NZFF

This was referenced on another site somewhere...
Has a nice tree picture to illustrate why it's more interesting not to put the aircraft smack in the middle of the screenshot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

Whilst I agree that just "plonking" the main item of interest slap in the centre of a picture isn't brilliant - I just don't go with contrived rules for composition.

I trained in fine art/graphic design (and was a painter for a few years). I found rules such as this excluded more instances of interesting compositions than they applied to. So many other things affect composition - areas of solid colour, extra dense dark areas, sharp/soft focus, depth of field, implied movement etc.

At the end of the day (particularly now we can easily move things around digitally) - just working away at it until it just "looks right" (for whatever reason) is the best rule, IMHO

Must admit I tend to fiddle about w my photos, and screenshots, when composing or cropping for that matter, until they just look right (to me at least)
Be interesting to look back over the winners of the screenshot comp and see how many conform to the law of thirds. Prolly hard to tell when theyre often sized for the banner tho

I have studied as well.(MA art history)...and the "rule of thirds'' has its place , i agree.....but some photography/art...whatever.... is also subjective "taking place within the mind and modified by individual bias".
As you said Adam....work it untill it looks right....whatever that may be. I do my screens to please myself....i share them , because i want to. Im not looking for anything...Im not making any statements....Im taking an electronic "photo" of an electronic image and Im working within the contraints of the media i have at hand.

These debates are always interesting.......Ive learnt a lot by doing these screenshots......looking at Gavins photos, other screen shots......its so interesting to look at what other people present....and every single thing has merit.
I have learnt to dislike critics and experts......critics (in my opinion) are worthless......refer, the defintion of subjective....and experts...well, x is the unknown factor, and a spurt is nothing more than a drip under pressure.

Point in case, a very famous(Modern) painting once hung in the louvre in Paris for almost 6 months before anyone noticed it was upside down... ....subjective....

Maybe Im a little to 70's in my thinking........but thank you for moving this subject up a level Charl


Marty

I was just thinking....what a fat lot of good a masters has been to me....sitting at home on a damm sickness benifit , doing flight sim screen shots. But then i thought....why not, Im happy..and alive.....so i give the world a one finger salute....and get on with it.
Great to be here.

Marty

Splitpin wrote:

QUOTE (Splitpin @ Jul 16 2010, 04:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was just thinking....what a fat lot of good a masters has been to me....sitting at home on a damm sickness benifit , doing flight sim screen shots. But then i thought....why not, Im happy..and alive.....so i give the world a one finger salute....and get on with it.
Great to be here.
Marty

Certainly "rules" are there to be broken - I posted this as a thought-provoker only.
One of the reasons I like flightsimming: there's no end to the creativity that's possible.
And Marty...you do take a very fine screenshot, I bet there's more to come...thanks.

Charl wrote:

QUOTE (Charl @ Jul 16 2010, 04:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Certainly "rules" are there to be broken - I posted this as a thought-provoker only.
One of the reasons I like flightsimming: there's no end to the creativity that's possible.
And Marty...you do take a very fine screenshot, I bet there's more to come...thanks.

Thought provoking is good ....this(screenshot/fs) has become an art form in its own right......just magic.
Thanks Charl

Is there actually a way you can take screenshots in Flightsim where the subject isn't in the middle of the screen or do you just take the shot and crop using a photo editing program? I'm guessing there is as I've seen plenty of outstanding images where an aircraft for example isn't in the centre of the shot.

Must admit I'm pretty green when it comes to screenshots, I usually hit printscreen when I take a shot and hope for the best! Pretty amateurish I know but sometimes I think a different angle or position of the aircraft would make a much better screenshot.

You can use a program like EZdok / EZCA, or FSrecorder (where you can play as traffic / another aircraft and pan to the place you want to be).
Cropping works well aswell.
on some aircraft there is a aircraft/right wing (for example) view and you can use keys like ctrl shift enter to move around, but that can take awhile

I've yet to find an *easy* way of panning the view in FSX. Without some complex add-on, the only views I seem to be able to pan sideways are ones that seem to exaggerate the perspective way beyond [what I call] reasonable. I tried demos of some of the camera thingies for FSX but found I had to remap so many default keys I didn't bother. FSrecorder works better for FS9, I think. It worked OK (though in a limited fashion) for me in FSX, but has since got somehow corrupted and all my views from FSrecorder have missing textures on the aircraft. Sometimes, it's just the pilot sat there in space

I know it's a subjective thing, but for me, "spot view" seems to give the most pleasing scale/zoom - so I end up composing by cropping. I can run FSX at 1600 * 1200, so I'm able to crop a fair bit off either side without sacrificing resolution too much.

mavman wrote:

QUOTE (mavman @ Jul 16 2010, 10:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is there actually a way you can take screenshots in Flightsim where the subject isn't in the middle of the screen or do you just take the shot and crop using a photo editing program? I'm guessing there is as I've seen plenty of outstanding images where an aircraft for example isn't in the centre of the shot.

Must admit I'm pretty green when it comes to screenshots, I usually hit printscreen when I take a shot and hope for the best! Pretty amateurish I know but sometimes I think a different angle or position of the aircraft would make a much better screenshot.

Im not sure Mavman.....some of mine are a little off centre, but it depends on the size of the aircraft and how much zoom you use for the shot. Then you can crop the picture and give a little more open space above/below or to the side . Im using photoshop and another similar app , but only in a very basic way.....still have lots to learn.
Im sure one of the gurus here will know more than me.

Ops....there you go.....the above was being posted while i was doing this.....so just ignore this one....Thanks Adam

mavman wrote:

QUOTE (mavman @ Jul 16 2010, 10:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is there actually a way you can take screenshots in Flightsim where the subject isn't in the middle of the screen...

Freeware F1View is a great utility to move around the aircraft, makes it easier to frame for later cropping.
I eventually paid for DBS Walk and Follow because it allows free roaming, inside and out, and FRAPS for screen capture and video clips (free demo available).

Charl wrote:

QUOTE (Charl @ Jul 17 2010, 01:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Freeware F1View is a great utility to move around the aircraft, makes it easier to frame for later cropping.

That's down as for FS2004 ... would it work in FSX?

Adamski wrote:

QUOTE (Adamski @ Jul 17 2010, 03:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's down as for FS2004 ... would it work in FSX?

No it doesnt...you can try "BOB" from Orbx in FSX although thats different as its stand alone viewing and cant have aircraft and BOB at the same time unless you use FS recoder or something similar..I wish F-1 would bring out a F 1 view for FSX as I miss it

One thing is imagination

Ian Warren wrote:

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Jul 17 2010, 04:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

One thing is imagination

That is "it" in a nut shell Ian.....this whole thing is imagination.......and its great...........god, what did we do 20 years ago??....and look how quickly we adapt..."i dont use FS9 anymore"...etc etc. FS5 was a miracle ....i can still see that little cessna...those cubic clouds....and thinking "this is great"....imagination, if i lose everything else....i hope i dont lose that

and your eyes . also your fingers (thumb,S) , said this before , use your eyes , they are,t painted on ..