User:Adys/Screenshots

General
A good screenshot is like a miniature piece of art. It should showcase the main object, but take into account the details around it. The same 7 elements of art design come into play here, Line, Shape, Form, Space, Texture, Light & Color. We'll touch on several of these and how to make use of the in game settings and mechanics to enhance your pictures.

Turn your resolution and color sampling as high as your computer can handle. In general you want all your glow and spell effects maxed to really show the environment to its fullest potential (they actually help with the lighting too!) You may find a shot that you need to play with these settings to enhance, sometimes turning down environmental detail is helpful to remove extra grasses.

Most of the time taking the pictures from 1st person view works best, so zoom all the way in so that you're looking through your character's eyes. Occasionally the object might be too big (large NPCs especially) to use this view - if this is the case get as close to them as you can without having your body in the shot and swing the camera around to get the angle that you're looking for.

Pay attention to the light - a well lit picture is 10 times better than a dark one. You may even want to do a little color correcting before uploading - increase the brightness and contrast a touch. For instance - it's a lot easier to take pictures in sunny Stormwind than deep in the mountains of torch lit Ironforge. Daytime pictures also turn out better than night.

What you should avoid
Any kind of text, interface frames, etc are in almost every case not wanted. If you're taking a picture of yourself or another player, turn off Show Own Name and Show Player Names in interface options. No one cares about who the person taking the screenshot is, in which guild he/she is in, and which server he/she's playing on. You always get full credit for the screenshot you took in the appropriates website links.

If you're taking a screenshot of an item, don't include the item's tooltip. If you're taking a screenshot of a NPC, don't include the target frame, selection circle or nameplate. Screenshots of map locations are not wanted, just link the locations in comments with the help of the Maps tool.

Armor
We want to see the armor, not Joe Schmoe in the armor! In general you want close ups of the piece itself (except for full set pictures). Don't be afraid to submit a 4 inch picture of one glove. Once's it's cropped and loaded and shrunk down to the thumbnail it will look great!

Use your best judgment when cropping armor pics, but remember - we want to see details of the armor - not the person or a far away image. Of course, this also applies to weapons or any other piece of equipment!

Keep in mind models can differ beetween races. Avoid boots screenshots on Tauren and Draenei. Avoid

NPCs
Full body shots should be the norm. If you can't get a good full shot (e.g. they're standing behind a counter) get the waist up shot. There's no need to include the on-screen text and titles of NPCs. The website already lists those, so just get in close and take a great shot of the NPC itself.

When capturing moving NPCs, try to get as much a head on front shot as you can. If you don't want to get your hands dirty, sitting in place for a while and waiting for it to path in front of you is often easier and faster than running around it trying to get your shot.

Talking to friendly NPCs will make them face you - you can then spin around and get the best background for your picture. You may also catch them in an interesting motion or gesture.

A few tips for taking NPC screenshots:
 * Don't target it (to avoid having a name/selection circle), but put your mouse over it for better lightning (the cursor doesnt appear on screenshots). Turn off the floating combat text if the NPC is hostile.
 * Stealth/Distract and Mind Vision are two great tools to take perfect screenshots. Use them if you got them!
 * Flying mobs are hard to take a decent shot of. Try to get the wings entirely deployed for the best effect. Example

Quests
Quest screenshots are fairly free and up to the author. In most cases, screenshots of "what you have to do" are wanted - that doesn't mean we want screenshots of the mobs you have to kill, these should be simply sent on the respective mobs' pages.

Quite often, quests generate an event. It's always cool to take this event in the screenshot. Chat bubbles are often welcome. Example