Screenshot Guide ~ Divided: A Brief History of the Occult

A couple of people have asked how I do my screenshot edits- so this is a rough guide to screenshot editing, and also a few tips and tricks. This includes things you can do with and without access to CC.

Click here for my full guide to using GShade

Last updated: 11/03/24

- Added a new useful camera overhaul override!

I understand most PC Simmers use things like ReShade/GShade etc. for lighting and such, but the first section of this guide is more for console players with no access to things like that, or anyone who doesn't use ReShade for whatever reason. Above is a guide to GShade for those interested.

When I first started doing SimLit I noticed how dark and dull my unedited screenshots were. I tried using a program that bulk-applied filters to all my screenshots, but it looked even worse, which is why I ended up editing the screenshots one by one in the end. Takes a bit longer, but most of the time it's worth it

- This guide will use two art processing programs: Paint Tool SAI Version 1, and also GIMP (I am using Version 2.10.22 in this guide). To download it go here, this is a collection of older downloads direct from GIMP's official site. Use CTRL + F to find gimp-2.10.22-setup.exe to set up the program on your computer. Be careful and use an anti-virus program to scan the download first, always. Most of the guide uses GIMP.

GIMP is free, and Paint Tool SAI is a paid program geared more towards digital drawn art than picture editing. I also use a graphics tablet for the more detailed edits, but you don't really need one. For photo-editing you can do way more with GIMP than you can with SAI anyway.

- I will try to explain everything as simply and as clearly as possible, for those of you who don't use these sorts of programs often- but for anything not explained here, please use a search engine or look up the program's user help guide/documentation since this is isn't intended to be a GIMP tutorial.

Starting Tips for Complete Beginners

Some of these many of you probably already know about these comparative basics, but it's here for the people who are new to the game, or who otherwise aren't entirely familiar with the camera controls and options.

I recommend saving all of your screenshots in the .png image format, if file size/storage space is not a concern.
I currently use .png for everything. It allows transparency in your image, there is no loss of colour information or detail. However, the file size is also not the smallest... but there's little to no loss of quality. In my game, all of my screenshots, when taken with the C key, are automatically in .png format. This is also the case with all of my XBox screenshots.

If file size is a concern, then .jpeg is also an option.
As an artist, I'm not a fan of .jpeg since it can cause distortion and loss of colour detail, depending on the image. For Sims screenshots, I find there's not actually much difference in image quality, in my opinion (so long as you haven't altered the quality; image editing programs like GIMP will give you an option of what level of quality you want). In fact the difference is so little that I haven't bothered to even show an example. The good thing about .jpeg is that the file sizes are normally smaller than a .png. .jpeg is mainly used for photos. More on this is discussed in the next section in '6. Reducing File Size'

Try switching the camera from TS4-style to TS3-style
This guide does a better job at explaining the difference between the Sims 3 and Sims 4 Camera settings. This can be done, and changed back if needed, in the Game Camera tab of the Game Options. On PC, it can be changed on the Camera Controls tab up in the top right-hand corner.
Moschino Stuff Pack can be good for screenshots
Some decent lighting and also a few backdrops. Not entirely needed, but pretty handy.

Console's 'Free Cam' Mode controls
To access Free Cam mode on the XBox One/PS4 versions, click the camera in the top right of your screen during Live Mode. (The PS4 versions should be correct I hope).

XBox One:
- LB and RB- change speed/pause whilst in Free Cam mode
- A - pan screen up
- Y - pan screen down
- B - Exit Free Cam mode
- Left Stick - Pans the screen forwards, backwards, and sideways
- Right Stick - Tilts the view left, right, up and down
- LT - Zoom out
- RT - zoom in

PS4
- L1 and R1- change speed/pause whilst in Free Cam mode
- Cross button - pan screen up
- Triangle Button - pan screen down
- Circle button - Exit Free Cam mode
- Left Analog Stick - Pans the screen forwards, backwards, and sideways
- Right Analog Stick - Tilts the view left, right, up and down
- LT - Zoom out
- RT - zoom in

PC's Camera Mode
Press the Tab button to put the game into Camera Mode.

- Q and E - Tilt up or down
- Speed altering: Number keys 0- Pause, 1-normal, 2- X2 speed, 3- X3 speed.
- A and D - Pan left/right.
- Tab - Exit Camera Mode
- Z + X - Zoom in/out (Can also use the mouse wheel if you have one)
- Left Click and Drag - Freely move the camera in any direction.
- C - Take Screenshot, which will go into the Screenshots folder of your Sims 4 folder, which will be in Documents / Electronic Arts / The Sims 4 (unless moved). Some prefer to use Print Screen or external programs like Fraps; do it whichever way works best for you!
- CTRL + 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 - Saves your camera angles / positions
• 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 - Recalls your saved angles / positions-

Editing Without Mods or CC

CC and mods are great fun, but you don't necessarily need them for adding flair to your screenshots. This section covers some bits that you can do to edit screenshots without needing CC and mods. It's a bit more long-winded than using Reshade, but also it's much more specific to what you're looking to change.
- Whilst ReShade might not necessarily be considered a mod by some people, I'm not including it here since this is designed moreso for console players or people who don't want to use ReShade for whatever reason.

Colour Overlays and editing Brightness/Contrast
Outdoor Lighting
Making Magic Look Cooler
FIRE!
Useful GIMP Filters
Adding effects/filters to specific parts of a screenshot
Reducing file size

1. Colour Overlays and editing Brightness/Contrast

Most of my screenshot editing boils down to simply putting colour overlays over the images and altering the brightness/contrast of the pictures. TS4 is a pretty vibrant-coloured game (moreso than TS3 anyway IMO) but even then some of the screenshots look a bit dull with no editing. Colour overlays are also something I use to set a mood, as well to add cohesion to the image and aid storytelling. This is dead-easy to do even if you have zero knowledge of these programs and it can make a lot of difference.

