I’m still working on The Last of Us Part I. My progress is glacier for one particular reason: Photo Mode. When you turn around a corner or catch a glimpse of a character’s reaction to a particular situation, pause the action and dedicate long hours to framing shots. My personal favorite is close-ups of characters taken in portrait mode. So at home you can tilt your head to the side or sit in front of a swivel monitor and see me in front of the TV. The game is highlighted in the current Share of the Week on his PS blog, so I’d like to not only highlight some of the game’s great photomode options, but also share examples and incorporate them into my own shots. I felt it helped generate ideas and approaches that could
Photo mode is fun to experiment with and has a variety of tools to tinker with.
shortcut
of the game[オプション]The menu has an option to activate the Photo Mode shortcut, which allows you to freeze the scene by pressing L3 and R3 simultaneously.thumb[オプション]It’s easier than getting lost in a button and potentially missing out on a great composition.
frame forward
NEW FEATURE: Located in the first tab of the Photo Mode menu, each press of the button advances the on-screen action one frame. Useful for capturing people in the middle of their blinks in group portraits, or to make character poses a bit more dynamic during action shots.
Here Ellie’s eyes are closed.
Tapping Frame Forward a few times fixes the issue.
controllable lighting
Also new is multiple lighting options. Head to the rightmost tab in the photo mode menu. There is an option to generate up to 3 dynamic lights. All are locked to orbit your playable character, but you can control each individually. You can change your position with the left stick, use the menu to change your distance from your character, change the strength and size of the beam, and change the color of the beam.
They are versatile tools. Use them to subtly add detail at specific moments, illuminate the character’s front to balance natural lighting in exterior shots, or mask the trio as ambient light in dark environments to shield characters from shadows. Alternatively, create a mood by creatively using lighting positions and colors.
A tip specific to close-up photography: Keep your field of view wide while setting up your lighting ([カメラ]left edge of the tab). This makes placement easier as you can see exactly where the selected virtual light rig is on the screen.
With the sun behind him, Joel’s front face loses a lot of detail. I placed a single light, pointing upwards towards him, set to a soft glow out of shot. Now he pops against a dark background.
To Joel’s right, I placed a single white light with a narrow beam at a 45 degree angle and moderated its intensity to avoid losing facial detail in shadows. I also darkened the overall brightness of the scene and switched to a narrower field of focus, so the background was blurred and Joel was in focus. Small details added to the shot: His eyes reflect the light To do. Portrait photography tip: Align the camera with the model’s eye level.
For all lights, you can choose whether or not to cast shadows based on objects in the game world. Here is Joel’s one light behind him with a wide beam set to his preset “warm interior” light. During “off-camera” his presence is felt by casting a shadow on the wall behind Ellie.
We take a different approach to the same scene by emulating the glow of the screen with creative lighting placed right in front of the arcade cabinets. This suggests that Ellie has finally fulfilled her wish to play the game.
natural light
Don’t forget to experiment with natural light as well. As the two shots below show, the sun shining through trees, or through a doorway or window, all you need to do is position and frame your character to capture the scene.
Reset, rethink, reconfigure
After finding, composing and capturing the perfect shot, linger. Press Triangle on each tab to reset to default and start panning the camera again. You can discover better compositions for your original shots, or see additional details that were originally off-camera for a completely different photo.
These three shots are captured at the same moment. Joel’s character I deleted her model (“Hide Characters” option), switched to portrait mode (changed “Roll” to 90), moved the camera closer to Ellie and took a second photo of her. Before exiting I swept around the camera and found Tess rubbing her eyes Later on landscape and color I quickly changed her presets and took a third shot .
wide shots and close ups
Finding the right composition may require a different perspective. Pull L2 to zoom the camera in, or pull R2 to zoom out. The latter, combined with a wide field of view, can help emphasize and frame characters against the stark and detailed landscapes you travel to for outdoor shots.
framing
Framing doesn’t end with getting the best shot angle. Photo Mode also offers a set of frames and logos to add to your shots before exiting Photo Mode. This includes a new “crop” frame like below.
experiment
There is always something to learn. As you play around with all of Photo Mode’s settings and understand what you can do, you’ll gradually find the types of shots that appeal to you. Open the PS5 Media Gallery and cycle through your shots to pick the best one. Speaking from personal experience, if you go back to the photos after a day or two of her, you might come to appreciate the photos that you initially thought of dismissing.
Also, don’t just stop at your own work, study the work of other photographers to understand how they came to be. This Friday’s Share of the Week features a selection of his TLOUI photos.
And most importantly: have fun!
