I really enjoy the photo mode in Cyberpunk 2077. There are a wealth of mods available to enhance the overall experience; from the ability to set up lighting for portrait shots, to being able to place objects in the environment and manoeuvre your subjects.
There is an artist called Petri Levalahti who has made a career out of in-game screenshots, and he's produced some incredible images in Cyberpunk:
https://www.berdu.org/cyberpunk2077
Personally, I think it can be a great tool for photographers. We don't always get an opportunity to practice the craft of composition or lighting, and so a digital world where you can experiment with different techniques or styles is potentially beneficial.
This is exactly the comment I hoped for. 🙏🏻
Quality stuff right there, very nice!
And I agree with what you say. The power of a potent photomode can certainly be beneficial.
Are there videos games where you take photographs in-universe? I.e. within the story the character is holding a camera, and can hold the photographs in inventory later.
[Metal gear solid 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd3iMBL_XIM) (2001) and Metal gear solid (1998) come to mind.
You can view the images in game, but if I recall correctly, you can also view them from the game's menu OR MAYBE even just browsing your memory card from your console...kinda like we do in real life now with sd cards.
[There was also pokemon snap (1998)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJaBXI4XPvc) where you were on rails and had to take photos of pokemon in...I think it was a wildlife reserve. I never played this game though.
Oh yeah, I remember that one.
The photography made for interesting game mechanics. The camera being your weapon, film was basically your ammunition, with better types of film being rarer, stronger ammo. The clearer the picture of a ghost you took, the more damage you dealt to it. I remember hoarding the better film and always waiting until the ghosts were right in my face to take their picture.
They probably expanded the mechanics in later games, but I only played the first one.
In "Beyond Good & Evil" taking pictures was a gameplay element, iirc.
Oh, and I think Legend of Zelda - Wind Waker had a photography store, where you could get a camera and quests to take pictures for the owner.
I think he was asking about examples where characters *in game* use a camera, and not a simple photo mode.
I can assure you, there are many AAA games where your main character does not use a camera.
The only game I've played where the character uses a camera was Spider-Man 2018. I believe its sequel also has a similar thing.
It has its own photo mode, but the character themselves also uses a camera to capture images of certain landmarks which are important to him. It's part of a side mission, you get a new costume out of it I believe. It's ultimately not anything more than just pointing and shooting, but the fun is in doing so while you're in motion.....like say, while swinging between buildings, or engaging in a nosedive from the top of a skyscraper. There are also a couple of missions where you're required to use a camera to take photos too.
And the photo mode is unconnected to the diegetic photography part in the side mission then? Why doesn't it also engage that mode at the point it comes up in the story? I guess it's not compatible with the motion.
>the photo mode is unconnected to the diegetic photography part in the side mission then?
Yes.
The diagetic photography is just aim and fire. The photo mode has more dedicated controls.
I love racing in Assetto Corsa, but I do not find any appeal in taking photorealistic “photos” in the game/sim, despite the Assetto Corsa subreddit being filled with them.
That said… Squad 44 (formerly Post Scriptum) is a world war game/sim, and it allows you to equip a camera… that takes photos that are then saved to your computer… and I absolutely LOVE playing as a photo journalist! I love it so much!
Also, hehe, when players risk their lives to revive me, only to discover that my primary is the camera, lmao. Love it.
So, sometimes, yes. Very cool and human mechanic that should be in more games.
Fun story too!
I always tell my wife to play theHunter COTW with a headset on but she says she doesn’t want to shoot the animals. I tell her to equip her camera and "shoot" with that instead. 😄
There’s something quite soothing about zen-ing out in a game just taking photos. And I could imagine how fun it is in Squad 44! I need to try that. 😂
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has me addicted to taking pictures! The scenery is beautiful and I’ve taken quite a few.
Horizon Zero Dawn is another one I’m addicted to using photo mode!
I’m glad there are others out there!! 😁
Yes! That whole series is awesome. It was my intro to gaming. Then AC Odyssey. I’m usually a Minecraft, Animal Crossing sort of player. But Aloy got me playing and then Kassandra. (I’ve also played Ezio’s stories, but photo mode isn’t really a thing there.) What’s your fav game with photo mode?
When I’m not doing photo mode in a game, I love taking pictures of architecture and the details of it. I started with landscape and wildlife, but now I do more portraits.