Paint Tool SAI

Most of my outdoorsy pictures have a dull blue overlay over them, especially the winter images, to bring out a 'cold' outdoorsy feel. First off, play around with the Brightness and Contrast settings to your liking. Above is an unedited screenshot fresh from my XBox. I like it, but it could look nicer.

- Go to the tab on the menu bar that says 'Filters', and then select 'Brightness/Contrast' from the drop-down menu. Play about with the sliders until you get a result that you like.
- 'Brightness' does exactly what it says on the tin. Lower levels of 'contrast' will result in a more greyish image. 'Colour Deepen' makes all colours more vibrant, but too much of it can make the image look a bit strange. Lowering the Colour Deepen amount will make the colours more saturated, good to convey a darker mood (I also often do that to show a flashback). Colour Deepen set to -100 will give you a full greyscale image.
I want this particular shot to have a positive mood, so I make it look a little brighter.

Brightness: +28
Contrast: +23
Colour Deepen: +32

It already looks better, and the white of the snow is brighter and gives a nicer contrast against the black wolf as well. The moment looks more magical, like a nice memory.

Then it's usually the colour overlay. For almost every outdoor image, I add a colour overlay of some sort.

- Go to the tab on the menu bar that says 'Layers'
- Select 'New Layer'. You can edit anything on this layer as much as you want without it affecting the picture underneath.
- Locate this section on the lower left-hand side of the program. The drop-down box next to Mode, set it to 'Overlay' mode. Different layer modes will affect how your additions to that layer affect the overall piece, but for now don't worry about those.

- Make sure 'Layer2' is highlighted in blue- then it won't affect the picture underneath.
- In the Tools box to the left of this above box, select 'Bucket'. Look at the little menu underneath- at the bottom it will say 'Target'. Set it to 'Working Layer'.
- Fill the layer with a colour of your choice to suit the mood of your image.
- If you need to, you can use the 'Opacity' setting underneath the 'Mode' menu to alter the opacity of the layer. If the colours of the Overlay are a bit too strong, try using a more saturated colour or lowering the opacity of the layer.

This is the colour that I used as an Overlay for the below image. The Overlay layer was set to full 100% opacity. After altering Brightness/Contrast and adding a colour overlay, this is the result:

The top image, compared to the original looks so much better. It's brighter, all of the various parts of the image blend in a bit better; Morgyn and the wolf look a bit less 'out of place'. The cool colours help give the icy feel to the winter scene, and it also helps with the overall storytelling. You can tell this is supposed to be a peaceful, happy scene.

Some more examples of colour overlays below: for all of the Magic Realm exterior shots, there is a pink or purple Overlay layer. For me, purple is a magical colour, and it helps blend everything in a little better with the pinkish/dark purple void that surrounds the realm. This one uses an almost mauve-coloured overlay, with added Brightness/Contrast. It makes the realm look like a brighter, more wondrous place, and more like something completely outside of the world that we know. It looks more like a place of wonder and mystery. The flowers also stand out a little better.

GIMP

For a free program, GIMP is brilliant for what it does, and even better that people make new plug-ins and tools for it all of the time.

- Go the menu bar and select the 'Colours' drop-down menu to find the Brightness/Contrast option. There isn't a Colour Deepen option here; the Colours dropdown menu has a 'Hue/Saturation' option that more or less does a similar function.

- Go to the 'Layers' drop-down menu at the top and select 'New Layer' and then confirm (make sure you create a transparent layer (select 'Fill With' and then 'Transparency'.) Press CTRL + L to bring up the Layers box on the side, and make sure your new empty layer is highlighted. From the Toolbox, select 'Bucket Fill'. Click the Bucket Fill icon twice to bring up its own menu on the right. Where it says 'Finding Similar Colours', make sure 'Sample Merged' is NOT selected. Fill the layer with a colour of your choice.

- With the new single-colour layer highlighted, go to the Mode box above and change the layer mode to 'Overlay'. The result between SAI and GIMP is more or less the same, so I haven't bothered posting the GIMP result here.

On top of that, orange or yellow overlays are great for evening/sunset shots or desert shots, and dark blue can work nicely for night-time shots.

2. Outdoor Lighting

The glowy stuff is my favourite to do, and I use it for everything from outdoor lighting to magic effects.

Paint Tool SAI- outdoor sun/moonlight

For more vibrant sunlight or moonlight, I combine the above Brightness/Contrast and colour overlays with gleeful overuse of one my favourite things about Paint Tool SAI- the Luminosity layer mode, which makes everything glow.

Starting off with a rather nice longshot of Henford-on-Bagley for this one.

Paint Tool SAI

First off, work your magic editing Brightness/Contrast and applying a colour overlay of your choice using the last section's tutorial. I've used a lighter blue overlay and higher Brightness for a summery look.

Now, make a new Layer, and set that Layer's Mode to Luminosity (it's in the same drop-down menu that Overlay is part of). Anything you draw on this layer will have a harsh light effect, and any soft edges will allow a gradual soft-light/glowing look. That said, go to your Toolbox and select the Airbrush. Change the colour of your brush to a pale yellow.

