A Couple Questions Regarding Photos

[KANE]

First of all, how do you take a picture without the minimize tab showing once you minimize the menu. I ask this because I want to take good clean pics like the ones in MDs or CJs. How do you do that?

Secondly, how do you take region shots without the menu showing?

Thirdly, can mosaics be made in The GIMP with the same techniques that they are made in Photoshop?

Thank You!

[bwatterud]

1.  People probably crop the pics so that the tab doesn't show, or Photoshop it out. 
2.  There's a tool called Region Census at SimCity Central that lets you take pictures of entire Regions, no matter how big, without opening SC4.  It also brings up vital stats for the region and individual cities. 
3.  I assume so, since you can do most of the same stuff in GIMP as you can in Photoshop.  You might have to tweak the techniques a little bit to get it to work, but for the most part, they should work okay. 

[Masochist]

1). I don't think you can take full-sized (1024x760) pictures without that minimize tab.  Most people just take 800x600 and stray away from that corner of the screen.  Of course, you could just take two pictures and layer one over the other to cover it up, then cut it down to 1024x760, but that may be a bit more trouble than it's worth. <Edit> You could also do as bwatterud suggested and simply crop a thin strip off the bottom to take it off.

2.) The best tool for doing that is the Region Census tool.  I don't exactly have a link for it, but that's how most people take full-sized region pictures.  Bwatterud has you covered if you want it.  Just register at that site if you haven't already, and it's as good as yours !

3.) Yes, you can!  I have The GIMP, and it's the only thing I know how to make mosaics with.  What you do is take a series of pictures (what you want for your mosaic), then load them up one-by-one as different layers in The GIMP.  Line them up all nice and pretty, then once you get them all good and right, merge all visible layers together (and save it, if you want)  Then edit it however you want (Softglow, Cartoon, etc.) and save it again (if you wish).  After that, cut that long picture up into pieces.  The mosaic I made was 800x6000 (I wanted 10 pictures), so I cropped all the way to pixel 600 for the first picture, then cropped starting at 601 to 1200 for the second, then from 1201 to 1800 for the third, and so on and so on.  And voila!  You have a full-sized mosaic, and separate pictures that form a perfect mosaic when put together!  You can take a look at mine [right here], if you want...

Hope I've helped a bit.  If you want any details on any of this, feel free to P.M. me if you want.