kaphzzz

[kaphzzz]

Do you use photoshop to edit your pictures? Their so crisp and clean and I just got 4k res on my pc.

If so, can you maaayyybbee give us a brief tutorial on how you enhance these for previews for tumblr. Because they always come out so clean even in the preview images.

hiii!!! omg sorry almost didnt see this! congrats on getting 4K!!! it's truly life changing *tears up*. and thanks for such a high compliment 🥹🥹🥹

i do edit my photos yes, but i don't do it in photoshop, but rather in mobile apps so i can just do it during time i cant do other stuff like on the subway so, yes, i can give a tutorial, but it's going to be general steps and guidelines :) sorry i can't give anything like photoshop specific! and i know you're only asking for editing advice but i'll go over the whole process for anyone else who wants to read this as well, so please bear with me. (and please don't take my advice too seriously, i'm only an amateur hobbyist too)

1. The base photo

So firstly, I think it's important that the base picture itself looks good when you capture it in game. With a good photo straight out of the game you can avoid a lot of further editing down the line.

One common mistake I see a lot is that the field of view will be left unadjusted to the default value, which is good for landscape shots, but for portraits it will have a wonky fisheye effect. For portraits you'd typically want to zoom in a lot so the character doesn't look super thin and distorted. In photo mode this is the "lens" option, I typically just zoom in to the max, and tweak what fits into the frame with the freecam. Here's a pic with good FOV for a zoomed in character shot vs. one with the default FOV (his whole face is skewed, as well as pupper):

Also, the in game environment is important for setting up a good shot. You'd typically want some kind of light vs. dark contrast to make your subject pop out, especially against any background. I like to use Rampage Trainer to tweak the in game time and weather and freeze them for better lighting and atmosphere, and sometimes spawn an extra light source but that's a rare case. For example, okay vs. not very okay lighting that's impossible to salvage even with editing:

I also like to blur the background and foreground in the game, with either the focus tab of photo mode or with depth of field reshade presets, because it's a big hassle to blur those during editing. It's quite subtle most of the time but really helps focus the shot on your character, especially if the background is so messy it can swallow your main subject (trees, I'm looking at you).

The photos in this section aren't edited; my point is that with good lighting, composition etc in game, your base vanilla photo can already look pretty good :D This is RDR2 after all.

2. Cropping

I typically crop my images at 3/4 or 2/3 ratio, depending on what looks better. But I think a general rule of thumb is that you want to crop your image so that the contents look balanced; I don't know how to explain this in concrete terms... Basically the same way centering your subject or cropping it by the rule of thirds serves to balance an image. All these pics are more or less 'balanced' in different ways, even though they're not straight smack centered. It's an eyeing process but I think with time it will be easier to tell how to balance your photo...

3. Editing

So! Editing!

Editing I think is just a lot of fine tuning based on what you have with the base image. Me personally, I used to do a lot of colour and lighting editing, but more recently since figuring out that you can just make your base image look good right out of the game, the editing has become a lot lighter. The game can definitely do the heavy lifting, but still editing is important.

I'll demonstrate with two images (hello my babygorls *kissy noises*):

So these two images obviously need some work. Firstly, I'll tweak the lighting, so that dark and light areas aren't too extreme, and also improve the definition/contrast, not too much, but just enough so that the subject is more defined. For Arthur's image the lighting is too murky so I used RGB curves to sort it out a bit.

Then I will colour grade it a little by tuning the warmth and the tone (not touching filters yet). For Charles, it's at night so I've made the tone a little colder for the blue, and for Arthur a little warmer, as well as some custom light patches just to make his face stand out a little more against the background. Some other mild adjustments.

Then if I think the background is still too attention stealing I'll blur it out a bit more. Again, I try to just blur it enough in game, since manually blurring is faulty and annoying.

Then if I think overall the lighting and colour is fine, I'll go through the filters the app offers to see if I can improve it a little more. Since I focus on portraits (pretty bois how could I not) and not do really cinematic/dramatic scenes I tend to stick to the more natural looking filters that just harmonise the colours a bit more.

And that's pretty much it for the editing.