Underneath the toolbox will be three options: Size, Min. Size and Density. Ignore Min Size if you're not using a graphics tablet since that affects the pen pressure. Size can be changed to X0.1, X1.0, or X5.0. Set the brush to X5.0 since you'll need a pretty big one, and use the slider next to it to further adjust the brush size. Density affects the opacity of the brush itself. Keep it to 100 for now. Now, draw a large 'rectangle' of yellow at the top on the Luminosity layer. Depending on where you want the main light source to be in your image, you don't have to make it a perfectly-straight rectangle. I've made mine have a slight slant.

Now, change your tool to the 'Blur' brush, and then blur the bottom edge of your 'rectangle' as much as you want until you get the light graduation effect that you want. If the light is too harsh, change the 'Opacity' slider underneath the Layer Mode drop-down to raise or lower the opacity until you get the effect you want. Here's the finished one, compared with the original:

GIMP

Follow the instructions from earlier, using Brightness/Contrast and a colour overlay. From there, make a New Layer. Then in the Toolbox, select the Airbrush tool and do the same as above- draw a 'rectangle' of yellow at the top. There is a Blur tool in the Toolbox which you can use to blur the bottom of the rectangle to achieve a more gradual glow effect later on. Click the Paintbrush or Airbrush tool twice to bring up the various sliders- you'll probably need to change the size.

Use CTRL + L to open the Layers box, and then change the Layer Mode. Where you changed it to 'Overlay' last time, instead scroll down and use either 'Soft Light' or 'Vivid Light' (I used Soft Light since I preferred the effect). I generally prefer SAI's Luminosity function to GIMP's Soft Light, but GIMP also has a lot of lighting effects that you can use using its various Filters, like Lens Flare, Supernova (under the 'Light and Shadow' filter section) and Softglow (under the 'Artistic' filter section) - so have a play around with those lighting filters as well. Compare this to the original:

The above techniques work exactly the same for any moonlit night-time scene as well. This is a late-night shot from Selvadorada, and below it is one with Brightness/Contrast and a dark blue colour overlay.

This result looks fine as is, but if you want a harsher light, then read on. Make a new Layer- mode set to Luminosity- and use one of the painbrushes or the Airbrush and draw around the moon (and optionally, anywhere you want the moonlight to hit.)

Then use the Blur tool as much as you like to get the desired effect.

3. Making Magic Look Cooler

This is what I get asked about the most, is the magic effects. The magic effects are a bit more advanced than the outdoor lighting and overlays, so feel free to read up a bit more on SAI or GIMP's documentation beforehand if need be. Magic in TS4 looks really dull IMO, so I do my bit to make the magic look a lot cooler.

General Magic Lighting

Paint Tool SAI

Start off with the usual Brightness/Contrast/Colour overlays. This time I've instead used the Shade layer mode on a lower opacity, with a dark purple, just to accentuate the lighting for the sake of the tutorial.

Make a new Layer (Luminosity mode!) and then using a paintbrush, draw a filled circle around the 'concentrated' area of the magic (in whichever colour you like). Then use the Blur tool to smooth the edges and make the light softer.

You can leave it here if you want, but if you want something more detailed, continue (this is easier to do with a tablet, but it's not impossible to do with a mouse or trackpad). Make a new Luminosity-mode Layer. Then, in all the places you think the light would touch, draw with the same colour you used for the magic 'blob'.

Once again, using Blur, blur the edges to smooth out the lighting.

The lighting may cover the face a bit too much, but the usual eraser option might be too hard-edged to clean that up. So if that's the case, change your tool to the Airbrush. Underneath the colour box, is a tiny box with white and grey squares in. Make sure it's highlighted, like the below. It changes it to a transparent brush, so it essentially gives it eraser qualities. Use this Airbrush eraser to erase anywhere where the lighting is too harsh, and also you can change the layer's Opacity if you need to.

I chose to add some further lighting detail on the hair, and on the creases in her dress. Compare to the final:

You can also do this for the Magic Duel shots (helps to spice up SEEING THE SAME ANIMATION OVER AND OVER...)

Here's the 'initial' shot after the usual Brightness Contrast Overlay stuff. Now to actually make Untamed magic look more ...you know...Untamed.

Same as above- make a new Layer (Luminosity Mode) and in whichever colour you want, and draw that colour all over and around the 'concentrated' area of magic in the scene. Then blur the edges!

Then, on another Luminosity layer, do the same thing around every bit you want the light from the magic to touch, in the same (or a similar) colour.

You can probably stop here if you want a very 'hard light' type glow, but if not...
Then do the same thing with the Blur tool, smoothing out the glow as much as you need to (and lowering Opacity if you need to). I've also used the Airbrush on a lower density for some less-harsh lighting in places.

This is optional, but recommended, to blur in the light with the BG and the figure a bit better. Underneath the Luminosity layers, make an Overlay layer. Using a slightly more saturated or darker version of the colour you used for the magic, using the Airbrush, draw all around the magic. Then do the same with the lighting on the Sim.

With the Overlay layer, you can see it blends in better with the luminous magic lighting. Compare to the original:
(If you want, you can also do a splodge of lighting on the floor underneath where the magic is, but I always forget to do that).

GIMP Lighting Effects

GIMP has some pretty good lighting filters that can help with magic related pics!

Filters > Light and Shadow > Supernova! Brilliant for all sorts of magic, and there's a lot you can change with these including colours and the amount of light 'spokes' coming out of it.

Filters > Light and Shadow > Bloom. Creates a soft glow, but with more vibrance than the Artistic > Softglow option.

Filters > Light and Shadow > Lighting Effects covers allsorts and is generally worth a look.

