This question concerns a long standing problem I have had taking screenshots inside and close to buildings for storytelling.

The first picture illustrates the problem. If the camera is at ground level and I want to get a shot of two sims standing under the arch, I cannot see the upper storeys of the building behind. If I press one of the buttons to move the view up a level the camera follows, and it is very difficult to get a ground level view of my two characters. If I click on the portrait of one of the sims to focus on her, I am back where I started, unable to see the upper floors.

The second picture shows one of the rare times I managed to shoot at ground level inside the throne room when I could actually see the gallery and even a glimpse of the ceiling. I managed this by sending Jenny the maid through the main entrance to speak with another sim, and actually followed her through it with the camera. And, bingo, I could see whole throne room and not just the lower level! How did that happen? I haven't the foggiest. But as soon as I clicked on the portrait of another sim who was in the same room I was back to seeing the lower level, with a blue sky and fleecy white clouds above.

Can anybody suggest a way of getting around this problem, before it dives me bonkers? I seem to recall mention of a mod that fixed it. Whether it was for TS2 or TS3 I'm not sure, but in either case I cannot track it down.

I'm not sure, but maybe Anach's camera height mod could help.

No, I'm afraid it doesn't fix the problem. Thanks for looking though. Some interesting mods by Anach, worth checking out.

The walls and roof must be up, then go into TAB mode and use the keyboard shortcuts to navigate such as Q or E to lower or raise the height of the camera. Or Shift A/Shift D to roll the camera counterclockwise or clockwise. There is also the Z/X key to adjust the focal length/zoom in or out.

https://strategywiki.org/wiki/The_Sims_3/Controls

When I want to take screenshots of multiple levels of the whole scene that is what I do.

@Deshong

I often use TAB mode, although the camera is still rather awkward to handle: I often press TAB and find myself looking at a wall in the next room. And I have to be careful to avoid that 'fish eye' effect, where the dimensions of the room are distorted. But i didn't know, or rather had forgotten about, some of those keyboard short cuts. That will be a great help, and if I can get indoor shots like yours I shall be well content. I'm particularly encouraged by the second one which has stairs, since showing sims coming down mine, without there being a fine view of the the sky above, has been a real headache.

Thanks for your help.

EDIT: Just been trying things out, and it is a vast improvement. I wish I'd known about Q and E before, that makes things a lot easier. But I find that I have to un-check Enable Object Hiding in Options, otherwise I can't see the furniture. It effects performance, but that's no problem when I'm just taking screen shots. Again, thanks!

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No problem. Also if you want a quicker way to enable or disable object hiding excluding Sims, bring up the cheat console (CTRL+Shift+C) and input 'fadeObjects on/off'. And just in case, if I remember correctly, hitting the F10 key toggles the U.I. on or off without TAB mode. But I don't remember if that allows multiple levels to be shown with the walls and roof up.

I'll give that a try, thanks.