The photo mode consultant helping you take better video game screenshots
Three children gaze upon the dilapidated remains of a battlefield, with trees and man-made structures mostly razed except for the sturdy frame of a lone trebuchet. It’s a pensive snapshot of the bloodshed in A Plague Tale: Innocence by virtual photographer Ludovic “Shinobi” Helme — but it’s not a simple screenshot. This is a carefully framed photograph, enhanced with real photographic techniques: composition, lighting, depth of field, etc. “[Virtual photography] It’s a way to experience the game differently, because you can check out every detail,” says Helme. “It really enhances the artistry of a game for your eyes, and then creates something out of it for someone else.”
It’s also a photo that can be taken more easily, given the growing popularity – and complexity – of photo modes in games. Helme is one of very few, if not the first, consultants for these tools, a journey that began when he first contacted developer Cold Symmetry about their souls, as Deadly shell. The studio was impressed with the photographs it took in the game, and when Helme asked for collaboration on a potential photo mode feature, the team quickly agreed. “Basically, I created this job, at least the name ‘photo fashion consultant,’” he says. “Of course, other people probably had an advisory role on other photo modes. […] but as an external advisor, especially for photo modes, I am definitely the first. His successful collaboration with Cold Symmetry has led him to work on everything from Lovecraftian horror gaming The shore to hit titles like Death Loop And Cyberpunk 2077.
His last visit was in progress Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33. Helme calls its Photo Mode “close to perfect,” with a dizzying number of settings, including film stock, aperture, frames to fit photograph sizes, and several types of grids, as well as tiny adjustments to lighting, color grading, filters, and other visual effects. Then there’s the pure freedom of movement that comes from being able to separate the camera from the player’s point of view. After speaking to virtual photographers, all pointed out that many photo modes are extremely limited in scope; Helme says this is equivalent to not being able to move and extend your arms in real life. Yet in Expedition 33photographers can now walk more than an arm’s length away, and even take several steps away from the initial scene.
Expedition 33Photo mode is just one example of these increasingly sophisticated tools. Ghost of Yōtei features a tracking option that allows virtual photographers to slowly move the camera from point to point, with up to 16 tracking points. The Saga of Senua: Hellblade IIPhoto mode features a three-point lighting system, with several focus settings such as focus assist and split focal plane. Photo modes have become even more prevalent, in part because of the growing number of shots in Unreal Engine, such as Advanced Photo Mode, which Helme described as a basic, easy-to-use feature. “I think publishers want [photo modes] more than developers,” he says. “It’s basically free marketing on the Internet.”
As a consultant, Helme says his role is to share his expertise. “I am here to give [studios] advice, educational explanations on why [certain] “Which features are essential or, conversely, which ones are not really important,” he says. For him, virtual photography is a very different experience from just gaming, and that distinction is crucial for studios to understand. So, the consultation process typically involves discussing and prioritizing specific Photo Mode features with the developer and, once implemented, testing the builds and providing feedback.
Yet technical issues often prevented developers from adding some of his suggestions. “Some studios are a little concerned because textures don’t load properly or people can check the surroundings and see enemies hiding,” says Helme. Creating photo modes across platforms is also another major challenge, with Helme adding that several features he tried to integrate into photo modes cannot be included because they are particularly complicated to implement on consoles. One example is the lack of orientation choices, whether shooting landscape or portrait. Without it, virtual photographers usually have to tilt their heads to take a portrait – which Helme says “really hurts everyone in this hobby.” Many photo modes offer the ability to crop images with black bars, which reduces the resolution of the photo. “If I want to take a vertical portrait without sacrificing resolution via cropping, I’m forced to rotate the camera 90 degrees, compose the shot with my head tilted, and then manually rotate the file later on my PC,” says Cristiano Bonora of Vertical Gaming Photography.
Another cool feature? A slow motion option that will allow virtual photographers to fast forward or rewind several seconds to capture the perfect moment. “In Deadly Shellwe had a slow motion function with three different speeds, and that’s also very practical, very useful in many circumstances,” says Helme. “Now what I would like to have is something that also does the opposite, like being able to have a few seconds back if you missed the [moment].” Virtual photographer Cabbac, who has compiled a database of games with photo modes, also believes that such an option is sorely lacking. “Timing can be everything when creating a plan,” he says.
One of the major challenges of creating a feature-rich photo mode is also ensuring that it is accessible to non-experts. One game that Helme believes hits this balance is Sony’s zombie thriller. The days gone by. “It’s definitely one of my all-time favorites,” he says. “You can have the most basic features, or you have an advanced mode and […] have much more control. So it’s perfect for people who just want to take a quick photo or for people who want to work on their photo for an hour.
Helme is optimistic about the future of photo modes and looks forward to working with more studios, regardless of size, although some developers still have a long way to go to improve these tools. “I hope that big companies like Capcom or Konami will contact me to improve resident EvilPhoto modes or the terrible, terrible Dragon’s Dogma 2 photo mode,” he laughs.
But as photo modes become more prevalent, it’s possible that even highly technical photo modes will start to look the same from game to game, a development that Helme is cautiously wary of. After all, even real cameras have different functions depending on brands and models. “I really hope that big games continue to take risks and produce photo modes with new features.”