4. FIRE!!!

When giving the in-game fire the Luminosity-Blur-treatment just doesn't cut it...
(I usually use both SAI and GIMP for this,but for simplicity's sake I'll just show you how to do it with GIMP.)

First off, grab yourself a nice fire asset- something with a single-colour background which you can get rid of easily using GIMP. I'll be using one by RonaldPlett on Pixabay.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure you have permission to use the assets you are using. Pixabay and Wikimedia Commons are good places to look for assets you can use as part of your own work (be sure to pay attention to the creator's rules and/or any licenses of use). DeviantART also has a ton of stock image creators, so try dA too, but as always look at the creator's rules since they tend to vary widely on there).

Open your fire asset in GIMP. If it's already got a transparent background, sweet. If it's got a single-coloured background, then pick Colours from the menu bar, and go down to Colour to Alpha in the drop-down menu. Click the Colours bar to bring up the colour select box, and then pick whichever colour it is that you need to get rid of. If you don't know exactly what colour it is, see the little dropper bottle next to the HTML bar? Use that to pick the background colour directly off the image.

Once you're done, you should have your fire on a grey checked background (how transparency is shown in GIMP). Awesome stuff, you have your fire. So now press CTRL + A to select it, and CTRL + X to Copy it.

So now it's time to add it to your screenshot- I'll be using this one. Once again, making Untamed magic actually look Untamed : P

Open your screenshot in GIMP. CTRL + V to Paste it in, then go to the Layers tab at the top and select 'Paste as Layer'.

Now, create another New Layer, press CTRL + L again and move your newest layer so it is between the fire layer, and the screenshot layer. Set this new layer to Overlay mode. Then, pick the Airbrush tool and set it to a deep orange colour and draw all around the fire.

Then, make another new layer set to Overlay mode and keep it on top. Then in and around the 'central' part of the flames, draw some yellow with your Airbrush to create the glow of the fire.

This is more or less what your layer arrangement should look like:

To make the fire look a bit more natural and create some distortion, we need to merge all these layers into one image. So, go to Image on the menu bar and go down to Merge Visible Layers on the drop-down menu. Don't change anything of the options (keep it set as 'Expanded as Necessary') and then click Okay. Everything should be combined in one layer.

On the toolbar, select the lasso-icon tool 'free select' and click it twice. On the sidebar on the right, you'll see the option 'Feather Edges'. Make sure it's selected, and a slider will come up- set it to somewhere between 15 and 25. Now, select the most 'central' parts of the fire and make sure your selection is not open-ended (look at the bottom left on the below image- you can see the little orange dot which shows where the selection meets the other end (if that makes sense). Once you're done the entire section will be selected with an animated 'marching ants' outline. If you want, you can select the entirety of the fire- it just depends on which bits you want to be distorted, and which bits you want in focus.

Fun with filters! Menu Bar > Filters > Noise > Slur. A box will come up. Where it says Repeat, set it to somewhere between 15 and 30. Once you're done, click Okay. (You don't need to change the Random Seed or the Randomisation).

And you're done! Compare to the original un-edited combined images.

5. Useful GIMP Filters

Generally-useful things GIMP can do, and all can be found under its Filters drop-down menu on the menu bar.
As a general, Decor and Add Border is useful.

The original image.

DECOR > OLD PHOTO

Good for flashback images, especially those that happened a very long time ago.

ARTISTIC > SOFTGLOW

Good for anything ethereal.

DISTORTS > WIND

Good for showing motion, or perhaps something disappearing.

BLUR > GAUSSIAN BLUR
This can be used to blur background elements, or put certain elements of screenshots into focus.

BLUR > MOTION BLUR

There are two or three different motion blur options.

ARTISTIC > OILIFY

Makes the image look painterly.

DECOR > FOG

Adds a foggy dust-like overlay in a colour of your choice.

6. Adding effects/filters to specific parts of the screenshot

This is slightly covered in the 'FIRE!!!' section, but you'll likely come to a point where you don't want an effect or filter to affect the entire image. There are ways around that!

First off, open your image in GIMP. If you've just opened a .jpeg, .png etc. it shouldn't matter, but be absolutely sure that EVERYTHING is on one layer!

If somehow it’s not, Go to Image > Flatten Image, or Image > Merge Visible Layers.

Then, either select the Free Select (the lasso-icon tool) from the Toolbox, or go to the Tools menu at the top > Selection Tools > Free Select. A small menu should come up, usually under your toolbar. It will have two tick-box options: Anti-Aliasing and Feather Edges.

Make sure anti-aliasing has the cross in the box. Then make sure Feather Edges has the cross in the box. This slightly softens and blurs the edges of the selected area, allowing for a more natural graduation. Set the Radius to whatever you want; it depends on how 'soft' you want the edges of your selection. I've set mine to 50. The more you feather the edges, the larger the area effected.
To make sure you've got it right, use the Free Select tool to select a portion of your drawing, then pick the Paintbrush icon on the toolbox to colour it in. If it's blurry and soft around the edges, you're on the right track. (If it comes out with a jagged edge, it's because Feather Edges isn't on or it's on too low a setting. Try anywhere between 20-50.) ignore the dotted lines below, that’s just the outline of the brush I used.

Press CTRL + Z to delete the paint, and then CTRL + A to clear the selected area.

Now, you have to figure out which parts you want to add a specific effect to. For this part of the guide, I'll be using Gaussian Blur to blur the background elements out a bit. If you don't like what you've done, use CTRL + Z to Undo it.

With Free Select, you have two options:

- If you keep the left mouse button down, you can 'draw' the selection box.

