Thread by @Berduu, The Last of Us 2 photo mode tips & tricks thread:Let's start [...]

The Last of Us 2 photo mode tips & tricks thread:

Let& #39;s start with a simple portrait. This particular room/spot has a nice, soft, bloomy light. Finding good lights & shadows make about 95% of your shot. This thread can hopefully help you with the remaining 5%.

01/20

I usually use high DoF values for face close-ups, and lower values the further I move away from the subject. For landscape shots I usually don& #39;t do DoF in this game, but rather try to get everything as sharp as possible.

02/20

I tend to go for the eye contact for portraits. To me it makes the shot less gamey, you& #39;re no longer observing, you are interacting with your subject. You have a camera and they& #39;re aware of it.

03/20

The Motion Blur slider blurs... the motion. It can add a nice touch to shots involving action and movement. You need a bit of luck with it, sometimes in high action scenes it& #39;ll just blur everything.

04/20

You can set a toggle for slow-motion in the Combat Accessibility Options. This is handy for action shots, pausing for a certain expression, or just practising for becoming the next SunhiLegend.

05/20

Do multiple takes. You will not run out of film. I& #39;ve taken about 1500 shots in TLOU2. Published maybe 40 shots. 10 of them are good. I use PureRef to check out different versions and then pick the best one.

06/20

Tech stuff: set file format to PNG from your PS4 settings. By default it& #39;s JPG. I transfer the shots to my PC via USB stick. I resize all 4K shots to 1080 or 1440 pixels in height using Lanczos 3, Lanczos 2 (sharper) or Bicubic Sharper (sharpest).

07/20

no ellie this is a serious thread

08/20

Ellie brought up a good point in the previous tweet: idle animations. These are animations your character does over time when you don& #39;t control her. This game has tons of good ones. Observe your allies as well!

09/20

Noir filter at 100% is almost a cheat code for decent shots. I mostly use it at 40-60% for a more desaturated look. I sometimes use other filters, but very rarely.

10/20

I always make sure my shots are clear enough to read in thumbnail form. With large TV& #39;s thumbnail-proofing is hard, so it& #39;s good to check your PS4 capture folder before "letting go" and unpausing your shot.

11/20

Get your characters wet for some juicy highlights. If there& #39;s no rain, jump into lakes, puddles, rivers. If there& #39;s no constant source of water, she will get dry in about a minute. Then you need to re-dip her into water.

Holy shit screenshotting is weird.

12/20

If you make Ellie run for a while, she& #39;ll get some sweat on her face. These highlights can be a nice addition to portrait shots.

13/20

Flashlight is your best friend. Moonlight is good. Sun is often just too harsh. Random lights found in the game can work well, if approached from a right angle.

14/20

Most of the pretty landscape shots you see of this game are art directed for you by the talented folks at Naughty Dog. There& #39;s nothing wrong with shooting them (I do them too), but ideally you& #39;d want to explore a less common angle.

15/20

Quick example of not shooting the most obvious thing, and looking for elements in the level to help frame things in a fresh way.

16/20

I do all my portraits lying sideways on my couch. Then rotate & crop to 2160x2880 (3:4). I sometimes use the scientific method of placing empty toilet paper rolls to help with live 3:4 composition. You can get empty toilet paper rolls by using full toilet paper rolls.

17/20

Wiggle and move your characters around to give them some life. There& #39;s plenty of wonderful animations to explore in this game.

18/20

Use your inventory to add something to your scene. Molotovs for fire, smoke bombs for smoke. You can use smokes for some basic background layering.

19/20

Recapping some previous learnings: react to good light, find interesting animations/movement.

20/20

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