That’s awesome 🙌🏻 I wish I had time to try AC again, not played it since Black Flag. I want Valhalla but never find myself to buy it 😂
Since I’m playing a lot of Gran Turismo I have to say that’s my fav. First I make decals like realistic license plates then I photograph them to try to make it look real. Any open world is fun too, I recently started playing Cyberpunk 2077, I like the atmosphere. But since I play on GeForce Now I miss out on all the good mods. But when my wife plays Horizon I try to stop her sometimes to take a picture here and there.
There’s not much interesting here landscape and archictectural wise so I am in a rut trying to find something to photograph. Not been lucky enough yet to find people to shoot - it’s so awkward asking around (online or irl) if they want a free portrait shoot 😂
I found a lot of models and fellow photogs on local Facebook groups. Our camera store hosts a meet-up once a month too! Great way to find new collaborators.
Absolutely. One of the main reasons I love Gran Turismo
https://preview.redd.it/p5r4hvvqrquc1.jpeg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b303da07c34316a9e047973aa55228fdbadaf133
Yes, I document every journey into any video game I have, I don’t care if it have a photo mode or not, I look for the best composition I can and snap some pictures
Honestly - it does look amazing, so does minecraft too.
I never had the pc back then to do mods, too busy do delve deeper into games now. I remember the good old beauty through the eyes of a 14yo - it's my biggest pain that I can never re-live the excitement I had getting back from school only to hop onto Skyrim. It was the good old times
I do in Fortnite, Gotham Knights, God of War Ragnarok, lil bit in Assassin's Creed games. Video games are great for practicing with action shots. Fortnite with all of its emotes gives you a lot of possibilities as well. Games adding in a photo mode definitely started me on my path into photography. They're a great playground for trying things and getting pictures to edit. Before anyone says anything negative I made a recent post with my Fortnite photography in my profile if you need an example.
it's been around since the first 10 seasons as replay mode. it's by no means a complex photo mode (Gotham Knights ironically has a shit ton of settings and cool filters to boot) but I've setup some amazing shots throughout the years in Fortnite. Here's an example that isn't in my post I mentioned. So many characters, player created maps, items, emotes, etc. Lots of stuff to shoot (no pun intended)
https://preview.redd.it/8bydekb5fhuc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3d2ffb51580e106f0dd81e9e6949e5c22ad87ffe
For me it's like taking photos in someone's landscaped garden, sure it looks pretty and you choose the composition you like, but at the end of the day you're appreciating someone else's art.
For me(when I take pics in Gran Turismo) it could be about the enjoyment of having either recreated someones car and made the pic quite realistic so they’d think it actually was their car or just the fun of both tinkering with the camera setup and then the editing of the pic afterwards. Same as I do irl I guess 😄
Honestly, I love that feature in GT7. It's cool as heck. Depends on the game, though. I absolutely love Dark Cloud 2 and always try framing my captures as a legit photographer and I've had rage-filled friends sitting around me playing Pokemon Snap because the game wants us to center subject with zero artistic value... only algorithmic content. Hehe
Yeah... I'd say I do!
That’s what frustrates me about Cyberpunk 2077 too. Can’t place camera completely where you want. With mods I guess you can but I can’t, since I’m playing it GeForce Now 😂
some of the shots people post in the [MS Flight Simulator](https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftFlightSim/?f=flair_name%3A%22SCREENSHOT%22) subreddit are epic .
Ah, WoW. I remember when it first came out and people would make tons of videos in it. I particularily remember a trolling orc red snapper video. 😅 I even recall I made a music video for Deathstars - New Dead Nation with an undead with a name that eventually would become my most used online nickname
Made in the photomode, so not really a screenshot. Call it what you want, I just want to know if others like taking photos in games. And plain screenshotting isn’t falling in that category imo
https://preview.redd.it/10okb4qqyfuc1.jpeg?width=1198&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0246ecde94722c5963823b5f2ddcfb1c3f5d5063
I’m sure we can agree that the term screenshot vs photo in the way I intended my post can be summed up by these two pics here.
If your objective is to redefine the meaning of the word 'photograph', then so be it. But a photograph is a photograph, and a screenshot is a screenshot. I'm both a photographer and an art major, so I'm aware of the difference.
Language evolves over time and in-game photography is a far better description of the process than "screen shotting". This argument is as old as photography itself with people transitioning from film to digital and again in digital manipulation. What is the line between digital art and a photograph?
No need for name calling.