- Or, if you click the left mouse button instead, you can move and join straight lines to each other to create the shape (just make sure the circles at the end of these lines join up to form a loop if you do it this way. They will usually turn orange when both ends meet.)

Once you're done, let go of the left mouse button and the selected area will be outlined with an animated line. This is sometimes called 'marching ants'. Whatever changes you make inside of this space whilst the 'marching ants' are there will only affect that space on the image, with a little give-and-take because of the blurred feather edges. For the guide I'm going to be blurring some background elements.

Go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur at the top.

Use the X and Y feature in the box that pops up to blur it as much or as little in either direction as you like, then click OK.

The selected area will now have the applied filter effect. If you do miss any little bits, Select the Free Select tool again, use CTRL + A to delete the selection and do it again. just use Free Select to select the missed bits and apply the filter again. For more precision, turn the Feather Edges down to about 10-20. Unless you want to change anything else, then click CTRL + A to clear the selected areas again, and you’re done!

You can do this to change Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, adding filters...pretty much anything. It can be helpful for making clearer focal points in your screenshots, adding complex colour overlays, blending your Sims into the background, and so on. This is the image with many of the background elements blurred:

You can do this with any filter, painted effect, colour change etc. You can also use this knowledge to apply things like motion blurs (found in the Filters menu) etc. to parts of your image.

Another useful selection trick for doing this is the 'Invert' option in the Select menu. This changes your selection, so that everything outside of your original selection is affected by your changes instead of inside of it. It makes more sense pictured:

- The left image is a normal selection
- The right image is the same selection with 'Invert' applied.

I have used the Ellipse Select tool to make a circle. If I go to Select > Invert, it instead changes the area affected by your changes to be the area OUTSIDE of the circle, as opposed to INSIDE of the circle. To test this out, use a tool or filter to make a change. If it worked, it'll affect the area outside of your original selection.

Inverted selection is great for making borders, or effects that border the screenshot or focal point.

7. Reducing file size

Whether you're concerned about storage space on your PC, USB, or on your blog (given space limits on Wordpress etc) you might want to do what you can to keep file size to as much of a minimum as you can. There are multiple ways to go about this without losing too much detail.

Save your screenshots as .jpeg

To repeat what I said above, I love .png for its quality, but that mainly stems from me being an artist. For Sims screenshots, I don't actually much (if any) difference between .png and .jpeg (when it's not saved at a low quality, anyhow).

You have a couple of options for this:
- Do it manually in a program like GIMP
- Use this program, Irfanview. It's a free program I've used a little bit before for various things, but I recently learned you can batch-edit a lot of images at once in various ways with this, which is great!

To save screenshots as .jpeg in GIMP:

Open up your image in GIMP.
Go to the File tab at the top and scroll down to 'Export As'...
Change the .png at the end of the file name to .jpeg. (Make sure it doesn't read as [image name].png.jpeg. To help prevent any issues, it must read as [image name].jpeg)
You will get a box come up about quality options. If you don't know what you're doing with it, don't touch any of the options other than potentially the Quality bar. Set the Quality bar number anywhere between 70 and 90, since I haven't noticed much difference with these numbers. Then click Export.
Your image will be saved as .jpeg. Since your file is a different type to the original, it shouldn't overwrite the .png version if they're stored in the same folder.

The resulting file size will very likely be smaller than the .png version. How much smaller depends on many factors. One of my screenshots was 727 KB as a .png, but as a .jpeg at Quality Level 70 it was only 92.7 KB. A lot of space saved and the image more or less looked the same.

Resizing your screenshots

In my game, my PC screenshots are 1920 X 991 when taken with the C key. That's a fairly big size. My XBox screenshots are 1280 X 720.

On all of my current stories (up to 22/04/22), I actually don't have my screenshots displayed at their normal size. have them displayed at 'Extra Large' size, as I initally worried displaying them at their original size would cause issues with some blog layouts, or the mobile layout. Storage space is less of an issue on Blogger (As far as I'm aware, it's free so long as your image is under a certain size...but I don't know for sure), but if you don't need your screenshots to be huge you can easily resize them physically to help reduce file size.

An XBox screenshot at Extra Large (not-full) size:

...and Original size. You likely won't notice the difference on mobile.

To resize your screenshots, you have multiple options:

You have a couple of options for this:
- Do it manually in a program like GIMP
-Use Irfanview. Since Irfanview can be used to both convert file types and resize images, I'll cover that after this bit. If you want to do this and batch-edit, then scroll down to 'Batch-editing picture size and file type using Irfanview'.

To do this in GIMP:

Open up your image in GIMP.
Go to the Image tab in the top menu and locate 'Scale Image' in the drop-down menu.
A box will appear on the screen called 'Scale Image'. This box is shown below. The measurement is in pixels; it's best to keep it that way. Whatever you do, do not click the little chain-like shape next to either the Resolutions or Width/Height. The chain shape basically keeps the image 'uniform'. Otherwise you can change Width and Height independently of each other, and that might cause image shape distortion.
Change either the Width or the Height; the other number will change automatically after to keep the image 'uniform'. What size you change it to really depends on what size you need for your blog, image storage, etc. I would personally advise to not make the width any lower than 800 or 900.
After this, go to File and then 'Export As...' and export it as your preferred file type (I suggest either with .png.
- FOR .png: There will be a box come up that says 'Export image as PNG'. Don't change any options, just click Export.
- FOR .jpeg: There will be a box of quality options. Make sure the Quality number bar at the top is between 70 and 90 for decent results, no lower. then click Export.

...And those are some easy ways to save space without much (if any) loss of quality.

