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Virtual Gaming Photography taller than life screenshot art

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Games are spaces of experience as much as entertainment

INTRO

I have been a Virtual Photographer since 2020. I have a passion for photography and joined an organization called AMATIRANS PHOTOGRAPHY. However, after the outbreak of Covid-19, which resulted in having more free time, I ventured into the world of virtual photography to fill the void and monotony of everyday life. I hope you will leave this page with some further information about myself and my personal approach to virtual photography and how you can work creatively and intimately with subjects and characters created by other artists.

WHAT IS VIRTUAL PHOTOGRAPHY?

What is Virtual Photography? VP (also known as In-game photography, screenshot art, screenshot photography and gaming photography) is photography of and within the virtual worlds of videogames using a virtual camera software.

Not to be confused with Vice President, Virtual Photography (VP) means taking screenshots in video games, either on a gaming console (PS4, XBox, Nintendo Switch) or PC. Besides Virtual Photographer (also VP), there are other names such as Gametographer, Game Capture Artist, or Screenshots Enthusiast. I'm sure there are more titles out there, but you get the idea.

YOU MEAN VIDEO GAMES CUTSCENES SCREENSHOTS?

Some are but some are not. So no, but yes. It's complicated.

Similar to real world photography, VPs also have to work for that perfect composition, lighting, and colors to convey the emotions and/or message(s) in a particular shot. Screenshots from cinematic cutscenes with the default camera angles are often frown upon because VPs don't contribute to that creative process. Think of it like taking a screenshot of a movie. However, there's nothing wrong with capturing cutscenes shots to remember those special in-game moments. Unlike in real life, the character models in cutscenes look BETTER than the in-game models because they are mo-capped (motion captured), so it's understandable that some VPs want to capture that. In a lot of cases, non-player characters (NPCs) don't appear in-game at all, except for cutscenes. How would VPs be able to take pictures of those NPCs outside of cutscenes? In other cases, the outfit(s) that you want is locked in a cutscene and there's no mod available to obtain it. VP has another unique problem: clipping. We don't often see a piece of clothing/hair goes right through a character's throat or their armor bending if they crouch down in real life, but clipping exists in every single game. These problems are unique to VP because the environment is virtual.

TLDR: if you don't use cutscene shots to enter into competitions that specifically prohibit cutscene shots, happy capturing.

CAN I EDIT MY PHOTOS?

Similar to real world photography, the decision belongs entirely to the photographer. YOU are the photographer and YOU should be the only one to decide how your shots are presented to the viewers; unless you are hired by the game studio(s) to capture promotional shots, then you have to go by their rules.

CAN I WATERMARK MY PHOTOS?

Yes. In fact, I strongly encourage you to watermark your work for two important reasons:

  • If you photos are stolen and repost without your permission, watermarks are often the most solid proof that you have to have the stolen photos taken down from the site. For example, Instagram sometimes asks for proof in addition to the source link that is pre-dated to the stolen posts, being able to point out where your hidden watermark is in the photo that the thief couldn't crop out is crucial. An extreme example is when someone steals other VPs' work to enter into photomode contest and win prizes. In my personal experience, a Death Stranding Twitter fan page stole my photos, reposted them, and then got retweeted by Kojima himself. I would not wish this terrible feeling to any fellow VPs. Lastly, having watermark helps fellow VPs and your followers with recognizing stolen work (if the thieve hasn't edited it out) and notifying the owners early.
  • If your work catches the attention of game studios, watermarks help them quickly recognizing and remembering you as the VP, and this brings up my answer to the next question below.

WHY VERTICAL GAMING PHOTOGRAPHY?

Because most of my shots are in portrait orientation. The landscape (horizontal) orientation depicts a scene, whereas vertical photography makes a firm statement on it. I want my photography to comprehend, glorify and even discuss virtuality, not only observe it, and the portrait orientation just better fits the task.

HOW BIG IS THE VP COMMUNITY? IS THERE ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE?

VP is still a relatively new phenomenon, however, there are plenty of VP groups that you can join on different platforms. Most are on Instagram and Twitter, though I find more community engagement on Twitter (which is normal because game studios are also more active on Twitter). Some also have weekly/monthly themes for everyone in the community to participate in.

VP Groups (focuses more on community outreach, there are plenty more but I've stopped updating this list):

  • VGPNetwork
  • Society of Virtual Photographers
  • TheCapturedCollective
  • Visual Moods Central

Programmer/Modder/Researcher Communities (focuses more on creating cinematic tools and game research):

  • FRAMED: Screenshot Community Website | Twitter
  • Fearless Cheat Engine Forum
  • Github
  • Nexusmods Discord | Forum | Twitter
  • ReShade Forum Website
  • XeNTaX: Game Research Forum

Copyright:

All game trademarks and assets belong to their owners. All shots belong to me. Please do not use without credit AND permission.

Author's note: This is my first time writing this type of blog post so please feel free to let me know if I have made any mistake(s). Thank you for reading.

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