Controls, Taking Pictures, Photo Studios, and Memories
Two Sims pose for a Photographer to take their picture
The Sims 4 Get to Work features a Photography Skill, which lets you earn some money or decorate your home with photos of your Sims' lives. This guide will cover the controls, money-making potential, and mechanics of photography to help you make the most of the Skill.
How to: Photography Cheats Press Control + Shift + C then type testingcheats on and press enter. You can now set your skill level with stats.set_skill_level major_photography x (fill in 1-5) - we also have a full listing of Skill Cheats and a master list of Cheats in The Sims 4
News on the health of the player base. We also have a new patch for The Sims 4's photography skill that allows players to make adjustments and stand photos on tables.
Getting Started You may want to make your Sim Creative so that they'll randomly get Inspired buffs, which helps with the Photography Skill. Buying a Camera is as simple as going to Buy Mode > Objects by Room > Study > Hobbies & Skills. There, you'll find the 3 Cameras offered. They're compared below. In general, the more you're willing to pay, the better quality your photos, which affects price.
Three different Cameras may be purchased in Buy Mode. You can also use your Sim's phone to get started, but don't expect much money with bad pictures.
Barely Better Digital Camera ($) - Barely better than a phone. Landscape and Portrait modes, flash control. No zoom, small pictures available. Lowest quality.
Appreciably Average Digital Camera ($670) - Landscape and Portrait modes, flash control. Zoom functionality available, medium pictures available. Medium quality photos.
Crystal Clear Digital Camera ($2,015) - Landscape and Portrait modes, flash control, Zoom functionality, small to large pictures available. Best likelihood of 'Outstanding' Photos, even at low Skill.
Taking Pictures Taking photos is done by either clicking the phone and going to the Entertainment tab, or clicking the cameras in your inventory. Each use will give a base amount of experience, more if your Sim is Inspired. You have a few options - 'Take Photo With', which will be a selfie with another Sim. You can 'Take Photo of..' to select a nearby Sim to have them pose for you. Finally, you can just 'Take Photo' to use the camera to take pictures of whatever you like.
Pictures can be hung on the wall to decorate your home, or to be sold at retail. You may add a frame to the picture once taken, or apply filters to alter how it looks.
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The left mouse is used for most of Photography's Controls
Photography Controls How to control the camera was a point of confusion for me, so here's how you change options on your camera to take pictures. When in Photo mode, use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out (or else + and - on the keyboard). Also, you may left-click to switch from moving the camera to controlling the mouse. This allows you to change the orientation of the photo (landscape or portrait), change the picture size (small, medium, large photos), or disable the flash.
Photo sizes may only be adjusted using the camera's interface with the mouse
Click 'Show Filters' to the left of the photo control panel to apply filters to your picture, which can also be done once a photo has been taken. Pressing 'C' will take a picture instantly, or else you can zoom and pan to your target with the arrow keys and use the left mouse button to click the take picture button.
Sims will pose for you when you use the camera to take their picture
Getting Inspired You may Cloudgaze if you own Outdoor Retreat. Take a Thoughtful Shower, Admire Art while having the Art Lover Trait, and Browse Art on Computer. These all give Inspired moodlets that can help.
Gaining Levels in Photography - Using the Skill Be sure to be inspired to ensure you have fewer pictures to take to max the Skill at Level 5. Sims may earn Skill simply by taking selfies with their phones in order to begin building experience. A higher grade camera doesn't seem to affect skill experience - you can gain XP taking selfies with the phone. When you start to take a picture, you'll get five shots. You can hit escape to cancel after taking only one, but take all five. This is best because it will give you a bit more money per usage of Photography. You'll also have a higher chance of taking high quality pictures, because each shot is a roll of the dice.
Anything you take a picture of will get you skill experience. Shoot all five times to get higher quality photos.
Photography Skill Unlocks As stated before, the Skill caps at level 5. There are no skill unlocks, meaning this Skill simply scales in picture value and quality as you level up. Photos range from Poor, to Normal, and Oustanding. The odds of Outstanding photos grows the more you have leveled, and being Inspired helps with that.
The Photo Studio in The Sims 4 Get to Work
Making Money with Photography Photos' value are independent of size, and are not affected by the Marketable Reward Trait, so don't bother. They can be worth up to $30, but are generally in the upper 20s when outstanding. This means you can expect to make $130-$150 with 5 Outstanding photos if sold directly. With regard to retail, restocking a picture costs $10 flat, no matter its size or quality. So, if you can move your markup higher and ensure you are maximizing profit on each sale, you can earn a bit selling pictures. Just stock those that are closer to $30 and avoid those that are worth only $10, and go without employees unless you're also selling something else.