Batch-editing picture size and file type using Irfanview

I suggest having a backup of your screenshots somewhere first before batch-editing anything!
Go to File, and then scroll down to 'Batch Conversion/Rename.' This box will come up:

- This is a super quick and easy way to edit all your screenshots in one go. This isn't necessarily the most careful way to do it, but if you're not super-fussy or have hundreds of shots this is a good option!
- You can use 'Browse' underneath 'Output folder for result files' so all of the results of your conversions will go into that folder. You can also rename them, and even change the naming pattern in a way that's easier to sort or whatever.

- Batch Conversion Settings > Output Format will allow you to change what file type the resulting conversions will be. Ideally .jpeg.

- If you tick 'Use advanced options for bulk resize', then click Advanced next to it, you can change a bunch of things in one go!

- This is where you can kill two birds with one stone and resize your images as well as changing the file type. (I'd suggest using the percentage-editing option, or if you're going to use the Width/Height, only change one of them, to ensure the image is 'uniform' when it resizes. You also have the option to overwrite the existing files upon being converted (GO CAREFUL) and an option to delete the original files after conversion.

After I used this tool to convert a 1gig(!!!) folder of screenshots to .jpeg, whilst keeping my originals, it shrank down from 1 gig to an amazing... 118 MB! Not bad for over 1200 images. However, using the Batch Conversion, I really noticed the quality difference...

I can really see the JPEG-y blurry-ness and that might not bother you, but it does bother me. Maybe you don’t personally see a difference.

So the weigh-up of both options, is...

GIMP

- More specific, and can choose the quality of .jpeg to maximise quality and reduce file size as much as possible.
- A bit easier to change things if you've done something you don't like since you can just CTRL + Z and then save again.
- The slow way, not ideal if you've got hundreds of screenshots

IrfanView

- Great for quickly converting hundreds of screenshots at once

- Can change multiple things about the pictures in one go
- Less specific than editing in GIMP
- Bigger chance of possibly ruining your screenshots if you accidentally delete/overwrite them and edit them in a way that you don't like in the end. I would suggest not overwriting the original files until you've definitely ensured yourself the new ones are what you want.

Editing With Mods and CC

The mods and CC rabbit-hole is a fun one to jump down! They can be handy to use for screenshots, and to improve or change the graphics of your game in a way that might look nicer. Here's some mods, CC and other downloads you can use to improve graphics and aid with storytelling, as well as some editing tutorials that require CC.

IMPORTANT: Take care when downloading and using mods and custom content. Always have a backup of your whole Sims 4 folder handy in case something goes wrong. I'm not responsible for what goes wrong in your game! Always keep on top of keeping your mods up to date!

GShade

This isn't technically a mod, but GShade, similar to ReShade but in my opinion works much better, is a graphics injector which can really make your game look amazing. The guide I wrote to GShade is here. If you don't want to use GShade, you can use the similar ReShade which a lot of people use and there's plenty of documentation out there on how to use ReShade.

1. Recommended Mods and CC

2. Top Tips for Storytelling

3. Adding a Custom Background to a Shot of your Sim (a pretty old tutorial)

1. Recommended Mods and CC

Mods / Overrides

MCCC Command Center - An essential mod for gameplayers or storytellers. For storytelling purposes, I mainly use its MC Dresser feature and the ability to teleport one sim right to another for posing purposes. You can also use it to copy and paste outfits as well. But there's plenty more you can do with it.

TwistedMexi's mods - an absolute lifesaver.

- T.O.O.L allows you to rotate, move and elevate Sims as well as objects, allowing specific placements. It also allows you to move objects off-lot as well.

- Underworlds and Daybreak mods keep specific worlds in eternal day or night, useful if you're spending a while doing pictures for a scene that takes place at a certain time of day and are tired of the day cycles ruining that. I use the Underworlds mod permanently for the Forgotten Hollow.

- Better BuildBuy / Organised Debug does exactly what it says on the tin, letting you hide the majority of the Maxis content if you're looking for specific CC, and also adds more specific names to most of the debug items as well.

ChippedSim's Storytelling Kit - You can quickly switch Headline Effects on and off without needing to type the cheat, change the weather and season, and also change Sims' emotions.
NoGlo and NoBlu by Luumia - alters the lighting of the game so it appears more 'natural'. These two mods alone will make the game look so much nicer and brighter.
MizoreYukii's No Fade Everything - prevents fade-out on most in-game objects when zooming in whilst taking screenshots. Clearly read the author's guidelines on downloading the mods before using them.
- No Blur in Distance - stops ...you guessed it, the blur in the distance which I find looks quite awful. The depth-of-field options in GShade look much better.
Lighting mods, my beloved!
- Softerhaze's Milk Thistle , amoebae's 'Shadows for Days' and Softerhaze's Sunblind are go-tos. I'd say Milk Thistle is more 'softer' lighting and Sunblind more realistic. I switched to Sunblind from Milk Thistle at some point during writing Divided. SofterHaze's Milk Thistle lighting mod is worth a look, as is amoebae's 'Shadows for Days' both of which I use. I am now using Sunblind for more realistic lighting.
Simp4Sims's Graphics Rules overhaul - overrides the game's GraphicsRules.sgr file to tweak the graphics to improve them as well as performance. Go careful messing with these files and back up the original GraphicsRules.sgr first!
Sulsulduck's Camera Overhaul - Camera tweaks that allow lower level pictures, lowers the camera speed on higher floors, adjusted camera angles for lower perspective, and generally a more stable camera. The 'lower speed camera on higher floors' was what made me immediately download this.
Moriel's Clouds Replacement - more realistic clouds.
Teekalu's Eye Shine Remover - removes the weird specular layer on eyes.
Andrew's Pose Player and Scumbumbo's Teleport Any Sim - Custom Poses and animations are great for screenshots. Many pose packs require Scumbumbo's Teleport Any Sim in order to use pose packs that have poses made for 2 or more Sims interacting. There are plenty of these to be found online (read all creator's Terms of Use clearly) and you can make your own if you look at some tutorials on the matter. I'll link some later on.
- NOTE: The mod WonderfulWhims (and the other WWhims) have a built-in pose player. The built-in WW pose player has a benefit over the original: your Sims won't snap out of their poses whilst moving stuff around in Build-Buy.
- MCCC has a Teleport function as well that works more or less the same as Teleport Any Sim.
YAKFARM's Moon Replacement - various types, I use the yellowish one I think?

