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Well I thought it was about time I did this and gather together all of the fragmented nuggets of information in the Skyrim Photographer's Guild thread. I made a screenshot guide for Oblivion once, it was mostly technical details describing how to actually upload the things so people could see them. Thank God for Steam integration.

Before you begin you need a:

PC with Skyrim on it.
Steam.
Ability to press screenshot button and then upload button.

Technical Bit

When in game press your Steam screenshot hotkey to take a screenshot (mine is F11, I think that's non-default though), upload it at the end of your session (you are automatically prompted).
Technical bit is done.

Proper Linking of the images.

You just captured a nice big 1080p image on that gaming PC you're so proud of. Surely you want us all to bask in its glory!? Go to the image in your Steam screenshot online library and select "View full size" then right click the full size image and choose "copy link address". Paste that in some [url][/url] tags and you're good to go.

If you want to title the link here on the forums all you need to do is add an = to the url tag like so: [url="URL GOES HERE"]"Your fancy smancy title goes here"[/url]

Now on to some Photography stuff:

So you worked out which button was for screenshots, but can you actually TAKE pictures. Now even in the virtual environment of Skyrim a good eye will help get good images and that isn't something that can be taught but there are a number of tips and tricks available.

The Console, use it.

No silly not the thing your brother plays COD on, its the wee command box you get when you press "¬". Ok that probably didn't help much so I'll explain. Its the button that's probably underneath Esc. To be honest if you have Skyrim for PC you probably already know what the console is but it can't hurt to explain everything. Console commands are the backbone of getting good shots, here are some useful ones.

Note: Pressing the "up" directional key on your keyboard will pull up the last command you typed, useful for toggles.

tfc and tfc 1: These are your bread and butter. "tfc" (toggle free camera) does what it says on the tin and lets you view your character from any angle or indeed fly away into space as a disembodied camera. "tfc 1" freezes the action so you can capture things that happen in an instant. They are toggle based so you enter them again to return to normal camera.
tcl: Allows you to noclip, only works if nothing is selected. Useful for composing freeze frame action shots.
tm: Your other bread and butter. Quite simply removes the HUD for pure, unadulterated picture.
sucsm <n>: Configures the speed of the "tfc" camera. Replace n with a numeber. IIRC 6 is default, or maybe 10... 1 will give you a nice slow speed for careful zooming.
fov <n>: Changes the Field of View. Default depends on your monitor and what you are comfortable with, typically 60-110. This can actually be quite fancy, especially with a Depth of Field mod. I will go into the details later on.
csb: Clears screen blood if its annoying you.
tai: "Toggle AI" will freeze an NPC or creature if they are selected. Good for composing action.

Actual Photography tips.

Now like I said before you can't teach a good eye, but I will direct you towards this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds which explains some interesting principles on composition.

Also we have what someone called the Jakarius method:


So now on to the wonders of FOV. Here are some sample pictures showing how it can be used:

FOV at 1
FOV at 5
FOV at 30
FOV at 60 (my default, I know I'm weird).
FOV at 90
FOV at 120

So you see that the game camera is in the exact same place each time. All that is being changed is the FOV. If we take a 90 FOV and put it up close we get a wide view and a nice feel for the environment around the subject (my character).
FOV 90 close up.

On the flip side if we take an FOV of 20 and go further away (remember it zooms you right in) the subject can really be focused on more as the background is cut out.
FOV 20 Far away.

Now you may ask why don't we just keep the FOV and move closer in? Well in some cases its because getting too close results in the subject fading out (due to the way the game engine works). Using a small FOV from a distance allows you to get up close without them fading. If you are using a post processing mod with Depth of Field (focusing and blurring) then this allows you to take close ups without the subject blurring out (which happens with the config I am currently using).

Examples of this:
FOV 60, blurred out.
FOV 20, more focused but you lose a bit of background.
Remember Depth of Field isn't in Vanilla Skyrim, you'll need to get an ENB series post processing mod or similar which I will explain further later on.

The other answer to why we don't just move closer in with default FOV is just the general feel of it. Its a bit like when you go to the movies. The movie has the "film look" which can be attributed to aspect ratio (letterbox bars) and framerate. Using a smaller FOV just gives images a different look that will make them stand out from the crowd.

Recommended Mods

Ah the wonders of PC gaming, that we can configure Skyrim to our hearts content.
Now I'll put a warning beside the FPS eaters here:

Skyrim Photography Toolkit: Somebody loves us! This lets you easily change the weather with the console and offers "Lenses" which are basically just changing the FOV. You can do it their way or mine, up to you.

Skyrim HD: [POTENTIAL FPS EATER] My texture pack of choice, I run it fine with 1Gb of VRAM, I have 8Gb system RAM but I'm not sure that makes a difference.

Skyrim Flora Overhaul: Pretty trees.

Xenius Character Enhancement: Pretty humans.

WATER (texture pack): I think Skyrim HD has its own water textures, but use these instead i.e. install this after Skyrim HD.

Enhanced Blood Textures: The improvement is too much for words.

iCCC ENB: Not a huge FPS eater, just gently improves on colours and adds a vignette effect.

ENBPM - Atmospheric ENB Series with Depth of Field: [FPS OM NOM] AKA the one that Kailay uses (and me too now). I use the non-SSAO and non-SMAA version, just the DOF and lighting enhancements and the FPS hit is no where near as bad as some other ENB mods.

Cinematic Lighting ENB: [BIG FPS OM NOM] For example this one, my computer died when it saw it. Although to be honest I'm happy enough with the Atmospheric ENB.

Realistic Lighting Without Post-Processing: This is a good one, doesn't really hit FPS and works well with iCCC ENB.

Puppeteer Master: This is your number 1 compositional tool. Choose any animation then "tfc 1" get a good angle and let the creativity flow.

Remember to only use 1 ENB mod at a time, otherwise the universe exploded or something like that.

Graphic mods will really spice up your game, here's a wee comparison.
All my HD textures but no ENB
Atmospheric ENB

The thing about Skyrim and photography and tips and tricks and mods is that its ultimately the difference between this:
Jak's first Skyrim session
Jak these days.

It is now 23:40 and I am a lot sleepier than I was when I started writing. If there's anything that needs added to this please do tell me because chances are I've missed something.

Nice guide, Jak. I like it a lot.

Wow, jack, thank you a lot.

Great guide!

If you, like me, are going through hell with Nexus Mod Manager refusing to download mods there is a trick if you want your character to have a certain pose.

If, for example, you want your character to point accusingly like our dear friend Murback, you equip a healing spell and a sword, type tfc 1 in the console, enter your inventory and then unequip your hands.

You can also change your armor while in tfc 1 mode. Equipping a new weapon or spell won't show until you go back to normal character view, though.

Thanks for the guide!

Just one clarification, maybe it will help someone else trying these commands.

sucsm <n> - <n> is a multiplier of the speed, not incremental.

For example, 1 is regular speed, 0.5 is half speed, 2 is twice the speed.

That might help you decide the numbers you want to use when you are using that command.

At least according to the source where I found that info at skyrimsearch . com / console.php

Great guide!

Wow, this is a nice guide! I like how it describes both how it works and what you can use it for.

@Relight: Nope, it's not a multiplier; I just confirmed that in my game. 5 is a nice slow zoom, 20 is pretty decent speed for moving around a city.