User blog:Trippet/Taking (Decent) Screenshots

So I'm perusing the images on the Wiki and I see the UI, which makes me want to pull my hair out. I'm picky and I don't apologize for it. We all have the same UI, we all know what it looks like and it serves no real use to have the thing in a screenshot. No - not even the weight, value and description of the item's powerful mojo. There are infoboxes for that information.

But, "how," you ask, "how do you get rid of the frickin' thing?!" I'll tell you! We have console commands and image editing programs to help us with these things. ;)

Console Commands
Use the tilde (`) key to bring up the console. Type the command, press Enter, press the tilde again to close the console. Rewind to undo the command. Okie dokie, so? Well, you know how sometimes there's that one character who's sitting down and you can only get a shot of them looking up at you? Walk away. They'll return to normal sitting position. Use TFC and TM and move your camera view over to them and snap your shot.
 * TFC
 * Toggle freefly cam aka Flying camera! This is actually brilliant for so many things. Mainly, it takes your character out of the picture and allows you to freely roam the area you're in. Going through a door that would normally cause the character to 'zone' will yield a blank screen.
 * TM
 * Toggle Menu aka Hides the UI! Hooray, hoorah!

Want to get an image of a monster or NPC that's aggressive and just won't stand still to say, "cheese?" Use the TFC / TM combo again and move your camera over to them. Click! You've now got a rested position of them for the rest of us to see their glorious detail and No Crosshairs to muck things up. ;) If you don't mind your character dying, it's a good way to get action shots, too. Before going to the TFC / TM combo, get the monster / NPC's attention by throwing a fireball or plinking an arrow, thus making them come to you to see what the commotion is all about. This takes a few tries to get just right so it's only for those who have patience, or those like me who have no patience, but truly care about the integrity and quality of their screen shots. ;) I generally cuss up a storm when trying to get a good shot. Frickin' frackin, sassafrassin'. . . !

Image Editors
I'm not sure what else is out there, but I'm Sure there are tons of free programs. With Paint Shop, even if I get the UI in the image I can work it out of there with the cloning tool (Photoshop has one, too). It's the equivalent of dipping your brush into one area of the image, then painting that area over another portion of the image. Say, for instance, I have a character's name on their skirt, but I don't want it there. I 'dip' my brush into another part of the skirt that doesn't have the name, then I 'paint' over the name. Careful - it's addictive to edit images and you just might forget about Skyrim! ;)
 * Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop are two of the most commonly used (Paint Shop has kind of been phased out but I still prefer it to Photoshop, if for nothing other than the price, and it's a powerful enough program)
 * MS Paint - any schlob with a Microsoft O/S will have this on their computer. A sub-par program, but it's got the ability to select and area that can be copied and pasted into a new image file

Crop! We don't need the entire lodge behind the character showing. We want to see their bright and shiny faces, so crop 'em. "What's this crop," you ask? Cropping is taking all the unnecessary fodder out of an image so only the subject is shown. Check it out via this. ;) No particular reason for that site. Really, just think of Facebook where they let you determine what's going to show for your profile picture's thumbnail. That's cropping. Or, how about when you have this Fabulous image of yourself, but good gawd, your ex (the lying buttface) is in it with you . . . cutting said buttface out of the image to leave only your glorious face is also cropping.

Tip
Organization can be tough because you're Probably not going to tab out to label and crop an image right then and there. In those cases I take one shot with TM on and one with TM off so I don't have to remember who or what was in the image and I can keep moving. Alternatively, I have written down the screenshot number and who or what was the subject, but that requires remembering what sequence number you're at b/c by the time you turn TM back to 'on' the screenshot number will have faded away.

That's it, the end. Just thought I'd try to help improve the quality of the images around here. If ever you see your image has been replaced by me. . . I probably just cropped it. I do that only in extreme cases. Take care, kids.

~ Trippet (Speak/Edits) 04:55, December 11, 2011 (UTC)