Jump to content

COMBAT PHOTOGRAPHERS WANTED!!


Recommended Posts

Old Dog needs YOU!

I've recently set up a new website, to offer a place to collect the best authentic looking combat "photos" and showcase the great work of the vehicle and terrain mod community IN ACTION!

Check it out and bookmark it at:

http://olddogscmcentral.homestead.com/Opener.html

I'm looking for submissions from CM players of their best action screen shots, highlighting the great mods available for the game. Make the shots as much like a real photo from a WWII combat photographer as possible, I need screen shots that look like they were taken in the middle of the action on the front in Europe.

Please provide details as to the scenario being played and the mods shown, as I will reference this info if I publish your shot.

I've already got a number of pics on the site, but I need *more* photos and *more* action!

Go to Kump to compare 'em, CMHQ to get 'em, then install those mods and send your combat photography to me for everyone to see!

- Old Dog

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest SS Peiper

Old Dog great looking site. I have to send you some pic's for the gallery smile.gif. Do you know when Marco's M5A1 mod is going to be ready?? Keep up the good work.

SS Peiper

Link to comment
Share on other sites

420, just press ALT and Print Screen to grab a screen shot. They get saved on the Windows clipboard, so the next step is to ALT-TAB to minimize your CM game, load up an art program (even Windows paint will work), and PASTE the pic in so you can save it.

The front page pic was modified using the "Impressionism" special effect in Neo-Paint.

Runyan, if you can save the screen shot in JPEG format (believe you can do this in Windows Paint as well), then it will be MUCH smaller. Also, if you have a ZIP compression program, compress the pic before you attach it to mail it.

SS, Marco is telling me sometime this weekend for the M5A1/Stuart mod, but he tells me he's covered up at his *real* job currently, so it may be later. I say he should quit that d*mn interruption and get mod-ing biggrin.gif

- Old Dog

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey 420,

It is in the CM FAQ...

For PC, you can use Alt+Print Screen to copy a in-game shot to the clipboard. If you want soemthin more sophiscated, try HpyerSnap.

For Mac, iirc, it would be Option+3.

Hope it helps.

Griffin.

P.S. Where is my turn? biggrin.gif

------------------

"When you find your PBEM opportents too hard to beat, there is always the AI."

"Can't get enough Tank?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tried to email you at the address on your website, but it bounced. Anyway:

I like your idea of putting realistic-looking combat photos from CM up for all to see, and I'd like to contribute. A few quick questions: do you want the JPGs raw, i.e., unmodified, out of CM, or would you prefer they be cleaned up (sharpened, color-balanced, etc.)? Also, how do you feel about pics that have been altered to look like old B&W photos, perhaps blurred a

little to add a realistic look?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know some software like PaintShop Pro which can convert between formats but they are all shareware. I may dig around a bit for freeware convertors. smile.gif

Griffin.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Runyan99:

Sorry Old Dog. All I have is the Paint program, and it will not let me save as a jpeg file.

I can't figure out any other trick to change a .bmp to a .jpg<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

------------------

"When you find your PBEM opportents too hard to beat, there is always the AI."

"Can't get enough Tank?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Runyan, I just checked, and Windows 98 Paint does have the option to "SAVE AS" a JPG - it's in a drop down box below the file name requester section. May not be in Win 95 Paint however.

If you have 95, try downloading one of the numerous pic conversion or drawing shareware programs out there, as SenorBeef and Griff suggested.

****************************************

BTW, Here are some tips for you and any others interested in getting some good action shots that I've learned in the last couple of weeks. Still have a way to go myself (bet you can tell my earlier shots from my later ones on the site), but I'm getting the hang of it:

- Turn OFF unit bases, victory flags, and landmark names before you start your photo session. Those things weren't Europe biggrin.gif

- Get down on the ground. Photographers rarely had cranes to raise them 40 feet into the air. level 1 or maybe occasionally level 2 and looking down should be where the action is.

- Look for shots with no giant "last known location" Stars and iron crosses showing, and with no "see-thru" buildings with troops inside. And keep the map edge out of the picture. None of these things were in Europe during WW II either.

- Fill the frame! A little bitty tank across from a little bitty infantry guy won't look very exciting. Get in CLOSE and re-run than movie over and over again until you find just the right shot. See the next tip for a great way to fill the frame. Watch for graphics "glitches" in close though.

- Use Zoom, use it LOTS. This is a trick that real pro photographers use all the time. A little telephoto lens does wonders to tighten up a real picture, and it works even better with CM screen shots. Our eye preceives a bit of zoom as "correct". I'm now taking _most_ of my shots at 1 level of zoom.

- Spend a minute on composition. Look for contrasting background so things you want to show clearly stand out. Keep the focal points off center. Diagonals are good things... Symmetry and lots of horizontals are bad things... smile.gif

What I want to create when people look through the pics in the "Combat Photo" section is the sense that they are paging thru a book of actual WWII photos, *not* screen shots of the game Combat Mission.

Looking forward to seeing what you guys have to offer.

- Old Dog

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...