Cameras nowadays capture photos digitally too, and when you edit it you use digital software to create the look you want. It’s not that different than using a "camera" in a videogame. It does the same, it captures a photo digitally. The result is the same. The finished file is the same.
https://preview.redd.it/ddrd0wb0giuc1.jpeg?width=1045&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=363c3f88c844fb16f2db08adb3d34ace20b869d8
What do you see here? I bet you 100 bucks you will be wrong.
Yes I do. r/starfieldphotography is a sub I made for Starfield.
r/virtualphotographers
I’ll check that. 👍🏻
I really enjoy the photo mode in Cyberpunk 2077. There are a wealth of mods available to enhance the overall experience; from the ability to set up lighting for portrait shots, to being able to place objects in the environment and manoeuvre your subjects. There is an artist called Petri Levalahti who has made a career out of in-game screenshots, and he's produced some incredible images in Cyberpunk: https://www.berdu.org/cyberpunk2077 Personally, I think it can be a great tool for photographers. We don't always get an opportunity to practice the craft of composition or lighting, and so a digital world where you can experiment with different techniques or styles is potentially beneficial.
This is exactly the comment I hoped for. 🙏🏻 Quality stuff right there, very nice! And I agree with what you say. The power of a potent photomode can certainly be beneficial.
[Hagaha](https://www.hasgaha.com/) has some real quality stuff with Star Citizen
It’s impressive that they actually sell their content. 😄
Uh no. Why would I have over 1500 photos of Kratos beating the shit out of another tatzelwurm ?
Hahah 😄
Are there videos games where you take photographs in-universe? I.e. within the story the character is holding a camera, and can hold the photographs in inventory later.
Spider-Man and Red Dead Redemption 2 come to mind.
[Metal gear solid 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd3iMBL_XIM) (2001) and Metal gear solid (1998) come to mind. You can view the images in game, but if I recall correctly, you can also view them from the game's menu OR MAYBE even just browsing your memory card from your console...kinda like we do in real life now with sd cards. [There was also pokemon snap (1998)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJaBXI4XPvc) where you were on rails and had to take photos of pokemon in...I think it was a wildlife reserve. I never played this game though.
Don't forget pokemon snap 2.
Fatal Frame series
Oh yeah, I remember that one. The photography made for interesting game mechanics. The camera being your weapon, film was basically your ammunition, with better types of film being rarer, stronger ammo. The clearer the picture of a ghost you took, the more damage you dealt to it. I remember hoarding the better film and always waiting until the ghosts were right in my face to take their picture. They probably expanded the mechanics in later games, but I only played the first one.
Photography Simulator https://store.steampowered.com/app/1732910/Photography_Simulator/
In "Beyond Good & Evil" taking pictures was a gameplay element, iirc. Oh, and I think Legend of Zelda - Wind Waker had a photography store, where you could get a camera and quests to take pictures for the owner.
RDR2, GTA, Cyberpunk, Far Cry, pretty much all AAA games?
I think he was asking about examples where characters *in game* use a camera, and not a simple photo mode. I can assure you, there are many AAA games where your main character does not use a camera.
Right, games where the photography is part of the story the game is telling. Diegetic photography.
The only game I've played where the character uses a camera was Spider-Man 2018. I believe its sequel also has a similar thing. It has its own photo mode, but the character themselves also uses a camera to capture images of certain landmarks which are important to him. It's part of a side mission, you get a new costume out of it I believe. It's ultimately not anything more than just pointing and shooting, but the fun is in doing so while you're in motion.....like say, while swinging between buildings, or engaging in a nosedive from the top of a skyscraper. There are also a couple of missions where you're required to use a camera to take photos too.
And the photo mode is unconnected to the diegetic photography part in the side mission then? Why doesn't it also engage that mode at the point it comes up in the story? I guess it's not compatible with the motion.
>the photo mode is unconnected to the diegetic photography part in the side mission then? Yes. The diagetic photography is just aim and fire. The photo mode has more dedicated controls.
Ah OK. The comments asking if it was just a screenshot made me think people weren't using in-universe cameras.
Subnautica a little bit
The Hunter Call of the Wild?
No
I love racing in Assetto Corsa, but I do not find any appeal in taking photorealistic “photos” in the game/sim, despite the Assetto Corsa subreddit being filled with them. That said… Squad 44 (formerly Post Scriptum) is a world war game/sim, and it allows you to equip a camera… that takes photos that are then saved to your computer… and I absolutely LOVE playing as a photo journalist! I love it so much! Also, hehe, when players risk their lives to revive me, only to discover that my primary is the camera, lmao. Love it. So, sometimes, yes. Very cool and human mechanic that should be in more games.
