Photo by mr.hasgaha
The first time I ever used camera mode in a video game was probably Little Big Planet. The game would set up photo booth opportunities and considering most of the fun of the game was in designing the most ridiculous costumes for your character, I tended to do silly poses and take a quick snap. These pictures would be saved in some file and I doubt I ever looked at them after they were taken. Both the XboxOne and PS4 have photo modes. One of my brothers would take pictures of his Minecraft farm to show his friends at school and the other liked to take ones of his scores on Call of Duty. I never considered there being much more to it than that, after all, you weren’t really taking ‘pictures’, just screenshots of whatever you focused the perspective camera on.
Then a few years back I attended a Comic-Con in my city. The marketplace was full of artists of all different types of mediums from oil to crochet and I stopped at a booth with some particularly beautiful prints. Mass Effect’s Normandy in a silky star background was one that particularly caught my eye. It was the first time I’d ever seen screenshots being sold as photography prints, albeit heavily edited. It was as impressive as it was intriguing.
Photo by mumo.cold
Video games have transcended into an art form themselves, from the highly stylised to the hyper-realistic. In an age where photo documentation is second nature, an artificial world doesn’t remove players from that desire to take a quick picture of the beautiful or sentimental. From being immersed in a first-person narrative or visiting an impossible real world location, photos are being taken. Developers have taken notice and now more and more games are being released with photo features that mimic actual cameras.
Many critics argue that these hobbyists are simply taking pictures of someone else’s work. The familiar echo of ‘not real photography’ seems to be the underlying issue, one that has followed every introduction of photograph technology from 35 mm to digital. While criticism of the content being the property of the studio can be discussed, the artistic merit behind virtual photography is not to be dismissed. These aren’t simply galleries of locked perspective screenshots. Just a glance at the subreddit, Daily Bugle, demonstrates just how creative a community this is. A forum completely devoted to in-game photography for PS4’s Spider-Man, it is littered with tips and tricks and behind the scenes how-to’s for the best Many critics argue that these hobbyists are simply taking pictures of someone else’s work.
The familiar echo of ‘not real photography’ seems to be the underlying issue, one that has followed every introduction of photograph technology from 35 mm to digital. While criticism of the content being the property of the studio can be discussed, the artistic merit behind virtual photography is not to be dismissed. These aren’t simply galleries of locked perspective screenshots. Just a glance at the subreddit, Daily Bugle, demonstrates just how creative a community this is. A forum completely devoted to in-game photography for PS4’s Spider-Man, it is littered with tips and tricks and behind the scenes how-to’s for the best
Photo by ResetEra User Stiller
The number one criticism of the medium seems to be that the pictures are simply provided by the developers who have universal control of everything you see. This argument falls flat when considering the complex worlds that are only becoming more vast and the larger focus on unique player experiences of which No Man’s Sky is an obvious example. 2016’s release of Nvidia’s Ansel, a high powered photo tool that PC developers can implement in games, has only allowed for further player artistic control with HDR and 360 degree pictures. From perspective, to lighting, and the vast array of filter options many of these photo tools boast, allow these communities to craft creative and original images. With VR gaining support from image hosting companies like Flickr and Gettyimages, the future of photography is undoubtedly virtual and video game photographers are leading the charge.