On a side note, contrast is a good thing, but not limited to contrast in lighting, and not necessarily in lighting either. Contrast can be in the colour of your subject and in the back/foreground, or in the conplexity of your subject and blankness of everything else. I think for especially atmospheric photos you'd actually want less contrast for that softer feeling, and not like super hard silhouettes. So yeah, the editing process depends a lot on the image itself and what kind of emotion I want it to have.

4. Other miscellaneous things that help

Besides using mods to customise lighting and props and character pose etc. to your liking, reshade is definitely also a big help. It has a lot of presets that can help your photo to have better colours or add blur. I don't really have a recommended list since I don't remember how I set up my Reshade, but I think a lot of the most popular or built in ones work really well, just play with it and see what you like.

A mod I sometimes use for colour grading in game is the 'Seasons' mod. I don't like too much green so I often set the season to Autumn for that warmer tone to the grass and trees. The other seasons also have different colour tones so it's good for trying different tones! Without vs. with the mod set to Autumn (ignore the quality on those they are from ages ago):

5. Most importantly! Do what you think suits your visual preferences and taste!

So personally I think this is definitely the most important point! I think while you should look at others' work for inspiration and analyse what they're doing well, you should also definitely always prioritise your own preferences on what you like to see in your own pictures :D I think it's important to just do what you like in the moment instead of worrying about what's necessarily right or wrong, or looks good to others.

For example for me my style changed a lot over the past year and a half, and there was definitely a learning and realisation process along the way but I think my more recent preference isn't necessarily better and how I used to do things wasn't necessarily wrong either, it's just different taste.

Hope this was helpful!! :D

Please ask me if you've got any more questions or would like me to explain anything else <3

#my tutorials #rdr2 #my vp

[kaphzzz]

#rdr2 #arthur morgan #my vp #red dead redemption 2 #rdr

[kaphzzz]

Deputy sheriff(´∀｀)

#诶呦宝宝....🥺 #可爱鼠

[kaphzzz]

Charthur Bunnies 🐰❤

#cutest thing ive seen all week 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺👊👊👊🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌

[kaphzzz]

[kaphzzz]

look if someone posts something about one thing maybe dont comment and say WRONG hed 100% do this other thing!!

i dont care about ur unwarranted opinion u party pooper thanks

[kaphzzz]

doodle

#arthur morgan #my art #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #rdr #drawing his profile made me realise why his profule looks so cute ITS BC his lips just look like hes pouting #permanantly

[kaphzzz]

lol when i say i love a witcher au i mean i love a witcher au 🤌 fully forgor i even doodled these until i stuffed charthur in there too

#venom snake #mgsv #my art

[kaphzzz]

Sorry for the out of nowhere question but in modern setting which works would Arthur and Charles take? 🤔

🤔 ahh do you mean what their jobs would be in a modern au? i hope im interpreting this correctly 🥺 im going to assume thats what ur asking but if not shoot me another ask lol. and its fine its not out of nowhere! i think about modern au charthur all day really. the brain is so rotting brace urself for a long answer 😈

so eh honestly. i think it depends on the upbringing specific to the au lol, there are fics out there where they are still brought up in the countryside and very similar to canon and fittingly they become ranchers or truckers etc.?

*personally* when i think modern au i really think *modern* so like. i think given a proper education they would both be too smart to be like hauling bricks all day (not saying its dumb!) or stuff but also i dont see either of them sitting in an office all day 🤔 theyd both suffocate honestly. and given their canon hobbies and skills i think they could be a lot of different things 👀

for arthur i've thought about maybe gun range instructor, or freelance artist, given his love for dogs he could possibly work at a dog shelter? or a leader for trailriding? maybe a job that requires a lot of drawing sketches, like architect or a designer of some sort? arthurs so artistic 😭 a bit of a stretch but he could even be a writer too. even further of a stretch if we're throwing ordinary out the window maybe some kinda special agent or a mercenary. idk about police tho. firefighter i kinda can see both of them being. ooh i also did briefly consider arthur being a commercial pilot too!

as for charles i keep thinking of him as a grad student. idk. hes young and i think hed be pretty smart. maybe hed study something related to nature or native americans? maybe even biology? i feel like hed be a stem person. either that or something like history. then again he could also be a craftsman like we cant let those carving skills go to waste! hes so musically talented too but i dont rly see him as a musician. altho now that i think about it i feel like a cello position in an orchestra suits him so well 🤤 and of course he could also be a professional boxer but personally i think hes had enough boxing in canon let my baby rest 😭 and of course, the air traffic controller or first officer for arthurs pilot... but that will have to be a fic for later ehehe.