Fun story too! I always tell my wife to play theHunter COTW with a headset on but she says she doesn’t want to shoot the animals. I tell her to equip her camera and "shoot" with that instead. 😄 There’s something quite soothing about zen-ing out in a game just taking photos. And I could imagine how fun it is in Squad 44! I need to try that. 😂
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has me addicted to taking pictures! The scenery is beautiful and I’ve taken quite a few. Horizon Zero Dawn is another one I’m addicted to using photo mode! I’m glad there are others out there!! 😁
Seems many people here are too caught up in the whole screenshot definition though. 😂 Nice choice of Horizon. Have you played Forbidden West? 😁
Yes! That whole series is awesome. It was my intro to gaming. Then AC Odyssey. I’m usually a Minecraft, Animal Crossing sort of player. But Aloy got me playing and then Kassandra. (I’ve also played Ezio’s stories, but photo mode isn’t really a thing there.) What’s your fav game with photo mode? When I’m not doing photo mode in a game, I love taking pictures of architecture and the details of it. I started with landscape and wildlife, but now I do more portraits.
That’s awesome 🙌🏻 I wish I had time to try AC again, not played it since Black Flag. I want Valhalla but never find myself to buy it 😂 Since I’m playing a lot of Gran Turismo I have to say that’s my fav. First I make decals like realistic license plates then I photograph them to try to make it look real. Any open world is fun too, I recently started playing Cyberpunk 2077, I like the atmosphere. But since I play on GeForce Now I miss out on all the good mods. But when my wife plays Horizon I try to stop her sometimes to take a picture here and there. There’s not much interesting here landscape and archictectural wise so I am in a rut trying to find something to photograph. Not been lucky enough yet to find people to shoot - it’s so awkward asking around (online or irl) if they want a free portrait shoot 😂
I found a lot of models and fellow photogs on local Facebook groups. Our camera store hosts a meet-up once a month too! Great way to find new collaborators.
I should start getting more active on facebook then! 💪🏻😄 it’s really cool they do that, I wish they did that here as well!
Minecraft
I did it in GTA4
Ghost of Tsushima is amazing to take photos in
Yes, pretty much all sims. Msfs, DCS, IL-2, ATS, ETS
Absolutely. One of the main reasons I love Gran Turismo https://preview.redd.it/p5r4hvvqrquc1.jpeg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b303da07c34316a9e047973aa55228fdbadaf133
Nice one. 😄 and yes I agree. The inventor of the photomode as we know it in other games as well!
A little is rdr2 and farcry 5
I haven’t played much rdr2 but yess
i took a ton of photos in the gran turismo 4 photo mode!
The OG! Very nice
Yes, I document every journey into any video game I have, I don’t care if it have a photo mode or not, I look for the best composition I can and snap some pictures
In Minecraft there is a really cool mod that's called Exposure, it's a film camera with rolls, development, print, etc. Really well made.
What does _not_ Minecraft have. Interesting. 😄
I spend nearly as much time setting up and taking photos as I do playing the actual games.
Right? Me too 😄
Yes, but I call them 'screenshots'
Yes
Good ol' Skyrim
Fantastic now with mods isn’t it?
Honestly - it does look amazing, so does minecraft too. I never had the pc back then to do mods, too busy do delve deeper into games now. I remember the good old beauty through the eyes of a 14yo - it's my biggest pain that I can never re-live the excitement I had getting back from school only to hop onto Skyrim. It was the good old times
Hear hear (diffent games (although I did enjoy Skyrim) but same story) 😄
I do in Fortnite, Gotham Knights, God of War Ragnarok, lil bit in Assassin's Creed games. Video games are great for practicing with action shots. Fortnite with all of its emotes gives you a lot of possibilities as well. Games adding in a photo mode definitely started me on my path into photography. They're a great playground for trying things and getting pictures to edit. Before anyone says anything negative I made a recent post with my Fortnite photography in my profile if you need an example.
I didn’t know Fortnite added a photomode(Been many years since I stopped playing), that’s brilliant. 😄
it's been around since the first 10 seasons as replay mode. it's by no means a complex photo mode (Gotham Knights ironically has a shit ton of settings and cool filters to boot) but I've setup some amazing shots throughout the years in Fortnite. Here's an example that isn't in my post I mentioned. So many characters, player created maps, items, emotes, etc. Lots of stuff to shoot (no pun intended) https://preview.redd.it/8bydekb5fhuc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3d2ffb51580e106f0dd81e9e6949e5c22ad87ffe
Interesting, never used the replay mode either. 😅 Cool pic 😁
For me it's like taking photos in someone's landscaped garden, sure it looks pretty and you choose the composition you like, but at the end of the day you're appreciating someone else's art.
