Np. I appreciate you being upfront about it.
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I appreciate you trying to hook people up with cosmetic items they might enjoy.
Speaking of, I might have some of this junk, still, if you’re of a mind to hand it out to people who’d use it.
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Nice little thread. I love seeing people’s creativity.
Light / shadows is definitely the most underrated thing when it comes to portraits. Unfortunately it can be a nice of a pain to work with in the character creator.
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It can also be difficult to find a variety of colors to play with in the lights and shadows. One thing CCP could do better is provide a more diverse array of colors for character wardrobes.
It can help to watch a few videos on YouTube regarding color, and how to use it. That can help to accentuate some things and downplay others. Colors, shapes, lines, light, and shadow can really make an average portrait stand out.
I can’t remember which videos I’ve seen that I could recommend, but I’ll dig around online when I’m not on my phone. I can say that if you’ve got a body mod you want to show off, it doesn’t necessarily need to be in the foreground. You can frame it in light or use the lines in the background to essentially point to it, drawing the eye toward it.
If you’re the sort with a lot of body mods, it can be rather distracting to the eye, especially when it comes to looking at someone’s face (faces have a same-but-different set of rules from other pictures). Our focal point will tend to be the eyes, unless there’s something else so unusual that we’re drawn to it. If there’s too much going on, we’re back to the eyes again.
You can “cheat” the tendency to look at the eyes by hiding them. Put distance between the character and the camera, turn the head, bend the head downward, put sunglasses on the eyes, etc. We’ll still tend to look at where the eyes are, but when we don’t see them clearly, we’ll tend to find the next focal point.
Frame that focal point with lines, cast a light on it, have it pop with color that fits your aesthetic, and maybe turn it slightly to the foreground, and you’ll have a focal point that draws the eye to it. Of course, you also have to balance that with other considerations you want to make for your aesthetic.
One thing about light: if you’re going for a really outrageously (almost comical) sinister look, point the light from the chin, upward. Think “ghost stories around a campfire.” It creates something of the image of a skull.
For “serious” lighting, consider casting a portion of the portrait in shadow. For soft lighting and a kind, amicable look, illuminate the whole face (preferably with a nice expression). Alternatively, a mean-looking character in full illumination can look overbearing and menacing, especially if they’re closer to the camera.
One last thing: consider giving your character an active pose. The default posture is fine, but it looks “posed,” like those weird “touch your chin” photos they take for school portraits. For a greater sense of character, consider changing the posture so your character is reacting to something someone just said or did.
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Is that the Ishukone-Logo on the chest pocket of jacket? 
Looks neat. Where is that from?
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Yeah, it’s the Men’s ‘Sterling’ Dress Shirt (Ishukone Special Edition).
There’s a few of them available in-game, selling for about 4 bill isk…
I posted that portrait to show how the shadow and lighting on the character matches the background.
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I like to keep my pics rather plain. I just change the lighting and the zoom so my prosthetic eye shows. Also, for those of you that wear those sterling dress shirts, do you wear them tucked or untucked? I tuck mine in, even though you can’t see it, but it looks like it’s eating me like fancypants alliance.
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It’s a Uniform shirt so I have mine tucked in so the belt buckle can be seen…
Like in this portrait…
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The old portraits look fun!
I like the new character creator, but I would have liked being around when the old ones existed.
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It’s a shame we no longer have that hairstyle!
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Wow… Tick “All of the above are awesome” box for me please.
Tried to do some fun stuff with mine as well, I feel like almost everything as been said, lighting colours, poses ect…
I might add that I like using range to give a different vibe. Up close could be used to make the character feel like he is in a ship, traveling fast, more focused or just in your face. Put in some distance to make it feel like these is more room, maybe the character in a diplo or trader therefore w̶a̶l̶k̶i̶n̶g working in a station. Or maybe he/she just has a bigger big boat.
The cloackie explorer.
The support/station trader.
o7
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I like the common theme between your characters. And the ninja vibes I get from the black mask and hat - do you often fight pirates? 
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A classic, like the ‘twist the head and zoom all the way in’!
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Here are 3 iterations of Von, the third being the most recent. I couldn’t find the tattoos I wanted, so I went with a camo arm.
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