Photo Studio With the Photo Studio object, you can turn your retail store into a photo studio. You have the option to take photos of an individual Sim, which is easy to do, but the Sim AI seems to be rough when it comes to taking group photos and the tend studio interaction. The money earned for taking a photo is small - from $10 for 'Tend Photo Studio' to $50+ when you select a Sim to take a picture yourself. You do keep those pictures in your Sim's inventory, which means you can pop 5 at a time and sell them as usual. The studio just adds a bit of extra income. From a pure profit standpoint, tending the photo studio is a bad way to make money, but when you select 'Take Photo of' with the studio on a Sim that is already on your retail lot, you can earn quite a bit from the commission and then pictures combined. It's not an outstanding money-maker, but it's not too bad either! A Sim can certainly live off the money.
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Seems silly that we can use "paint from reference" but can't use the photographs taken by a camera as a reference as it would involve exactly the same process. I wonder if some enterprising modder might be able to come up with something.
Not quite sure what you mean as sims can take photos etc just like always whether you have City Living or not, as long as you have Get To Work installed.
any pics taken with phone or camera can be placed on a wall for all to see if you want bigger pictures you re size them with the resize tool and add a frame they look great in different sizes all over the house
Unfortunately the last patch has cause this bug to appear again in simmers games. There is an open bug report about it for you to add a 'Me Too' if you would like to. EA Bug Report - Photos Black
Anyone else having an issue with the little yellow plus & smiley face icons that appear above a sim when skill-building messing up their "Take a Selfie" and "Take Photo With..." photos? These floating icons are visible in the photos, which not only looks strange but sometimes mars a really good photo when they are covering a sim's face. I don't really know of any way to make this *not* happen, save a cheat that turns those icons off (though I haven't found one yet). Anyone else having this issue and/or found a way to remedy it?
Are you referring to the little sparkly icons that occur when a sim is doing something that is positively impacted by a lot trait? If so, just go into build mode and remove the lot trait as those icons do not disappear with a cheat unlike plumbobs etc.
I didn't realize those came from lot traits. I just started playing again after a months-long break & bought a few packs before I got back into the game and found lot traits as a new thing. Thank you!!
I have a journalist sim who takes photos of the things she's investigating. She creates story boards on her walls to inspire her writing, but it would be really nice if we could make albums of our sim's photographs, and especially nice if they were high enough quality (and stored) so that we could create CC artwork with them. Basically I'd like to do MORE with the photography skill than is currently allowed. I also am baffled as to why the photos are never worth more than $30! I'm sure someone would pay more for my photographic evidence of the dangers in the Spice Market or teen homelessness in Newport (I play rotationally, and one household is a homeless teen challenge).
Hi! I have a question... when I put the photos on my walls they only show up black but they work fine my sims can still interact with the photos its just black.
yea at first I thought it as a ghost since it shaped like a bald head kinda of that haha and my other photo has gnome in the corner of the Photo I don't know where it came from
Hi! Recently, after updating my sims soon after the Diwali addition, I noticed that I have access to the notebook on my sim's phone (which never used to happen), and also the photography skill! I have all the cameras and such. However, I don't own the Get to Work expansion pack. Is this supposed to be happening or not? Am I just being worried of the new update? Thanks!
Every simmer who updated with the most recent patch got the photography skill for free. So, yes... this feature that previously you had to pay for by purchasing Get To Work is now free for everyone.
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The Sims 4 Tiny Living Stuff releases January 21 for PC/Mac, and February 4 for Xbox and Playstation 4. This new pack centers around the idea of making small homes and receiving bonuses to bills, comfort, and strangely skill gains for living in a small house. I'll make a guide page by release day but for now you can watch my Livestream Summary below to get a good grasp on what's coming in this new Stuff Pack.
I now have a guide page to Tiny Living Stuff where you can learn about Murphy Beds, the new death, as well as the lot bonuses you'll receive if you manage to keep the size of your lot down with this new pack's Tiny Home Lot Type.
I've started a series, "Let's Play a Super Sim" in which I start at toddler and gradually take on the major bonuses. Here's a link to each part for people who are interested. You can also see the Let's Play as a Playlist on Youtube.
The Sims 4 Discover University has been announced for November 15 for PC/Mac and December 17 for Xbox and Playstation 4 consoles. Click to learn more about the pack, see my summary of the livestream or read our FAQs below.
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Comments (14)
This is great, too bad we can't take family photos. Would love to hang family pictures on the wall.
I know how you feel I can only take pictures of a couple pre kids and such.
Documents > Electronic Arts > Sims 4 > Screenshots
EA Bug Report - Photos Black