I’m still working my way through The Last of Us Part I. My process is frosty for one particular reason: Photo mode. Shooting every angle or catching a glimpse of a character’s reaction to any given situation caused me to pause the action and spend long minutes on shaping shots. My personal favorite is taking close-ups of characters in Portrait Mode. That way, at home, you’ll see me in front of the TV with my head tilted to the side or standing in front of a rotatable screen. With the game highlighted in the current PS Blog’s Share of the Week, it feels right to not only highlight some of the great Photo Mode options in the game, but also share examples to help. generate ideas and approaches that you can incorporate into your own photos.
Photo Mode is fun to experiment with and has a bunch of tools to tinker with.
Shortcut
In the game’s Options menu, you’ll find the option to activate the Photo Mode shortcut, which allows you to press L3 and R3 together to freeze the scene. It’s faster than getting your thumb lost on the Options button and potentially missing a great composition.
Frame Transitions
A new addition: located in the first tab of the Photo Mode menu, each button press moves the on-screen action one frame forward. This is useful if you catch a person blinking mid-air in a group portrait, or adjust the character’s pose to become a bit more dynamic in an action shot.
Here, Ellie’s eyes were closed.
A few actions of Frame Forward will fix the problem.
Controllable light
Also, a new feature is multiple lighting options. Go to the rightmost tab on the Picture Mode menu. You have the option to create up to three dynamic light sources. All are locked to revolve around your playable character, but each can be controlled independently. Change their position using the left sidebar, use the menu to change their distance from the character, change the strength and size of the beam, change the color of the beam, and more.
They are a versatile tool. Use them to add subtle detail to a particular moment, use them to balance out the natural light of an outside shot by lighting the front of your character, or mask a trio as Ambient light in dark environments to keep your character out of the shadows. Also, adjust the mood through the creative use of light placement and use of color.
One tip specifically for those close-ups: keep the Field of View wide (Camera tab, far left) while setting up the lights. This allows you to see exactly where your selected virtual light rigs are on the screen, making them easier to locate.
With the sun behind him, we lose a lot of detail on Joel’s front. I set a single lamp to soft light as soon as it was fired, pointing upwards towards him. Now he emerges against a darker background.
I placed a single white light with a narrow beam at 45 degrees to the right of Joel, softening its strength so that I didn’t lose face detail in the shadows. I also darkened the full brightness of the scene and switched to a narrow field of focus, so the background was blurred and the focus was on Joel. Small details complement the photo: his eyes reflect light. Tip for portraiture: move the camera to the position of the model’s eyeliner.
Every light lets you choose whether it casts shadows or not based on objects in the game world. Here, there’s a single lamp with a wide beam set to a preset “warm interior” light behind Joel. While ‘off camera’, his presence was felt by the shadow cast against the wall behind Ellie.
An alternative approach to the same scene using creative lighting placed right in front of the arcade cabinet to simulate the lighting of the screen, suggests that Ellie has finally achieved her gaming aspirations.
Natural light
Remember to experiment with natural light too! Sunlight shining through trees or through doorways and windows only requires positioning your character and framing to capture a scene, as the two photos below showcase.
Reset, rethink, readjust
Once you’ve discovered, composed, and captured your perfect shot, linger. Cycle through the tabs, press Triangle on each tab to reset it to default, then start going back to the camera. You can explore a better composition for your original shot, or see an additional original out-of-camera detail for a completely individual shot.
These three photos were taken in the same moment. I simply removed the Joel character model (the “Hide Character” option) and switched to Portrait Mode (changed “Scroll” to 90) and pulled the camera closer to Ellie to take a second photo. . Before exiting, I scanned the camera around and spotted Tess rubbing her eyes. Then a quick change of Landscape and color presets, I had a third photo.
Wide and close-up shots
Finding the right composition sometimes requires a different perspective. Drag L2 to zoom in on the camera or R2 to zoom out. Combining the latter with a wide field of view can help highlight and frame characters in the desolate but detailed landscape they pass through to capture the outdoors.
Framed
Framing isn’t just about getting the best angle. Photo Mode also provides a set of frames and logos to add to your photos before you exit Photo Mode. That includes new “cut out” frames such as the one below.
Experiment
There is always much to learn. Familiarize yourself with all the Picture Mode settings to familiarize yourself with what they can do, and over time you’ll discover the type of photo that appeals to you. Open your PS5 Media Library and browse through your photos to pick out the best of the bunch. In personal experience, returning to a photo a day or two later can make you appreciate a photo that you initially considered discarded.
And don’t limit yourself to your own work: research other photographers’ creations to find out how they’ve achieved those shots. We’ll have a selection of TLOUI photos in the Share of the Week this Friday, which would be a great place to start.
And the most important thing is to have fun!
