How to Take Better Pictures on Sims 3

So I have been teaching myself how to take pictures on sims since I joined simultitude magazine a while back. I am not excellent at it by any means, but my pictures have come a long way from when I first started out. Here are some tips I learned from other people who helped me out along the way:

-Turn your graphics all the way up. Use the options and turn everything to its highest quality. You will have to restart your game for it to take effect. Warning! It might make your game run slower depending on your computer (some computers can't handle it).
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mecute4sure wrote: [You press tab and then you adjust the camera with these letters-
W, A ,S ,D- Move the camera around
Z and X- Zoom in and out
Q and E- Move the camera up and down.
Shift t+ A and Shift + D- Tilt the camera like in my photo Smile
But this ^ only works when you’re in tab mode. ]


-have an idea on what you want to take (like make that the focus of the picture)
-good lighting (there are cheats for this, but I don't know them)
-Position people (or item that your picture is about) using the rule of 3rds (like left center right) If it is a normal shot, position target in center of the photo. If you are going for a photo shoot look, position the target on the left or the right of the shot
-Landscapes: Use the rule of 3rds going up and down (top, center, bottom). Foreground: bottom 3rd, Background: center, sky: top. If the focus of the picture is foreground and background, do less sky
-To get expressions, pick traits that will give you the epressions you are looking for
-atmosphere: Play the rule of 3rds for both person and landscape in the same picture. Match the feelings with background
-show the relationships between people in the pictures
-connection: to make a connection with audience, have the target look into the camera
-PATIENCE (it takes forever to get shots you want because you are waiting for sims to have that expression)
-I use testingcheatsenabled true (click on the mailbox and make everyone's needs static). I also use hideheadlineeffects on. This will keep the plumb bobs and thought bubbles out of your shots. Sometimes I put my sims on no free will so they stand there and don't walk away. You can also cheat the weather if you have seasons to get it to look exactly how you want it.
-sometimes I use moveobjects on and move the sims in buy mode then take the picture in live mode. I do a lot of "P" (pause/start) and "C" (take the picture) while in tab mode. I take lots of shots and find the best ones.

Thank you for this lovely tutorial.
Another thing I like to use when taking pictures of sims is the moviemakercheatsenabled [true/false] cheat. You shift+click on sims and you can force them to do animations, go to CAS and edit the sim, etc. testingcheats must be enabled to use this cheat.

Thank you! This helped a lot. I'm normally terrible at picture taking but after following your tutorial, I think I'm getting better. Thank you!