾 place the photographer in the right distance (better too far than too near to avoid strange angles)

👩‍🌾 Then a vampire would hiss because it takes too long
👩‍🌾 The others would get upset, stand up/run around and scold the vampire for ruining the shoot
👩‍🌾 The Vampire would scold them back for not staying put and making it all take much longer than it should -.-

👩‍🌾 repeat

Atreya33 · August 2023

Lenny_Ogg wrote: »

How to (not) take family photos without poses

👩‍🌾 Tell your Sims where to stand/sit
👩‍🌾 Place the goats
👩‍🌾 place the photographer in the right distance (better too far than too near to avoid strange angles)

👩‍🌾 Then a vampire would hiss because it takes too long
👩‍🌾 The others would get upset, stand up/run around and scold the vampire for ruining the shoot
👩‍🌾 The Vampire would scold them back for not staying put and making it all take much longer than it should -.-

👩‍🌾 repeat

How do you tell your sims to sit somewhere? I can't remember seeing that option come up. Sims sit down at campfires or for homework (if no seating is on the lot) but just sit down without doing anything is something that is useful.

Dianesims · August 2023

You can place the Family Portrait, then place your sim in from of it (as if looking at it) and take a picture of it with a good camera so you can place it on a wall without the weird frame. Someone shared that tip here not so long ago.

SweetieWright_84 · August 2023

Dianesims wrote: »

You can place the Family Portrait, then place your sim in from of it (as if looking at it) and take a picture of it with a good camera so you can place it on a wall without the weird frame. Someone shared that tip here not so long ago.

It was @mcrudd, such a great idea. The link is in the first comment after the original post of this thread id you're looking for it again.

fazemanpress · August 2023

Lenny_Ogg wrote: »

We took the following photos with the best camera. But without poses/cc. Just ingame.
The right distance is important and patience. A lot of patience ⏳
I wish we had better poses for the camera. Most of the ingame poses are so stupid, we would never put photos made with these poses on a wall -.-
And we'd love to have poses for pets, toddlers and more than 3 Sims.

I like that they are a bit off, looks more natural ^^'

Omg man! those are some amazing pictures like professional took them - i tried to used the best camera and asked Johnny to take pic and they gave me weird poses - or only close up shots.

I play on xbox - so would i need a tripod for my sims to use the camera to take amazing pics like this? or other tips please - my sims moved in new ranch house and want John (the father) to capture memories of his family mom/wife/kids and put up pics around the house and his sisters etc -

Lenny_Ogg · August 2023

@Atreya33 Just click on you sim and choose 'Sit on Ground'

@fazemanpress thank you!
All these photos are taken without the tripod but with the best camera. I use no poses.
(Except for the ones of Molly Prescott and her mom ^^)
I just capture my sims in good positions they naturally take. I place them and watch them and when I think 'this is the moment!' i take the photo.
The tripod might be helpful but without poses.
The best tips I can give are: find the optimal distance and have patience. I really take a lot of photos ingame. It comes with practice.

SweetieWright_84 · August 2023

@Lenny_Ogg, the pic with the dinosaur is such a good picture. All of your pictures you've shared are good but I think that one may be my favorite. There's just something about it that really stands out...I mean apart from the huge dinosaur 😆. It reminds me of movies about road trips across the US to visit all of the giant sculptures.

fazemanpress · August 2023

Lenny_Ogg wrote: »

@Atreya33 Just click on you sim and choose 'Sit on Ground'

@fazemanpress thank you!
All these photos are taken without the tripod but with the best camera. I use no poses.
(Except for the ones of Molly Prescott and her mom ^^)
I just capture my sims in good positions they naturally take. I place them and watch them and when I think 'this is the moment!' i take the photo.
The tripod might be helpful but without poses.
The best tips I can give are: find the optimal distance and have patience. I really take a lot of photos ingame. It comes with practice.

That is very good photography - i agree patience and best distance, will practice and work on that - my sims goes near his kids to take the pics and they give him funny poses tho

Lenny_Ogg · August 2023

@SweetieWright_84 thank you!
The dinosaur behind the Country Bunker is really inspired by the Cabazon Dinosaurs. A roadside attraction in Cabazon, California (i saw them in 'PeeWee's Big Adventure' movie)

@fazemanpress Yes, distance is imo the most important thing in ingame photography. If you stand to near to a pet or kid, the angle is from above and you maybe don't get the face on the photo or it looks weird. If you step back the angle is more 'flat', you can zoom in and you get better shoots. Maybe there the tripod helps, because you can adjust the hight.

haneul · August 2023

Everyone has already given great suggestions, but I think it also helps if you keep lighting and the background in mind. For basic portraits, I like to use the lights that come with Moschino. But it's possible to get more interesting and fun looks if you play with the lights in the game (change the colors, change the intensity, turn some on and some off, etc.). For the background, sometimes it's nice to have a plain one-colored background and at other times, it seems better to have a more complicated background to convey the feeling of the photo (ex. sims celebrating a holiday, returning from a vacation, being ranchers, etc.).

I use mods and CC to the extent that it's hard to find EA content in my game... but I will try to show some examples in case they're helpful anyway.

Examples:

solid background (cc/mods: poses used)

background with context for Winterfest (cc/mods: poses used + reshade)

background with context for recital (cc/mods: poses used + reshade)

improper lighting (cc/mods: poses used + reshade)

subtle change, but better lighting

permanentrose · August 2023

@haneul - great photos, your sims are also so gorgeous!

--

Getting good photos can be tedious, but I do really find it worth it, especially when I'm playing families for a long time. It really makes their houses feel homier to see pictures throughout their lives. I often add a fully skilled photographer temporarily to my household and use cc poses and the camera and tripod from Moschino. I tend to like using natural lighting and doing outdoor photos as often as possible. If not using mods, just using the camera/tripod and poses included in Moschino really do give a lot of great options as long as you have a sim around to take those photos for you.

All these pics below were taken using the Moschino poses, so getting nicely posed photos with a variety of sims doesn't even have to use CC/mods. (Definitely harder to get the whole family in one shot unfortunately though)

happyopi · August 2023

I use everything, Moschino tripod, selfies on the phone, HSY photobooth, mcrudd's trick, candid unposed pictures. The tripod is by far my favorite because the sims actually hold each other with it. It is unfortunately a hassle to remember to place, so most of the time I forget.

My philosophy is as long as I have plenty of them, it doesn't matter if they're good pictures ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

-ETA-
There are a lot of duo poses of children with the tripod (either two children, or a child and an adult) that you can miss because it depends on how much free space you have for the sims to take proper position; if they take place facing each other it will work, otherwise you'll get the generic poses where each sim does their own unconnected pose.

Lenny_Ogg · August 2023

My first ingame photos with their horses. No poses used.

Here I used the ingame 'brighten' filter

here too, it started to rain ^^'

simgirl1010 · August 2023

@happyopi love your family photos! So cute. 😊 I've just gotten started with using poses in Sims 4 for a wedding. I can't wait to explore all the other family poses out there.

becks1112 · August 2023

I'm terrible at taking in-game pictures. I can never figure out where to stand and at what angle. I'm too lazy to use pose player, but I probably should.

Lenny_Ogg · August 2023

Jack and Lunatic in Moonwood Mill

Lenny_Ogg · August 2023

Space Cowboy Saiwa and his trusty steed Tyalindo at Sixam.
The photographer stood as far away as possible and zoomed in.

becks1112 · August 2023

if you use mods, I love this one for family portraits.

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Family Pictures - best way to take photos?

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