Create - A - Sim

Lamatisse's Lore and Bare skintones - Bare is human skintones, and Lore is occult ones. Both look way better than the EA ones.
Luumia's Vanilla Skin overlay. I can't link it here since, it being a skin overlay shows NSFW stuff, but it's a nice, simple, Maxis Match-ing default skin I use.
It's worth having a look at CC eyes, both normal and occult ones. The normal ones I use (I think) are these by Pralinesims. And for animals I use the Dolce replacements by Wrixie.
LMLH's Magic Power Ring - a ring that creates magical effects around the entire Sim's body. Good for spellcasters.
IgorStory's FX Bracelet - creates magic effects around the hands.
Joseoh's Lighting Overlays - Fake shadows for your Sims's skin. These are designed to give deeper, more realistic shadows and work great for portrait shots.
Dramatic Eyes Shadows - good for portraits again.

Build-Buy

Sikoi's CAS background recolours (requires this mesh as well by Severinka) - It's an in-game photo backdrop you can put down on your lot, and you can put down multiple in a row or in a square to cover up as much space as you need to. This comes in plenty of different colours, and is perfect both for taking 'green screen' shots (adding another background image in) or just for having a nice simple coloured backdrop for taking screenshots.
Kewai-Dou's Studio Lights - Useful photo-shoot lights for if you don't have the Moschino pack.
Revy-Rei Fog Emitter - for spookiness.

As a general note, I use a lot of Natalia-Auditore's fantasy effects, like the 'magic powers' and such. Some of the effects are for CAS and some for build-buy hence just a general mention here.

Poses

I honestly can't be bothered to link everyone here. I make and use a lot of my own poses, but when it comes to others, here's some of the pose makers who I use the most (I have over 1000 pose packs downloaded...)

The Tumblr page 'ts4-poses' has a massive masterlist of all sorts of poses, have a hunt here if you need anything.

Natalia-Auditore, Herecirmsims - a lot of great fantasy poses as well as general conversational ones.
Simmireen- does great poses that are perfect for unisex-presenting or M/M couples, with some pose packs including masculine or feminine variants. And to my knowledge, all their poses are free.
Sciphobis - does a lot of storytelling as well as general photo poses.
Helgatisha - a bit of everything. Has a whole bunch of modelling poses.
Akuiyumi - A bit of everything again. The Scared emotion packs are brilliant.
Simmerianne93 - Does a lot of conversational and fantasy poses.
R-Jayden - a bit of everything, I mostly use their everyday poses.
SamsSims - Conversational poses are what I use most of theirs.
As for general mentions, adjustedkarma, HoneysSims4, rebouks and solstice-sims I have a few of their packs as well.

I have made loads of my old poses, I deleted all the posts for them but they can all be downloaded here. If you want to see previews, a search engine might be able to pull up some old pictures off Tumblr. It includes magic poses, infant poses, horse poses, chatting poses, and a couple of lookbook ones.

As a general note, I use a lot of Natalia-Auditore's fantasy effects, like the 'magic powers' and such. Some of the effects are for CAS and some for build-buy hence just a general mention here.

2. Tips for Storytelling Screenshots

I've picked up plenty of tips along the way, I'll update this as I think of them...

A handy tip for posing- you can use First Person Mode to turn the head whilst posed to allow more uses out of your poses.
It's explained here how to do it. You pose your Sim, make sure your game isn't paused. Press Shift + Tab to go into First Person mode, move in the direction you want your Sim facing in, then Pause, then Shift + Tab to come back out of First Person Mode and your Sim's head will be in that direction. I tested it and it does work.
Using the Pose Player that comes with WonderfulWhims (or its spicier cousin) means that your Sims won't snap out of their poses whilst moving things around in Build-Buy mode. Handy for group situations.
Use ReShade or GShade's Screenshot Capture instead of Sims 4's one. Bigger, clearer images. The program FRAPS can also do this, as can Steam if you have TS4 on Steam.
Pose Player will allow you to play any almost animation in the game by name. This text file has the names of most of the in-game animations.
It helps to think about conveying mood or character through the pictures. For more narrative-aimed stories, this can come in handy.
- Colour overlays I often use to convey a sense of mood, colder for darker scenes and warmer for lighter scenes.
- The angle of the shot as well is something I bear in mind. A long shot of scenery I either use to convey beauty, or to show possibly how a character feels small in a situation, dwarfed by their surroundings. I like to shoot angles looking upwards at a character to convey a sense of power or authority. I use extra blur and depth of field around a character for scenes where they are very distracted or deep in thought.

2. Adding a custom background to a shot of your Sim
(NOTE: This tutorial is pretty old)

NOTE: This is easiest done using the above 'CAS background recolours' photo backdrop recoloured by sikoi. Whilst it's not an absolute requirement to need a CC photo backdrop to do this, it's the easiest way to do so without use of other programs, hence why it's in the 'with CC' section.