and then of course we've got like the rock band aus. (personally i see arthur on the bass and charles on the drums. or vice versa.) and the coffee shop aus. heehee.

honestly i wonder about their modern occupations all the time. so many possibilities! for my modern au renders i've sorta established that rdr2 is a game they worked on together but thats not like their proper jobs. i'be settled on charles going back to grad school for that au but idk about arthur yet. man the downsides of two characters who have way too many talents and interests 😭🤤 if anyone has other ideas leave a comment i'd love to know!!

#charthur

[kaphzzz]

#i took roughly 200 pics of this scene and when i open my folder its just. an assault on the eys by a sea of massive b00bs #my wife. truly #charles smith #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #rdr #my vp #rockstar games

[kaphzzz]

most sane Van Der Linde gang member

#gf...

[kaphzzz]

#orther... 🥺🌹 #i will stuff him ib mypocket #arthur morgan #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #rdr #my vp #rockstar games

[kaphzzz]

in light of lrb i need to bring this back. soft arthur being the service top charles deserves 😌

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)  Rating: Explicit Word count: 6,258 Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Arthur Morgan/Charles Smith Characters: Arthur Morgan, Charles Smith (Red Dead Redemption) Additional Tags: Fluff and Smut, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Gentle Sex, Drunk Sex, Top Arthur Morgan, Bottom Charles Smith (Red Dead Redemption), Fluff, mentions of switching, Kissing, Lots of kissing, Bois Being Soft, like an absurd amount of fluff for a pwp fic, obvious hints at a happy ending, Service Top Arthur Morgan, just my bois being soft for each other, literally just arthur being one whole sap for 6k words, oh my they have a hotel room to themselves, whatever are they going to do, Introspection, just a tiny bit

Summary:

“Make some room, big guy,” Arthur grumbles as he shuffles over to stand at the edge of the bed, staring down at Charles with faux annoyance.

Charles just shakes his head.

“What, do you want me on top of you?” Arthur laughs, hefting one knee up onto the bed and prodding at Charles’s thigh, trying to make space for himself.

Charles looks at him for a moment, then reaches up, arms open wide, in an unmistakable gesture that says, yes.

[kaphzzz]

the rdr2 charthur fandom is weird because a lot of y’all are obsessed with making charles, the black and indigenous man this big brute of a man and arthur is a dainty little white flower and um

smells like ray and his cousin scissum!

#pls see original tags😭 #agree #pls hes so soft? #also charthur switch believer is very disappointed #also yeah arthurs kinda flustered around ppl he likes but thats not the same as making him a 14y.o. girl witha crush thank

[kaphzzz]

#my wife 😚 #hes so cute?? hello?? #rdr2 #charles smith #red dead redemption 2 #rdr #my vp #rockstar games

[kaphzzz]

Don't worry about the Arthur with glasses, take all the time you need. But let me say, thank you from the bottom of my heart for making such beautiful Chartur photos! They way you portray them is so breathtaking and special, especially when you do your own moder version with them being so sweet to each other in such a realistic way! Have a good day!!

admicjfeewmnd im so sorry anon i just saw the 1 next to my inbox?? 😭😭😭 i swear i have not been ignoring you 😭

thank you.... i always prioritise realism i guess as well as evoking emotion (i.e. omg so fluffy). ..i think i focus a lot on whether a pose or environment makes sense 🤔 i used to be taking pics of like arthur half naked doing random stuff in the colter snow lol but i think making those fake cgs made me realise that emotion is important and a work of vp (especially with a pairing) or render only evokes emotion if it makes sense (to me at least), and i think details too contribute a lot to realism, which i also focus too much on in renders 😭 and im a sucker for them being the most diabetes inducing thing ever (?) 😭 so im very happy you appreciate that! this made me so happy 😭🌹🌹🌹

[kaphzzz]

#just 2 dudes being bros #charthur #arthur morgan #charles smith #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #rdr #my vp #rockstar games