Three children stare at the dilapidated remains of a battlefield, with trees and man-made structures mostly razed to the ground, save 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 no mere screenshot. It’s a meticulously framed photograph, enhanced with real-world photographic techniques: composition, lighting, depth of field, and more. “[Virtual photography] is a way to discover the game differently, because you can check every single detail,” says Helme. “It’s really enhancing the artistry in a game for your eyes, and then creating something from it for someone else.”
It’s also a photograph that can be taken with greater ease, 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 approached developer Cold Symmetry about their soulslike Mortal Shell. The studio was impressed by the photographs he took in-game, and when Helme asked about collaborating on a potential photo mode feature, the team swiftly agreed. “Basically I created this work, at least the name ‘photo mode consultant,’” he says. “Of course, other people probably had a role of advising on other photo modes […] but as an external adviser, specifically for photo modes, I’m definitely the first one.” His successful collaboration with Cold Symmetry led to work on everything from the Lovecraftian horror game The Shore to blockbuster titles like Deathloop and Cyberpunk 2077.
His latest stint was on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Helme believes that its photo mode is “close to perfection,” with a dizzying number of settings, including camera roll, aperture, frames for accommodating photograph sizes and several types of grids, as well as minute tweaks to lighting, color grading, filters, and other visual effects. Then there’s the sheer freedom of movement that comes from the option to sever the camera from the player’s perspective. Having spoken to some virtual photographers, all of them pointed out that many photo modes have extremely limited range; Helme says this is akin to not being able to move and extend your arms in real life. Yet in Expedition 33, shutterbugs can now wander to more than just an arm’s length, and even move several paces from the initial scene.
Expedition 33’s photo mode is just one example of these tools becoming increasingly sophisticated. Ghost of Yōtei has a tracking shot option that lets virtual photographers pan the camera slowly from one point to the next, with up to 16 tracking points. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II’s photo mode has a three-point lighting system, with several focusing settings such as focus assistance and split focal plane. Photo modes have become even more widespread in part due to the growing number of blueprints in Unreal Engine, such as the Advanced Photo Mode, which Helme described as a basic and simple 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 that his role involves sharing his expertise. “I’m here to give [studios] pointers, pedagogic explanations on why [certain] features are essential or, on the contrary, which ones are not really that important,” he says. To him, virtual photography is very much a different experience from simply playing through the game, and this distinction is crucial for studios to understand. Thus, the consultation process usually entails discussing and prioritizing specific photo mode features with the developer and, once these are implemented, testing builds and offering feedback.
Yet, technical issues have often impeded developers from adding some of his suggestions. “Some studios are a bit concerned, like the textures won’t load properly, or people can check the surroundings and see enemies hiding,” Helme explains. Crafting photo modes across platforms, too, is another major challenge, with Helme adding that several features he has been trying to get in photo modes cannot be included, because they are particularly complicated to implement on consoles. One example is the lack of orientation choices, be it shooting in landscape or portrait. Without this, virtual photographers usually have to tilt their heads to do a portrait shot — something that Helme says is “really hurting everyone in this hobby.” Many photo modes offer the alternative of cropping the pictures with black bars, which reduces the photo resolution. “If I want to shoot a vertical portrait without sacrificing resolution through cropping, I am forced to rotate the camera 90 degrees, compose the shot with my head tilted, and then manually rotate the file later on my PC,” Cristiano Bonora of Vertical Gaming Photography explains.
Another nice-to-have feature? A slow motion option that will allow virtual photographers to fast-forward or rewind several seconds to seize the perfect moment. “In Mortal Shell, we had a slow-motion feature with three different speeds, and it’s also very convenient, very helpful in many circumstances,” Helme says. “Now, what I would like to have is something that also does the reverse, like being able to have a few seconds back if you missed the [moment].” Virtual photographer Cabbac, who has put together a database of games with photo modes, also believes that such an option is sorely lacking. “Timing can be everything when creating a shot,” he says.
One of the major challenges with creating a feature-rich photo mode is also ensuring that it’s accessible to non-experts. One game that Helme believes strikes this balance well is Sony’s zombie thriller Days Gone. “It’s really one of my favorite of all time,” he says. “You can have the very basic features, or you have an advanced mode and […] have way more control. So it’s perfect for people who just want to take a quick shot, or people who want to work on their shot for one hour.”
Helme is optimistic about the future of photo modes, and he’s eager to work with more studios, regardless of size — even if some developers have plenty of room for improvement when it comes to these tools. “I hope big companies like Capcom or Konami will reach out to me to improve Resident Evil’s photo modes or the terrible, terrible Dragon’s Dogma 2 photo mode,” he laughs.
But as photo modes become more prevalent, there’s a chance that even highly technical photo modes may start to resemble one another across games, a development Helme is cautiously wary of. After all, even real-life cameras have different functions across brands and models. “I really hope big games will continue to take risks and produce photo modes with new features.”