If you want to add custom backgrounds to an image of your Sim, it's fairly simple to do with a bit of GIMP knowhow. (Note that there are probably easier and cleaner ways to do this, this is just how I'd go about it.)

First off, set up your space in-game however you like. For now, just have your Sim there and nothing else for simplicity's sake - and put the Sikoi backdrop down. Make sure the backdrop colour is a colour that won't clash with your Sim, or that isn't on your Sim much; this makes it easier to remove the background later. The last colour on the swatch is a sort of neon green, so I'll be using that one.

Using the Tab Camera mode, get the perfect shot of your sim.
- I'm using this pose pack by mamalovesnuts for this tutorial, and will be using L. Faba from Realm of Magic as a test model.
- I'm going to be using these bokeh lights for a background, by tommyvideo on Pixabay.
- MAKE SURE you have permission to use the image you're using; try sites that provide creative commons/free use images; Pixabay is a good one. Don't break any terms of use, and don't use people's creations and photos without their permission.
- Make sure the background image is a decent size. I suggest one that is bigger than the picture of your Sim, so you won't need to make it larger and use image quality as a result.

Now, open up your image in GIMP. If you need to, you can use the Select > Rectangle Select to select the main part of your image. Then, go to Image > Crop to Selection. This will crop the image only to what you have selected, which is what I plan to do with this. (Or you can just use the Crop tool).

First off, go to Tools > Colour Picker and pick your background colour. It'll come up on the palette under the toolbox on the left. Then, click the colour so it brings up this box.

Click the little arrow next to the Current/Old box, so that the background colour comes up on the palette beside it. Now click Okay.

Now, open up your background image in GIMP as well. Copy it, and then Paste it onto your screenshot. It will come up with an animated dotted line.

NOTE: you may need to go to Tools > Transform Tools > Scale, to make your background image smaller if it's way bigger than your screenshot. Do this whilst the dotted line is still around your background.

After you have resized it however you need to, go to Layer, and then don't select 'New Layer'. Instead, select 'To New Layer.' This will make your pasted background into a new layer. In the Layers box (which should appear in the bottom right corner; if not, press CTRL + L) you will now have two layers.

Using the downward-pointing arrow on the bottom, move the Background layer so it is underneath the screenshot layer.

Now we'll get to removing the coloured background. Go to Tools at the top > Selection Tools > Fuzzy Select (it should have a wand icon).

Now, use this to select all of the background coloured sections (for me, it's the neon green.) So you don't have to keep doing this over and over, whilst you are using Fuzzy Select, hold Shift each time you select an area- it'll then select them all at once so you can delete it all at once.

Whilst Fuzzy Selecting, it likely won't select the entirety of the background every time. So, to expand your selection, hold down the left mouse button and then slowly drag it to the left until the entire area around your Sim is selected. Go careful to not select any part of your Sim so you don't erase it.

DO NOT delete or de-select just yet! Go to Layer/Transparency/Add Alpha Channel. Then click Delete, and most of it will be deleted!

You may notice there are still flecks of background colour on the outside of your Sim. You have a few options to help clean that up:

- First off, with Fuzzy Select selected, make sure 'Sample Merged' is NOT on and doesn't have a cross in the box.
- Use Fuzzy Select to select everything you selected last time.
- Now go to Select > Grow on the top menu bar, keep it at 1 px then click Okay. Then click Delete again. However, doing this will leave a hard edge that you might not like.

The other option is:
- Use Fuzzy Select to select everything you selected last time.
- Now go to Select > Grow on the top menu bar, keep it at 1 px then click Okay.
- Now go to to the Colours menu, and down to Colour to Alpha.

Click the long box (it's usually white by default) and then select the Background colour that you added to the palette earlier. Once that's done, click Okay.

It might leave a bit of a coloured outline since it also took all of the green out of the rest of the selected pixels- but we can work on blending the figure into the image now.

Now it's time to make any desired changes to your background...First off, go to the Colours menu at the top. There are plenty of options here. You can change Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation...The 'Colourise' option near the bottom is a good quick way of changing the colour of a background. I've changed mine to pink to match L Faba a little better.

Here are some good options for blending a Sim in with the background:

- On the Layers box, select your background layer. CTRL + C to copy it, then CTRL + V to paste it. Then click Layer > 'TO New Layer' again. Your Sim's later should be sanwiched between your background copies.
- On the Layers box, with your TOP layer copy selected - go to Mode, and change it to Overlay.

Much better! Now you can edit the Opacity of this layer to your liking. The Opacity bar is just underneath the Mode selection menu. You can also experiment with layer modes here to see what else you can come up with.

You can also put a colour overlay on the Sim themselves that matches your background. To do that, go to the Layers box , select your Sim layer, and then using the double-box icon next to the downward-pointing arrow, duplicate that layer.

Select the top version of your Sim layer, and then go to Colours > Colorize.

You can either use Hue/Saturation/Lightness to change the colour until you find one that blends in nicely, or to make it easier, use the little colour dropper (it's on an icon in the Colorize box) on the background to find a colour that blends well. Once that's done, click Okay.

Now, change the Mode of this layer to 'Overlay' and then change the opacity as needed.

With the two above effects combined, the result is...

Looks pretty nice. Now, go to Image > Flatten Image, or Image > Merge Visible Layers and then click Merge so it is all one layer. After that, use some of the other ideas and filters covered in this whole guide to edit the picture to your liking.