If you are new to the whole sims picture taking thing it can be a bit overwhelming, so I have put some pointers together for you. In the posts below you will find the more technical stuff and some pictures that might help you see what you do wrong, but this first post have some general pointers. These works both in sims 2 and in sims 3.

Use tab mode
Then you take pictures you will always get better results if you use tab mod. To get into tab mod you just press tab once. To exit tab mode you just press tab again
Sims 3: You have to be in live mode to use tab mode
Sims 2: You can use tab mode anywhere ingame



Zoom out
If you take pictures in a very small room it is a good idea to use x to zoom out untill you capture the part of the room you like

Walls up
Then you take pictures you should always have your walls up then you take pictures - it just look so much better

No sky showing
If it is at all possible the sky should not be showing in your indoor pictures (unless of course you got a glass ceiling or skylights)
Sims 2: Apartment Life gives you ceilings - turn them on then you take pictures
Sims 3: Ceilings are on per default. If they are not showing - go up a story and place a floor over your room. Floors have ceilings on the under side

Plumbobs
For some types of pictures it isn't appropriate to have plumbobs (the green diamond) showing over your sims heads
Sims 2: to turn them and thought/speak bobbles of type in the following cheats:
boolProp useEffects false
Plumbbobtoggle (Requires OFB)
Sims 3: hideHeadlineEffects on

More info
Our old articles on how to take better pictures can be found here

Using the ingame camera
Sims 2: it is not recormendable to use the ingame camera (pressing c) to take pictures. They will be rather low quality even with the best settings on.
Sims 3: There is no reason not to use the ingame camera (press c to take a picture). EA fixed it so the picture quality is rather good

Grid off
Unless you are taking over head pictures the grid should never be showing in your pictures. It is distracting and ugly - so there is no reason to ruin your pictures with it.
Sims 2: If you don't have sim living on the lot go into the terrin paint tool and just select a brush and push the cursor to the edge of the screen - then go into tab mod, now your grid isn't showing - dosn't that look better?

Chairs
Sims 2: Seriously it looks silly if the chairs isn't moved in to the table then you take pictures - so do your self a favour and go into live mode before taking pictures OR move the chairs in with moveobjects on and snapobjectstogrid false turned on

Sims 2

Then you take pictures in sims 2 there is a few things you might want to think about:

The ingame camera
Set your graphic settings as high as your computer allows them to go.
My settings:


If you insist on using the ingame camera make sure it at least set on the high settings:


Don't use the ingame camera
It is a good idea (and easier) to use a screen capturing program such as Gadwin Print Screen (free software): Download here

Here is my Gadwin setting:

If you don't want to crop your images set source to: Current window

So why should I not use the ingame camera?
Unless your graphic card is really really old you will get bigger and much clearer pictures with a screen capturing program then with the ingame camera. The ingame camera use (even on the highest settings) use rather low jpg settings then it capture your images so they are more gritty then the screen capturing images. Below you find two examples (unedited and taken in the exact same spot):

Taken with the ingame camera:


Taken with the screen capture program


Make the red lines go away please
You can install this very simple hack that removes the red lines in pause mod - this will make it less necessary to crop your images
BeosBoxBoy's hack @ insimenator

Angles and other little details
Then you take pictures it makes a big difference from what angle and high you take them. I will show you a few details of good and bad angling of the same shot. I will also show you why you flip the walls up then you take pictures

The bad angle: This picture has been taken for way too low an angle and the walls are also down witch make the room look worse then it actureally is. (EA beauty salon so it isn't the world's best room anyway)


Much better angle: the angle here is higher and Sarah has zoomed in a bit - so that the room don't look too stretched and so we don't get too much unwanted stuff in the shot


Bad angle: Here the angle is way to high: it is hard see what the picture wants to show us


Much better angle: Here the angle is lower and the picture is much more focused. There is now no doubt what the image portaits

Reserved

Thanks Mac, I did not know about the plumbob thing :D

This is very helpful. I'm a beginner so I'll be taking your suggestions into account when taking pictures of my rooms. :D