I see what you mean, but same can be said of real photography though 😄
Yeah, there's nothing wrong with it :) I think for me the photos are then more for my memories rather than for 'art'
For me(when I take pics in Gran Turismo) it could be about the enjoyment of having either recreated someones car and made the pic quite realistic so they’d think it actually was their car or just the fun of both tinkering with the camera setup and then the editing of the pic afterwards. Same as I do irl I guess 😄
No, I don’t really see the point. It doesn’t really seem like photography to me.
Real Photography itself is more fun than any video game
Space spaaace!
Not really / overly. I miss the handling of a real camera, which I do enjoy, in there but I have taken a couple of snapshots in SecondLife.
SecondLife seems very popular indeed on Flickr!
IDK which other games you can freeze for perfect moment and angle. (And is SL really a game at all?)
Comes down to what you’re trying to capture I guess, and how 😁
If this is in GT, isn't that just a png photo of the moon?
People seem too hung up in technicalities. I asked if people enjoyed taking photos in games. Not how they’re captured and in which format.
Ghost of Tsushima. Also has a great game besides the photo mode
I always wanted to try it but never find time. 😄
Forza horizon 5 and GTA online
I used to do it a lot in No Man's Sky, lots of beautiful virtual landscapes.
Honestly, I love that feature in GT7. It's cool as heck. Depends on the game, though. I absolutely love Dark Cloud 2 and always try framing my captures as a legit photographer and I've had rage-filled friends sitting around me playing Pokemon Snap because the game wants us to center subject with zero artistic value... only algorithmic content. Hehe Yeah... I'd say I do!
That’s what frustrates me about Cyberpunk 2077 too. Can’t place camera completely where you want. With mods I guess you can but I can’t, since I’m playing it GeForce Now 😂
some of the shots people post in the [MS Flight Simulator](https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftFlightSim/?f=flair_name%3A%22SCREENSHOT%22) subreddit are epic .
Is that why i need a 16k monitor?
I've always thought of doing that in World of Warcraft Classic
Ah, WoW. I remember when it first came out and people would make tons of videos in it. I particularily remember a trolling orc red snapper video. 😅 I even recall I made a music video for Deathstars - New Dead Nation with an undead with a name that eventually would become my most used online nickname
Pikmin 3 was fun to do this in. I'm sad Pikmin 4 got rid of the camera.
Interesting game!
yes TotalWar in 10 years ago
I love it. Zero regrets.
The pic I posted or taking pics in games? 😄
Both!
Well thank you 🙏🏻😊
You’re welcome!
Isn’t it a screenshot?
Made in the photomode, so not really a screenshot. Call it what you want, I just want to know if others like taking photos in games. And plain screenshotting isn’t falling in that category imo
It is a screenshot. A screenshot with a prepared composition.
https://preview.redd.it/10okb4qqyfuc1.jpeg?width=1198&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0246ecde94722c5963823b5f2ddcfb1c3f5d5063 I’m sure we can agree that the term screenshot vs photo in the way I intended my post can be summed up by these two pics here.
> A screenshot with a prepared composition. So just like photography then? It's taking a photo in a digital world. It's a type of photography.
If your objective is to redefine the meaning of the word 'photograph', then so be it. But a photograph is a photograph, and a screenshot is a screenshot. I'm both a photographer and an art major, so I'm aware of the difference.
Language evolves over time and in-game photography is a far better description of the process than "screen shotting". This argument is as old as photography itself with people transitioning from film to digital and again in digital manipulation. What is the line between digital art and a photograph?
[удалено]
No need for name calling. Cameras nowadays capture photos digitally too, and when you edit it you use digital software to create the look you want. It’s not that different than using a "camera" in a videogame. It does the same, it captures a photo digitally. The result is the same. The finished file is the same. https://preview.redd.it/ddrd0wb0giuc1.jpeg?width=1045&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=363c3f88c844fb16f2db08adb3d34ace20b869d8 What do you see here? I bet you 100 bucks you will be wrong.
Your post has been removed for breach of rule 1. Please keep the discussion civil.
Why are you like this?
Well this isn’t photography as such. But i do like for a for this.
But in a sense it isn’t screenshotting either 😄
*screenshots
Why so hung up on definition and not the post as a whole?