Creating screenshots with ShootIt and IrfanView

This tutorial will show you how to take easy screenshots of your flight simulator and how to edit them properly.

You will need the following software which is completely free prior to continue with the tutorial:

ShootIt > Take screenshots of your flight simulator in an easy way never seen before > Download
IrfanView > A very helpful and handy software to show and edit pictures or other media > Download

Afterwards you have installed the programmes you may continue with the first step.

Step 1: Create a screenshot with ShootIt

Now start ShootIt.

The ShootIt main window is shown above.
To adapt it according to your needs, click "Change settings".

Now choose a destination folder on the left Explorer window to save your upcoming screenshots.
Then choose the picture format for the screenshot being saved with. Keep in mind, JPG files are far more light and small than BMP files due to their compression. I recommend you the JPG format!
If you intend to save your pictures with an identifying name, then enter a prefix into the field "File name" to add this to your screenshots automatically. While you are creating your screenshots, the programme will add an ascending number after your preceding prefix.

Now click "Save options" (this button will show up immediatley if you click "Change settings").

The programme not only works in flight simulator but also with any other game on your windows system. Just give it a try:

Open your desktop and press [PRINT] on your keyboard. Now open your screenshot destination folder chosen before and find your first screenshot according to [Prefix]1.jpg/.bmp.

Step 2: Shooting pictures in your flight simulator

First some tips before you start your fs:

Turn on AntiAliasing(AA) inside fs to prevent pictures with visible pixels. If you got the possibilities to increase the AA to maximum at your grafic card, then preferrably do so. There is another way of managing your preferences by downloading the programme "nhancer". (> nhancer Download)
To achieve extraordinary perspectives I suggest you to use Walk & Follow which you can purchase here. Expect free movements around your aircraft or never expected perspectives.
To obtain most beautiful pictures, keep your camera onto the side which is turned to the sun. Of course you come across some exceptions like shooting an aircraft during sunset.
You may run your flight simulator in fullscreen mode to not being in need of removing the menus afterwards. Also AA will be even more effective.

Now get your flight simulator running and start a flight. If you found your desired position, press [PRINT] and find your screenshot in your ShootIt destination folder.

When you are content with your taken images, open IrfanView.

Step 3: Editing with IrfanView

Right-click a screenshot and choose "Open with..." followed by the programme IrfanView.

You see this afterwards:

At first you may resize the picture since it is still huge.

For that, click "Image" inside the menu and go to "Resize/Resample".

Now change "Set new size" to 800 (width). The picture's height will be adapted automatically to avoid distorting it.
Select "Units" and change to "Pixels".

Confirm with "OK".

The picture has shrunk to a width of 800 px now.

You cannot avoid a slight blur after resizement. Press [CTRL]+[S] to sharpen your picture again. Doing this action once is usually enough otherwise the quality is harmed again.

Now let us talk about colours, brightness and the contrast to let it look even better.

Again, click "Image" inside the menu and choose "Color Corrections". You are going to see this dialouge:

Find some sliders to change several values inside this window:

"Brightness": Regulates the brightness of the picture.
"Color Balance": There are three colour channels. Change red, green and blue to remove colour imbalances to eg. let it look more blue.
"Contrast": Regulates the contrast to let light areas appear more light and dark surfaces look more dark.
"Gamma correction": It's the gamma value of the picture.
"Saturation": Regulates slider to left = tendency towards black/white; slider to right = powerful colours

Just give it a try until you have received your desired result.

Tip: Only perform slight changes carefully. Too "intensive" preferences may turn out to look unrealistic.

Afterwards confirm your changings with "OK".

Now save your image to finish editing. For doing this click "File" "Save as..." from the menu.

Another tip: Save your edited picture with a different name to keep the original!

If another window appears with optional settings, make sure to set the JPG quality to 100 %. The picture will become a whiff larger but looks far more better!

Step 4: Upload to VPPics.net

Your picture is now ready to be presented to the world!

The best possibility is to upload it to any internet portal like VPPics.net which provides best upload solutions that other pages do not have:

An interactive upload system to send several images at once
Short release periods for moderator activation
Easy to create albums to present your pictures to the public
Slideshows in the gallery to switch between images comfortably
and many other functions!

In order to gain full website access you need to register for free as it is conventionally known from other sites. This is done fast and easy at VPPics.net!

Activate your registration via e-mail, log-in and choose "Upload" inside the dashboard menu.

Click "Upload screenshots with Upload Suite" if you have installed Java. In case of not, use the Upload Light tool!

Click the button "Add files" to fetch your aimed picture.
Find and mark your previously edited picture and click "Add Files".
Now your picture is part of the list that is being uploaded. In our case it is only one item.