This tutorial covers using the basic methods that come with the game - no hacks, no photoshop, etc. The more talented (of whom there are many on this site) will have to cover that. This tutorial is primarily about using the in-game camera button, with a little bit about the "Take my picture" interaction.

First of all, major life events - birth, birthdays, engagement, woohoo - either in bed or a hot tub, marriage, going to college, leaving college all have animations. (I haven't seen them, but I assume first kiss and death are also included). If there are other animations please feel free to post.

You have to turn these animations off. This (about half way down) tells you how. With the special event camera disabled, you will have a chance to photograph these events as well.

Before I had a computer, I was a big photography nut. Alas, my cameras sit in the closet now while I play sims. Most of this article will be more about photography than anything else.

When you see something interesting coming up, hit <pause>. Now you can advance the action frame by frame by repeatedly hitting <pause>. This is an advantage that real photographers don't have.

When you see something you like, rotate around to get the best angle. Also move in close - you don't want "See that speck in front of Mount Rushmore - that's Aunt Minnie". You should pay special attention to the mouths, since then sometimes be ugly, even scary, in still shots. Be patient, you may even need to advance a frame or two.

OK, you now have the picture you want. What about the background? There are viral postings on the web of happy bridal couples on the beach with a half-naked cretin in the background. Always check the background! If it's in a house, you may want to put up walls. Maybe the first wall option is enough, but you might find the background going through interior walls to the toilet. You may need to use the second wall option - interior walls as well - but then you may need to zoom in closer or try a different angle and reframe. I still forget this - here I forgot to put up the walls for the food throwing, but did remember for the toast. In shots outside a house, you should put up the whole house if it's in the background. Also consider the lighting. If it's at night, you may need to put up a light fixture - even temporarily. You can use lightposts outside as well. In the photo here of Zoe and Valera reading outside, I put in an indoor floor lamp for more illumination. Some scenes here show lack of illumination. You can also (temporarily) move furniture, etc out of the way of your shot while the game is paused. Take your pic, then put it back. Again, you have some advantages over real-live photographers.

In addition to the camera button on the main screen, you can also use the self action "pose", which allows several standard poses. There are hacks which go waaaaay beyond these. Then use the "Take my picture" action on another sim. You'll get a frame which you can really adjust to get the right shot. Here Chaya came over to take some pics of Ella. One picture shows Chaya taking a picture, the next ones show the pics she took. Ella was "posing" at the time.

Finally, every photographer should know, take lots of pictures, but then throw out 3 out of 4. Show only the best. I've sat through far too many slide shows where I was thankful for a dark room!

I'll just repeat here. When doing a portrait painting, use "Paint Still Life" rather than "Paint Portrait Of". You have many more options to pose your subject (or do a self-portrait) and you don't have to have the subject there to resume painting.

Those are some good beginners' tips, Mac.

You might also want to mention the free-camera mode. By pressing TAB, you can get a lot more options for camera angles and for zooming in and out. To use the free-camera mode, you want to get your camera angle as close to how you want it as possible then press TAB. Then you can adjust the camera up and down or side to side by moving the mouse. If you press + it will zoom in, - makes it zoom out and the arrow keys allow you to move forward, backwards, right or left. Then just press C when you want to take a picture. The page up and page down buttons will move up and down floors, so when you're taking a picture, say close to the exterior of a house you can go to the lowest floor, press TAB and then page up to make the upper floors appear without making the camera move up as well.

If you line up the camera just the way you want it and find out that you need to move something out of the way or add something to the frame, you can save your camera angle by pressing Ctrl and any number from 4 to 9. After you move the camera you can press the number you chose and then the camera will automatically go back to where it was when you pressed Ctrl+ the number. This works in live mode or in the free-camera mode, so you could save 6 different camera positions for each mode (with and without pressing TAB).

The free-camera mode is also really helpful for when objects like stairs or trees turn transparent when you get close to them. In free-camera mode, they are always totally visible.

That's great stuff I never heard/thought of!